Papers by François Djindjian
UISPP journal, vol.6, 1, 2024
Léon Pales (1905–1988) was a French physician, anthropologist and
prehistorian, whose scientific ... more Léon Pales (1905–1988) was a French physician, anthropologist and
prehistorian, whose scientific contributions were major and are still
relevant today. His work on palaeopathology, which dates back to the
1920s, is the particular focus of this study. His work on documentary
reproductions of prehistoric art and on ichnology (footprints) still
constitutes an essential reference.
Slavica Occitana 59, 2024
Between 1892 and 1918, N. Marr undertook large-scale archaeological excavations on the deserted c... more Between 1892 and 1918, N. Marr undertook large-scale archaeological excavations on the deserted city of Ani, former capital of the Armenian kingdom of Bagratids in the Caucasus. The First World War and the changes in borders were to dramatically put an end to these excavations, with the looting of lapidary deposits, the destruction of archives and the abandonment of the site. After the Bolshevik revolution, N. Marr was to be the promoter of the Marxist theory of stadial evolution (stadial'nost'), which became official, which he applied to linguistics, archaeology, ethnology and art history, within the organization of the State Academy of History of material culture (GAIMK) of which he was the founder. In 1934, the monograph of the archaeological excavations of the site of Ani was published, led by J. Orbeli. N. Marr wrote a preface which repudiated these results as not in accordance with his theory of stadial evolution. This article analyzes the excavation campaigns on the site of Ani and the results obtained, and also this preface which tries to justify this pre-revolutionary excavation with a self-criticism, at a pivotal moment when the Red Terror was about to begin to descend on the Soviet population, and in the first place on its elites.
Historiographie des préhistoriens et paléontologues d'Afrique du Nord, 2023
Initiated into prehistory by Louis Capitan, a student of Henri Hubert at the MAN, an assiduous r... more Initiated into prehistory by Louis Capitan, a student of Henri Hubert at the MAN, an assiduous researcher at the MNHN, with Marcelin Boulle, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Jean Piveteau, Raymond Vaufrey (1890-1967), after late university studies after the First World War, obtained in 1930 a professorship at the IPH. He was thus one of the few French prehistorians, between the two wars, to obtain a position allowing him to work full-time on prehistoric and paleontological research. Then he joined the CNRS in 1937, of which he was one of the first prehistorians and was appointed director at the EPHE in 1942. From 1931, he was co-editor-in-chief of the journal “L’Anthropologie”, which he edited until his death. Since 1931, he has also been the representative for France of the UISPP. His first publications: “The Italian Paleolithic” (1928), “The dwarf elephants of the Mediterranean islands and the question of the Pleistocene isthmus” (thesis defended in 1929), already put him in the foreground. He then specialized in North Africa: the Ibéromaurusien (1932), the Capsian (1933b), “The North African Rock Art” (1939), “The Prehistory of Africa” (in two volumes 1955 and posthumous).
Кам’яна доба України Випуск 21, 2021
The question of the naming, as Epigravettian, of all the industries in Central and Eastern Europ... more The question of the naming, as Epigravettian, of all the industries in Central and Eastern Europe of the LGM and post-LGM until the end of MIS 2 is addressed here.
The update of the latest available and published data highlights the following chronology :
1. For Eastern Europe (Dnieper, Boug and Don basins) : Eastern Gravettian, Final Eastern Gravettian, Local Aurignacoid industries (Muralovkian, Zamiatnine culture and others), Early Epigravettian of the steppe area, gap, Mezinian of the Dnieper basin, late Epigravettian of the steppe area;
2. For the northeastern foothills of the Carpathians (Dniester, Prut and Bistrita basins) : Eastern Gravettian, Aurignacoid industries, gap, Early Epigravettian (Molodovian s.s), gap, final Epigravettian;
3. For Central Europe : Eastern Gravettian, gap, Aurignacoid industries, gap, Sagvarian, gap, Magdalenian and Late Epigravettian
The typological and technological studies of lithic and bone industries reveal large differences, due to strong changes in human systems during the last glacial maximum. And the mere presence of backed bladelets (which also exist in the Solutrean, Badegoulian and Magdalenian cultures in Western Europe) is not sufficient to cluster these industries under the same name of Epigravettian. So we propose to give different names to these different industries.
