La méthode Orville : une invention badegoulienne ?

Abstract

During the Badegoulian and the start of the Magdalenian entirely new techniques of bladelet production were invented. The Orville technique was the first to be identified, followed by the Rocher-de-la-Caille, La Marche, Thèmes and Oisy techniques, and most recently the La Bertonne technique. At present, of these six recognized methods, only two are relatively well situated chronologically. These are the Oisy technique, dated to the Badegoulian, and the La Marche technique, dated to the Middle Magdalenian. The others have been attributed by deduction to the Badegoulian (La Bertonne), Early Magdalenian (Thèmes), or Middle Magdalenian (Rocher-de-la-Caille and Orville). In order to verify the reliability of their cultural attribution, and with the aim of developing new criteria to differentiate between the Badegoulian industries and those from the beginning of the Magdalenian, we have attempted to determine whether some of these techniques shared reduction concepts. This research has proved fruitful, the most marked similarities concerning the Oisy, La Bertonne and Orville techniques. In this paper we have chosen to present the results from a comparison of the Bertonne and Orville techniques. We conclude that the Orville technique probably did not appear during the Middle Magdalenian, but had existed since the Badegoulian.