Abstract

Neanderthals had complex land use patterns, adapting to diversified landscapes and climates. Over the past decade, considerable progress has been made in reconstructing the chronology, land use and subsistence patterns, and occupation types of sites in the Rhône Valley, southeast France. In this study, Neanderthal mobility at the site of Payre is investigated by combining information from lithic procurement analysis (“chaîne evolutive” and “chaîne opératoire” concepts) and strontium isotope analysis of teeth (childhood foraging area), from two units (F and G). Both units date to the transition from Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 8 to MIS 7, and show similar environmental conditions, but represent contrasting occupation durations. Level Gb (unit G) represents a long-term year-round use, in contrast to short-term seasonal use of the cave in level Fb (unit F). For both levels, lithic material and food were generally collected from a local to semi-local region. However, in level Gb, lithic materials were mainly collected from colluviums and food collected in the valley, whereas in level Fb, lithic procurement focused primarily on alluvial deposits and food was collected from higher elevation plateaus. These procurement or exchange patterns might be related to flint availability, knapping advantages of alluvial flint or occupation duration. The site of Payre is located in a flint rich circulation corridor and the movement of groups or exchanges between groups were organized along a north-south axis on the plateaus or towards the east following the river. The ridges were widely used as they are rich in flint, whereas the Rhône Valley is not an important source of lithic raw materials. Compared to other western European Middle Palaeolithic sites, these results indicate that procurement strategies have a moderate link with occupation types and duration, and with lithic technology. The Sr isotope ratios broadly match the proposed foraging areas, with the Rhône Valley being predominantly used in unit G and the ridges and limestone plateaus in unit F. While lithic reconstructions and childhood foraging are not directly related this suggests that the three analysed Neanderthals spend their childhood in the same general area and supports the idea of mobile Neanderthals in the Rhône Valley and neighbouring higher elevation plateaus. The combination of reconstructing lithic raw material sources, provisioning strategies, and strontium isotope analyses provides new details on how Neanderthals at Payre practised land use and mobility in the Early Middle Palaeolithic.

Highlights

  • Neanderthal land use was complex and adapted to diversified landscapes, diverse climates and raw material sources

  • Type F14 consists of Upper Barremian flint collected as fragments of nodules or slabs on the Cruas Plateau on the right bank of the Rhone River, with some elements gathered from colluviums and alluvial deposits

  • The Rhone Valley was rarely used for flint procurement small quantities of good-quality Alpine flint are present in the valley

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Summary

Introduction

Neanderthal land use was complex and adapted to diversified landscapes, diverse climates and raw material sources (lithics and food resources). Current mobility models derived from ethnoarchaeological studies have shown that Neanderthals adapted their behaviour to the environment, alternating short and long-term occupations, described as base camps and/or satellite camps [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14]. Considerable progress has been made in reconstructing the chronology, land use, subsistence and occupation patterns of these sites. Current models suggest complex occupation patterns, including long-term residential camps, as well as short-term regular hunting camps and brief stopover camps, showing that past populations may have been anticipating their land use requirements [15]

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