Historiographie de préhistoriens et paléontologues d'Afrique du Nord, 2023
E.G. Gobert, medical epidemiologist, was, between 1906 and 1958, the prehistorian of Tunisia of w... more E.G. Gobert, medical epidemiologist, was, between 1906 and 1958, the prehistorian of Tunisia of which he made a first synthesis at the II Pan-African Congress of Prehistory in 1952 in Algiers.
Historiographie des préhistoriens et paléontologues d'Afrique du Nord, 2023
The birth and development of prehistory in Egypt was hampered by the great richness of archaeolo... more The birth and development of prehistory in Egypt was hampered by the great richness of archaeology of the Pharaonic dynasties, which mobilized interests, resources and academic positions. However, often parallel to the institutions in place but sometimes within them, prehistoric research has slowly but gradually made it possible to reconstruct a predynastic prehistory, starting with the famous cemetery of Naquada, then the first traces of Neolithization of the Nile Valley and the Paleolithic periods. This article traces the contributions and difficulties encountered by the pioneers, the early work of the 1920s (G. Caton-Thompson, E. Vignard, P. Bovier-Lapierre) and the major projects after the Second World War (notably the Southern Methodist University of Dallas, USA and the Free University of Leuven, Belgium). The results of the researches are then discussed in the context of current knowledge.
Historiographie des préhistoriens et paléontologues d'Afrique du Nord, 2023
Les recherches préhistoriques ont débuté au Maroc au début du XXème siècle sous le protectorat fr... more Les recherches préhistoriques ont débuté au Maroc au début du XXème siècle sous le protectorat français par l'action de pionniers comme A. Ruhlmann, M. Antoine, H. Koehler et G. Lecointre, qui, à l'exception du premier, sont des chercheurs bénévoles. Après la seconde guerre mondiale, leurs successeurs seront des chercheurs du CNRS comme J. Roche à partir de 1950, J. Tixier (Djebel Irhoud en 1969), D. Ferembach (Taforalt en 1962), des universitaires comme E. Ennouchi et des conservateurs du patrimoine comme G. Souville, successeur d'A. Ruhlmann au service des Antiquités préhistoriques, à l'exception du contrôleur civil P. Biberson. Les contributions des géologues dans la connaissance du Quaternaire marocain ont été particulièrement fécondes : L. Gentil, G. Lecointre, G. Choubert, M. Gigout and G. Baudet. After the independence of Morocco, a convention signed in 1971, between Morocco and France, allows the development of a great scientific collaboration
between Moroccan and French prehistorians (A. Debenath, J.P. Raynal, L. Wengler, R. Nespoulet), still active today.
Human societies facing climate change, 2023
During the Pleistocene, the human animal was the one that benefited the most from climate change,... more During the Pleistocene, the human animal was the one that benefited the most from climate change, through its ability to adapt. Some even consider that it was the pump effect of rapid climate variations that favored the evolution of humanity, particularly in the hottest and
the wettest (interglacial) periods of the MIS 11, 5 and 3 isotopic stages, and which led to the migration of populations across all the continents of the planet. In the Holocene, the fragility of agro-pastoral societies and the first states led to their rapid destabilization in the event of climatic deterioration following brutal events (such as those of 8200 BP and 4200 BP), but also as a consequence of multi-centennial variations (crisis of 1277 BC, Roman optimum, deterioration of the late Roman Empire and the early Middle Ages, medieval optimum, Little Ice Age) but also multi-year events linked to the vagaries of the weather or volcanic eruptions, which can decimate half of a population by famine. But periods of climatic and societal crises also coincide with the origin of technological revolutions (from 4200 BP, the spread of Bronze metallurgy and maritime transport across the Mediterranean for the supply of copper and tin, and the development of a large arsenal of hydraulic techniques; 1200 BC, the spread of iron metallurgy).
