Summary. Cinglais flint originates from the jurassic plains of Normandy. Since the Early Neolithic, it was used in blade production and was identified within mines and habitats near flint outcroppings. This article focuses on the distribution of these laminar products and considers a variety of criteria: the aim is to determine its geographical confines and chrono-cultural contexts, as well as to specify the economic, technical and functional modalities of its exploitation. A critical inventory of the archaeological contexts allows us to identify the material as having been primarily diffused during the Early Neolithic. Our understanding of the spread of Cinglais flint in the Middle Neolithic comes from sites that are difficult to analyze. This, in turn, complicates efforts to reconstruct Western cultural groups, as well as our comprehension of the modalities of appropriation of the Armorican coastal territory. Observation of the distribution of a particular resource over the long term allows for the identification of related industries and the consideration of their role as dynamic vectors in the Neolithization process of western France. Exploring the causes of the emergence or disappearance of laminar industries provides information about their role within the expansion of a particular cultural model.

Abstract. The Badegoulian open air site of mont Saint-Aubin at Oisy (Nièvre) yielded 353 marine mollusc shell remains (gastropods, scaphopods and bivalves) which testify of on-site shell bead manufacturing activities. The large conchyliological spectrum (31 taxons) includes many fossils from the Parisian Basin and a few shells that must have been collected on the Atlantic coast, indicating a distance of several hundreds of kilometres between the shell sources and the production site. The shell assemblage is composed of unmodified raw material, waste products and finished beads with intense use wear traces and sometimes repaired suspension holes. The identified manufacturing processes (morphometrical choices, perforation and segmentation methods, and systems of attaching the beads) reveal that the finished ornamental displays must have been varied, playing with different bead morphologies and -sizes as well as with different ways of attaching the beads (string, braiding). Providing information on the ways and means of marine shell exploitation for beadwork (territories of procurement and circulation of shells, storage, craftsmanship, recycling) this study offers new insights on Badegoulian techno-economic behaviour.

Abstract. In this work, we propose to examine human activities from 72 occupations within a well-defined territory, the Bergeracois, during the Pleistocene between 250 and 35 ka. The study is based on bibliographical data stemming from programmed excavations and from rescue archaeology operations undertaken in this area (installation of rings roads around Bergerac and the Creysse municipality). In particular, this overview focuses on the behavioural evolution of acquisition strategies for raw materials, the technical systems that were implemented, as well as the different functions of and uses for the tools produced. Inferences may then be drawn regarding the mobility strategies of human groups within this lithological territory and its particularities within a larger regional framework. Before proposing a diachronic overview on these various issues, we shall differentiate, and detail four ensembles present within this significant period spanning from the end of the Acheulean to the beginning of the upper Palaeolithic. This differentiation is based on defined chronological intervals (occupations dating to prior to the Eemian period and those belonging to the period between the Eemian and approximately 40 ka), as well as on techno-cultural characterizations (Chatelperronian and early Aurignacian).

Summary. Due to the important number of archaeological sites studied therein, the Arudy basin is a favored place for seeking improved understanding of settlement dynamics and cultural characteristics of the populations that occupied these sites since the Paleolithic. In this case, the Mesolithic and Final Neolithic archaeological levels of room 5 of the Laà 2 cave will be analyzed and then inserted within the larger context of the Béarn valleys, as well as the northwestern Pyrenees. Four Mesolithic levels allow us to address certain features of the mobility of small groups utilizing impermanent campsite installations. These provide new data for the analysis of modalities of land occupancy and mobility strategies of the last hunter-gatherer societies of the French Pyrenees and their outskirts. Four or five phases of occupation are also identified for the Final Neolithic, and likewise, provide evidence of short-lived encampments. When compared with what is currently known for the northwestern Pyrenees, analysis of the ceramic material allows us to highlight Véraza influences, the likes of which are already known to exist within the Toulouse region.

Summary. The rescue excavation of the Balagny-sur-Thérain habitat site (Oise, France) was conducted in 2015. Located within the alluvial plain of the Thérain, two sectors were excavated, covering a total area of 441 m². Despite a compacted stratigraphic sequence, the layer of remains, composed of lithic pieces and some bone fragments, is remarkably well-preserved with little post-depositional disruption. Radiocarbon measurements, as well as the other analyses performed make it possible to assign the occupation to a specific lithic industry with a chronological attachment: the segment and projectile point industry, whose lithic reduction sequence includes the modification of their bases. This complex is known in northern France (“Beuronien à segments” or Beuronian with segments) and is dated between 9200 and 8700 BP uncalibrated, i.e., between 8500 and 7500 cal. BC. The excavation and study of these concentrations of material culture, which are spatially close to one another, is part of ongoing and current research on the paleoethnology and mobility of these Mesolithic groups. Balagny-sur-Thérain also documents the first part of the Beuronian with segments period, and reveals some emerging particularities relative to the projectile points. Finally, the discovery of one such fragment within a boar bone illustrates hunting activities in a concrete manner. This find is exceptional within the context of the Mesolithic period in France.