Une occupation de l’extrême fin du Paléolithique dans la vallée de l’Escaut à Proville (Nord) « le Bois Chenu »

Abstract

At the end of the 1960s, pedestrian surveys yielded a homogeneous lithic assemblage from the bottom of a silty slope in contact with the alluvial plain of the river Scheldt. The morpho-technological features of the industry allowed it to be assumed that it belonged to the Epi-Ahrensburgian culture, a tradition mainly represented from the Loire Valley in France to northern Germany and southern England, from the end of the Younger Dryas to the early Pre-Boreal. The surveys undertaken in 2008, on a cultivated field south of the collection site, now urbanized, revealed a series of occupations at the bottom of this slope dating from the Late Palaeolithic to recent protohistoric periods. A concentration of lithic artefacts undoubtedly belonged to the same technical tradition as the series found on the surface. The excavation campaigns in 2009 and 2010 helped to define a Final Palaeolithic spatial entity and provided elements for technological, chrono-typological and spatial interpretations. The partial refittings of some blocks contribute to a better understanding of the strategy developed for obtaining standardized blades. The careful management of the siliceous material is exclusively oriented towards the production of laminar or lamellar supports. This technical process is highly representative of the ‘ Belloisian’ tradition. The initial blocks were prepared by a specific method using a hard stone hammer (flint). Blades and bladelets were removed by a sandstone hammer according to a bipolar process and after intense preparation of striking platform edges by abrasion. The toolkit refers to a technical environment now better understood thanks to research conducted over the past 20 years with regard to this techno-complex in north-western France and despite the obvious presence of intrusive Mesolithic elements.