L'Anthropologie, 2021
The dwelling 5 is the largest of the six mammoth bone dwellings in the Gontsy Mezinian settlement... more The dwelling 5 is the largest of the six mammoth bone dwellings in the Gontsy Mezinian settlement (Poltava region, Ukraine). The dwelling 5 is a complex structure, consisting of a circular outer perimeter about 8 meters in diameter and a central oval structure of 4.5 3.5 m2 dimensions, separated by an intermediate area.
After quickly presenting the Gontsy site, the history of the excavations, the settlement and its spatial organization, and finally the six huts, the paper develops the particular method that is the excavation of mammoth bone swelling, or rather the structure it presents, totally different from stripping a thin occupation level. It has been shown that this structure is a dwelling collapse structure, with an external and inner stratigraphy showing from bottom to top: level of occupancy/level of loess giving flowed from the walls/ level bones of the walls having tipped outwards and the inside/
level of fragmented bones. The outer edge is a collapsed wall built on a circle of foundation skulls, alveoli planted in the ground, mounted with large bones different depending on the location: wall skulls, mandibles, pelvis, scapulae and long bones, and consolidated by loess extracted from adjacent pits. The central structure is an oval dwelling, about 15 m2 in area, with an accumulation of burnt bones in the center. Its walls are made up of skulls, tusks, pelvis, scapulae and long bones. In the centre, tusks
and reindeer antlers come from the hut’s roofing system. The intermediate area, which separates the outer edge from the central area, delivered whole or broken bones, which fell from the outer edge and the central structure. It is also a circulation area with two areas of activity marked by a concentration of stones, flint, dye, rodent bones and mammoth rib fragments. The dwelling 5 also delivered the remains of rodents (hare, marmot) and furry carnivores (polar fox, wolf). Some remains of bison and reindeer are also present. The lithic industry, by its knapping, tooling and
raw materials, is no different here from other parts of the settlement and corresponds to an industry of the Mezinian. Stones, in the form of granite and shale slabs or pebbles, are significantly present and are associated with activity areas. A bone industry and adornment elements complete the inventory. The study concludes that the dwelling 5 is a structure consisting of a circular protective enclosure, an intermediate area that is a place of varied activity and a central structure, which is a collapsed swelling. The hypothesis of a ritual structure is totally contradicted by the data
Proceedings of the European Humanities Conference 5-7 May 2021, 2022
To build a fresco of “population displacements” to use a hyperonym,
is also to write the history... more To build a fresco of “population displacements” to use a hyperonym,
is also to write the history of Humanity, in what it often has darkest, despite the considerable demographic growth of the human population of the last twelve thousand years.
To structure this contribution, it was distinguished the colonization of a virgin land by the human species, the installation in partially populated or depopulated territory, and the installation in an already populated territory. The different modes of these installations were analyzed:
— Extinction, extermination, total or partial expulsion (in mountainous areas, at the end of the territory, in deprived areas or in reserves) and assimilation of the indigenous population under the domination of the arrivals,
— Failure of the installation for environmental, economic or military reasons,
— Settlement under the control of the indigenous population (in border areas, in territories to be repopulated, on the outskirts of cities).
Not all of these population displacements have been brutal and massive. They have also often been progressive and requested by indigenous peoples for various reasons: repopulation, military protection, agricultural development, commercial activities, craft activities, job offers, etc.
Historical periods have thus recorded tragic events (war crimes, genocides, exoduses) as beneficial events (peace, prosperity, economic development) at the origin of the demographic and geographical expansion of diasporas around the world that the conquest of the oceans has accelerated.
The end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first century saw the emergence of new modes of movement of populations, with globalization (rural exodus, reception of refugees, cross-border work, seasonal work, brain drain, student flows, etc.) whose flows are directed towards democratic states.
Human societies facing climate change, 2022
The last glacial maximum (22,000-17,000 BP) was the most dramatic climatic event in the recent hi... more The last glacial maximum (22,000-17,000 BP) was the most dramatic climatic event in the recent history of Humanity, which has seen the expansion of ice caps, mountain glaciers and periglacial areas on the one hand, and desert and semidesert areas on the other, resulting in the abandonment of vast areas of peopling and geographical fragmentation separating populations in their refuge areas. In Europe, human groups are abandoning the Middle Europe for the Mediterranean regions.
