Le Paléolithique de la République Tchèque

Abstract

Bohemia and Moravia, the two parts constituting together the Czech Republic, do not only represent historical countries, but they also display distinct geographies. As Bohemia is surrounded by mountains, its territory is often called the Bohemian Basin. In Moravia, the mountains in the north of the country are interrupted by the Moravian Gate, giving access to the Great Northern Plain of Europe with its rich sources of Northern flints, the best raw material for chipped stone industries available in Central Europe. The southern part opens directly towards the Danubian region with its more temperate environment, and connecting the south of Germany with the Balkans. The morphology of the territory had obviously influenced the Palaeolithic occupation. In the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic when communication did not play any major role, the two countries were settled relatively regularly, although not too densely. The Early Upper Palaeolithic brought a substantial change: In Moravia hundreds of sites proliferate, while there are only few of them in Bohemia. The Pavlovian phase of the Gravettian seems to be completely missing in Bohemia, while in Moravia it is concentrated in several megasites on the banks of the main rivers. This is certainly caused by the presence of the South-North artery of animal migrations and human communication. Since the Epigravettian, the density of occupation became balanced again. The local evolution of the Upper Palaeolithic was interrupted by the invasion of the Magdalenians coming from the West, on the one side along the Danube River, on the other by the northern route through Poland. The Late Palaeolithic, subject to influences coming from the North, gradually transformed into the Mesolithic.