Le site de Alp 2 (St Bernard-du-Touvet, Chartreuse, Isère) : un campement de chasse d’altitude du Premier Mésolithique

Abstract

The Mesolithic “ station” of Alp 2 is a block-shelter of glacial origin located at 1 720 masl in the “ Haut de Chartreuse” national reserve. Threatened to be destroyed by marmot’s burrows, the site has been subject to archaeological attention and excavated between 1998 and 2000 under the direction of P. Bintz. The short stratigraphic sequence revealed several well-conserved Mesolithic levels which delivered plenty of faunal remains as well as lithic artefacts. Some 17,584 lithic artefacts have been identified, including 182 cores, 255 arrowheads and 653 blades and bladelets. Raw material identification indicates an equal share, in terms of quantity, of local and exogenous flint. Based on typotechnological analysis, most of these artefacts can be attributed to the First Mesolithic with a débitage of bladelets obtained by direct percussion with a soft stone precursor. Although more discreet, the remaining items belong to the Second Mesolithic, while few of them share some affinities with the Early Neolithic. Faunal remains are rich and generally well-preserved with a total of 1583 osseous fragments, among which 752 have been well identified. Among the twelve distinctive taxa identified, the chamois and the ibex are the most represented. Forest species, such as deer and wild boar are much rarer. This wildlife association is in complete adequacy with the geographical and the topographic situation of the site. With few bones showing anthropic traces, such as butchery marks and breaks on fresh bone, there is no doubt for the anthropological origin of this bone’s accumulation.