They go back north to the right season for migratory herd hunts and good quality flint procurement. Episodes of climate improvement in the LGM see temporary resettlements in average Europe (Badegoulian, Sagvarian).
The African continent is the most affected. Northern Africa is deserted. The settlement of southern Africa is reduced to coastal occupation. The tropical wetland has been reduced in favor of a savannah occupied by human groups in East and Central Africa. In the Near East, human groups occupy coastal areas and relic oases of the Interior. The Arabian Peninsula, Central Asia, Siberia and Mongolia are deserted. Our knowledge of Sundaland settlement is still fragmentary because of the
rise of sea level in Holocene that have engulfed coastal settlements, but this humid tropical continent where climatic variations are more attenuated has certainly been an important peopling area at the last glacial maximum. Australia has deserted forcing human groups to refuge north to the Gulf of Carpentaria, where the sea has folded, and to the South in the island of Tasmania connected to the continent.
On the recently colonized American continent, human groups are fleeing south (particularly in Brazil) due to the expansion of the Laurentian ice sheet. They will go up to the North after the end of the last glacial maximum (pre-Clovis and Clovis sites). Material culture changed during the last glacial maximum revealing the effort of human groups to adaptation. The lithic industries have become more lamellar. In Europe, flint foliated points have replaced reindeer and ivory points. The Near East saw the beginning of epipalaeolithic industries, southern Africa the “microlithic” facies of Robberg and the Far East, the beginning of microblade technology (pressure knapping).
The density of human population has declined sharply due to the abandonment of the territories but also to changes in the exploitation of smaller territories and seasonal mobility. The simulations estimated a minimum population decrease in a factor of 4. The know-how acquired in adaptation as well as those inherited from the isotopic stage 3 will allow human groups a rapid redevelopment after the end of the last glacial maximum, which will see a rapid reconquest of territories and demographic expansion.
Human societies facing climate change volume 1, 2022
The isotopic stage MIS 3 is a period of climatic improvement dated between 57,000 and 28,000 BP, ... more The isotopic stage MIS 3 is a period of climatic improvement dated between 57,000 and 28,000 BP, located between the two glacial episodes (MIS 4 and MIS 2) of the last Würmian ice age. Humanity experienced during this period a great revolution with the replacement of the techniques of the Middle Palaeolithic by those of the Upper Palaeolithic, the emergence of a bone industry (ivory, reindeer wood, bones) and the birth of mobile art (anthropomorphic and animal statues, adornment objects, tools, weapons) and parietal art in settlements (rock shelters) and cave bottoms.
This transition is generally synchronized around the world. This technological revolution has long and still been explained by the arrival in Eurasia of a Homo sapiens (“Modern Man”) which will replace Homo neanderthalensis, who disappears before 37,000 BP thanks to new dating that allowed to correct the old radiocarbon dates that had wrongly rejuvenated the survival of Neanderthal (Iberian Peninsula, Crimea) until about 26,000 BP. The material culture manufactured by modern men colonizing Europe has been attributed since the 1960s to several
authors: Aurignacian, Protoaurignacian, Bohunician, IUP, gradually going back in time the date of arrival in Europe, which is currently around 48,000 BP.
The problem of the arrival of modern man is made complex by the fact that Neanderthal and Sapiens manufacture at MIS 5 the same industry of the Middle Palaeolithic. Consequently, the process of passage from the industries from the Middle Palaeolithic to the Upper Palaeolithic and the migrations of modern man are two independent but partly synchronous processes, which must be studied distinctly to better understand them.
Knowledge of MIS 3 prehistoric sites is growing rapidly. In the 1980s, Europe and the Near East were the best-known regions. Then, data began to accumulate in Central Asia, Siberia, Southeast Asia, Australia, Egypt, Southern and Eastern Africa and South America, allowing the first synthesis, even sometimes fragile, at the worldwide level.
