Le Rec de la Redouna 2: a site testifying to the “Second Mesolithic” of the North-Eastern piedmont of the Pyrenees

Abstract

The site of Le Rec de la Redouna 2 is located in the eastern part of the Corbieres limestone massif, a karst landform in the southernmost part of France. The open air site was discovered in 2015, during fieldwalking on a flat terrace of a natural rock spur at the confluence of two creeks. Lithic raw materials used at Le Rec de la Redouna 2 site were flints from Oligocene-Miocene deposits in the the Bages-Sigean basin, located 41 km as the crow flies to the north-east. The knappers used punch percussion techniques to obtain thin rectilinear bladelets that were found in significant numbers. Despite a limited number of diagnostic pieces, the lithic industry of Le Rec de le Redouna 2 can be culturally connected with the “Second Mesolithic” as defined in the Corbieres mountains and more widely in Southern France. This temporal and cultural classification is based on the presence of geometrical microliths with abrupt truncations, mainly trapezes, which are markers of that period in the north-eastern part of the foothills of the Pyrenees. The remainder of the lithic artifacts are ubiquitous and are comprised of small end-scrapers and Montbani-type retouched bladelets. The site of Le Rec de la Redouna 2 increases our knowledge regarding the characteristics of human settlement during this period of the Holocene. It makes it possible to highlight anthropic choices. Thus, its localization at the confluence of two permanent creeks, in a flat zone with soft ground, (well exposed to sunshine and protected from the prevailing winds), provides us with many parameters that make it possible enhance our understanding of the living conditions and motivations of Late Mesolithic hunters with regard to their strategies of spatial occupation. Currently, the presence of a Late Mesolithic period evidenced in the Eastern Pyrenees provides a very important information for further research into how late hunters were systematically organised when it came to identifying these open-air sites with such singular topographical locations.