Un site moustérien dans le Jura suisse : la grotte de Cotencher (Rochefort, Neuchâtel) revisitée

Abstract

Known for a long time, the cave of Cotencher is among the rare high altitude Mousterian sites which have yielded an abundant lithic industry (approximately 450 artefacts) and Neanderthal remains (an upper maxilla). The lithic industry, collected in two distinct layers inside the cave, could finally correspond to a single archaeological level originally localized at the entrance to the cave. The horizontal and vertical dispersion of the artefacts probably results from various phenomena posterior to the human occupation. The sedimentological, palynological and palaeontological data situate the human occupations during a Würm interstadial corresponding either to the beginning of the Würm (end of isotopic stage 5) or following the lower Full Glaciation (isotopic stage 3). A recent study of the lithic industry made it possible to approach some still unknown aspects of the human fréquentation of this Jurassian cavity. This industry shows a mixed economic fades, with production and consumption of blanks at the site. The occupants drew widely on a flint outcrop close to the cave, even if raw materials represented on the site are numerous and from varied origins, sometimes more than 60 km away from the site. The main production system depends on Discoid knapping aimed at obtaining blanks with particular morpho-technical characteristics (blank with back opposed to a sharp edge) which can be presumed to be related to specialised activities practised on the site. Retouched tools are well represented (17.2% of the totality of the studied material) including an important proportion of scrapers, often convergent forms, sometimes thinned. The short semi-abrupt scaled retouch is predominant and the stepped retouch is rarer. The Discoid technology associated with the characteristics of the tools bring this industry closer to the family of Charentian Mousterians of the Eastern Quina type. The techno-economic analysis shows that Cotencher was a temporary dwelling, with diversified activities, perhaps frequented on several occasions by groups coming from zones located to the north of the Jura or by groups maintaining privileged contacts with this area. More than a simple hunting halt, this site was probably used as a seasonal camp related to the exploitation of the various biotopes present close to the cave.