The MIS 3 also saw the settlement by Sapiens of Sahul (Australia and New Guinea) from Sundaland (Indonesian continent), and most likely from America through the Bering Strait from eastern Siberia. The authors of these peopling are Homo sapiens. Their routes are the subject of several scenarios: exits from Africa, arrivals in Europe, progression in South Asia to Southeast Asia and Sahul, progression to Central Asia, Siberia and China. The dates of these progressions have not yet been definitively established, having started at MIS 5 and completed at the end of MIS 3.
Human societies facing climate change Volume 1, 2022
The reconstruction of palaeoclimate and more generally of palaeoenvironment uses the methods of m... more The reconstruction of palaeoclimate and more generally of palaeoenvironment uses the methods of many scientific specialties that emerged from the beginning of the 20th century. Prehistory was the first engine of this research as early as the 1860s.
Palaeoclimatology studies all well-preserved remnants of geological, zoological, botanical and physical processes that have recorded climate variations by climatic markers (physical, chemical, isotopic, biological units that are reliable and accurate estimators of temperature and humidity, which are the main characteristics of climate, but others as well).
Geological formations that best record climate variations are ice caps, mountain glaciers, fossil shorelines marking changes in sea, lake and river levels, river terraces, high latitude loess (and fossil soil) sequences, sand sequences (and fossil soils) of deserts, stratigraphy of rock shelter and cave shelters, peat lands, mountain lakes and volcanic lakes (maars), travertine, coral reefs, karstic speleothem and sediments deposited at the bottom of the sea.
Many biological fossils, derived from animal and plant life, are good climatic markers, such as mollusks, rodents, birds, mammals for animal life, or such as, diatom frustules, corals, radiolars, coccolites, ostracodes, plant pollens, leaf stomata, tree rings for plant life. Physical and chemical units are numerous, including oxygen isotopes O16/O18, Beryllium 10Be and 14C which marks solar activity, magnetic susceptibility, and measurement extracted from ice air bubbles (essentially compounds of organic chemistry H, O, N, C and their isotopes).
Cores usually obtained by more or less deep surveys are sampled and analyzed.
The chronological calibration of the recording (through various techniques such as radiocarbon dating, dating of tephras, paleomagnetism, etc.), signal processing (to obtain a record at constant sedimentation speed), the improvement of the signal (by the correlation between the different curves), spectral analysis (for the verification of Milankovitch’s theory or to search for cycles) will allow the construction of paléotempérature and palaeo-humidity curves.
Climate curves have revealed isotopic stages (MIS) that have been numbered (pair for glacial maxima, odd for interglacial maxima) from the first stage, which corresponds to the Holocene. The oscillations considered to be climatic events were also numbered, these are the events of Dansgaard-Oeschger (DO or more used GIS) for the Pleistocene of the last 100,000 years and the events of Bond for the Holocene,
to which must be added the events of Heinrich, which are interpreted as cold and brief events due to iceberg break-ups in a warming phase.
