Presence of the Solutrean on the North Eastern side of the Pyrenees: The case of Ruisseau de la Boulière 2

Abstract

Until recently, the extreme Eastern part of the Northern Pyrenean Piedmont was a "vacuum" on the distribution map of the Solutrean. As a matter of fact, only two sites, the Embullas cave and Espassoles open-air site, reported the Solutrean on the Pyrénées-Orientales territory which covers an area of over 4000 square kilometers.
 There is no explanation to justify this situation, since this zone is flanked by two important Solutrean areas. Indeed, further South, just beyond the Pyrenees there are a number of Solutrean sites in Spanish Catalonia: l’Arbreda and Reclau Viver caves in the Serinya region. For hundred and forty kilometers towards the North East, a set of remarkable Solutrean sites spread over Eastern Languedoc along the right bank of the Rhône: the Oullins, Chabot, Pâques and La Salpétrière caves in the Gard and Ardèche regions. Along the Mediterranean coast, between these two clusters, the Solutrean presence is more discreet, in the form of a discontinuous structure of sites (la Roque cave, the Col de Gigean site and the caves of Bize and La Crouzade).
 The publication in 2014 of the open-air site of the Vigne Bertrand at Vingrau (Pyrénées Orientales, France), close to the Espassoles site, revived the interest for the Corbières zone, a low mountainous area near the Pyrenees.
 The Ruisseau de la Boulière 2, located very close to the first two sites, confirms the Solutrean presence in this micro-zone. The Eastern Corbières appear today as an identifiable landmark of the Solutrean before crossing the Pyrenees. On the other hand, the discovery of a Montaut type bifacial asymmetrical point in the site leads us to suggest the hypothesis of east-western mobility, along the northern and/or southern Pyrenean piedmonts. The existence of such connections has already been reported on the basis of techno-typological convergences between Aragón (Cueva de Chaves) and Hérault (La Salpétrière) lithic industries.