Archaeopress Publishing Ltd eBooks, Jun 23, 2016
L'archéologie en Union soviétique, après la seconde guerre mondiale, a connu un essor exc... more L'archéologie en Union soviétique, après la seconde guerre mondiale, a connu un essor exceptionnel, rendu possible par une organisation centralisée par l'Académie des Sciences, un effectif important d'archéologues spécialistes et de très nombreuses opérations de fouilles sur le terrain. Cependant, l'intervention de Joseph Staline, lui-même, en 1950, dans la Pravda, pour condamner, comme non marxiste, la théorie de l'évolution stadiale de N. Marr, doctrine officielle de l'archéologie depuis 1919, a bouleversé la communauté archéologique, qui s'est retrouvée sans cadre théorique. Les archéologues soviétiques se sont alors recentrés sur les campagnes de fouilles archéologiques et la publication de leurs résultats suivant un canevas descriptif normalisé laissant peu de place aux interprétations. L'apport méthodologique le plus significatif de cette période est le développement des techniques de fouilles de plein air (à la suite de P. P. Efimenko), les études sur l'art préhistorique (Z. A. Abramova), l'invention des études tracéologiques (S. A. Semenov) et l'importance donnée aux études géoarchéologiques (A. A. Velichko, I. K. Ivanova), archéozoologiques (P. P. Pidoplichko) et paléoenvironnementales (P. M. Dolukhanov). Le cadre théorique de l'archéologie, dans son approche formelle, est traité par L. S. Klejn à Saint-Pétersbourg et par V. F. Gening à Kiev. Abstract Archaeology in the Soviet Union, after the last world war, has known an exceptional growth, made possible by the centralized organization of the Academy of Sciences, an important number of specialized archaeologists and very many field operations. However, the intervention of Joseph Stalin, himself, in 1950, in Pravda, to condemn, as non-Marxist, the theory of the stadial evolution of N. Marr, official doctrine of archaeology since 1919, has upset the archaeological community, which then has lost any theoretical framework. Soviet archaeologists then refocused on archaeological excavations and the publication of their results following a standard description framework leaving little place for interpretations. The most significant methodological contributions of this period are the development of open air excavations techniques (following P. P. Efimenko), studies on prehistoric art (Z. A. Abramova), the invention of usewear studies (Semenov) and the importance given to geoarchaeology (A. A. Velichko, I. K. Ivanova), archaeozoology (Pidoplichko) and palaeoenvironmental studies (Dolukhanov). The theoretical framework of archaeology, in its formal approach, is treated by L. S. Klejn in St. Petersburg and V. F. Gening in Kiev.
Palethnologie, Jan 30, 2013
Archaeopress Publishing Ltd eBooks, Mar 31, 2016
The 3D archaeology course including seminar and practical works, I have created in 2008, is now a... more The 3D archaeology course including seminar and practical works, I have created in 2008, is now a part of the curriculum of archaeology at the Master 2 level in the Institute of Archaeology of the Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne University. The present paper is talking about the difficulties to create a new course in the context of a constant diminution of the number of students, to convince the other archaeologists of the University to promote the interest of the course to their students and the technical problems to develop a hardware and software platform of virtual reality and digital photogrammetry for the practical works and student projects. At the opposite, it must be pointed out the enthusiasm of the French specialists of the 3D archaeology to participate to the course and the motivation of the students at the origin of the creation of a student association for the promotion of 3D archaeology. Actually, the course of 3D archaeology is chosen by 25% of the students of Master 2, its main competitor being actually the course of GIS, chosen by 70% of students.
Archaeopress Publishing Ltd eBooks, Mar 31, 2016
The digital photogrammetry technique was used to obtain a 3D modeling of a palaeolithic settlemen... more The digital photogrammetry technique was used to obtain a 3D modeling of a palaeolithic settlement with mammoth bone huts in Gontsy (Ukraine). The processed settlement area contains three mammoth bone huts, pits, working areas and hearths. The difficulties that had to be overcome are the lack of contrast (color of the loess), the small discrimination of artefacts (repeatability of the mammoth bones) and the existence of blind areas (overlay of the bones).
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2017
Insufficient attention has been given so far to the study of serendipity and self-organization pr... more Insufficient attention has been given so far to the study of serendipity and self-organization processes in the history of human societies and of which the resilience offer numerous archaeological remains helping us to restore the systems that are at the origin. To illustrate this point, examples are chosen in the field of technology (technical inventions), socialization (appearance of the language), territory management (hunter-gatherers travelling, landscape transformation), economy (trading networks), urbanizing, state control (invention of writing, coins, taxes) and the adaptation to climatic and environmental change.
La préhistoire de la France, 2018
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Papers by François Djindjian
prehistorian, whose scientific contributions were major and are still
relevant today. His work on palaeopathology, which dates back to the
1920s, is the particular focus of this study. His work on documentary
reproductions of prehistoric art and on ichnology (footprints) still
constitutes an essential reference.
The update of the latest available and published data highlights the following chronology :
1. For Eastern Europe (Dnieper, Boug and Don basins) : Eastern Gravettian, Final Eastern Gravettian, Local Aurignacoid industries (Muralovkian, Zamiatnine culture and others), Early Epigravettian of the steppe area, gap, Mezinian of the Dnieper basin, late Epigravettian of the steppe area;
2. For the northeastern foothills of the Carpathians (Dniester, Prut and Bistrita basins) : Eastern Gravettian, Aurignacoid industries, gap, Early Epigravettian (Molodovian s.s), gap, final Epigravettian;
3. For Central Europe : Eastern Gravettian, gap, Aurignacoid industries, gap, Sagvarian, gap, Magdalenian and Late Epigravettian
The typological and technological studies of lithic and bone industries reveal large differences, due to strong changes in human systems during the last glacial maximum. And the mere presence of backed bladelets (which also exist in the Solutrean, Badegoulian and Magdalenian cultures in Western Europe) is not sufficient to cluster these industries under the same name of Epigravettian. So we propose to give different names to these different industries.
between Moroccan and French prehistorians (A. Debenath, J.P. Raynal, L. Wengler, R. Nespoulet), still active today.
the wettest (interglacial) periods of the MIS 11, 5 and 3 isotopic stages, and which led to the migration of populations across all the continents of the planet. In the Holocene, the fragility of agro-pastoral societies and the first states led to their rapid destabilization in the event of climatic deterioration following brutal events (such as those of 8200 BP and 4200 BP), but also as a consequence of multi-centennial variations (crisis of 1277 BC, Roman optimum, deterioration of the late Roman Empire and the early Middle Ages, medieval optimum, Little Ice Age) but also multi-year events linked to the vagaries of the weather or volcanic eruptions, which can decimate half of a population by famine. But periods of climatic and societal crises also coincide with the origin of technological revolutions (from 4200 BP, the spread of Bronze metallurgy and maritime transport across the Mediterranean for the supply of copper and tin, and the development of a large arsenal of hydraulic techniques; 1200 BC, the spread of iron metallurgy).
After quickly presenting the Gontsy site, the history of the excavations, the settlement and its spatial organization, and finally the six huts, the paper develops the particular method that is the excavation of mammoth bone swelling, or rather the structure it presents, totally different from stripping a thin occupation level. It has been shown that this structure is a dwelling collapse structure, with an external and inner stratigraphy showing from bottom to top: level of occupancy/level of loess giving flowed from the walls/ level bones of the walls having tipped outwards and the inside/
level of fragmented bones. The outer edge is a collapsed wall built on a circle of foundation skulls, alveoli planted in the ground, mounted with large bones different depending on the location: wall skulls, mandibles, pelvis, scapulae and long bones, and consolidated by loess extracted from adjacent pits. The central structure is an oval dwelling, about 15 m2 in area, with an accumulation of burnt bones in the center. Its walls are made up of skulls, tusks, pelvis, scapulae and long bones. In the centre, tusks
and reindeer antlers come from the hut’s roofing system. The intermediate area, which separates the outer edge from the central area, delivered whole or broken bones, which fell from the outer edge and the central structure. It is also a circulation area with two areas of activity marked by a concentration of stones, flint, dye, rodent bones and mammoth rib fragments. The dwelling 5 also delivered the remains of rodents (hare, marmot) and furry carnivores (polar fox, wolf). Some remains of bison and reindeer are also present. The lithic industry, by its knapping, tooling and
raw materials, is no different here from other parts of the settlement and corresponds to an industry of the Mezinian. Stones, in the form of granite and shale slabs or pebbles, are significantly present and are associated with activity areas. A bone industry and adornment elements complete the inventory. The study concludes that the dwelling 5 is a structure consisting of a circular protective enclosure, an intermediate area that is a place of varied activity and a central structure, which is a collapsed swelling. The hypothesis of a ritual structure is totally contradicted by the data
is also to write the history of Humanity, in what it often has darkest, despite the considerable demographic growth of the human population of the last twelve thousand years.
To structure this contribution, it was distinguished the colonization of a virgin land by the human species, the installation in partially populated or depopulated territory, and the installation in an already populated territory. The different modes of these installations were analyzed:
— Extinction, extermination, total or partial expulsion (in mountainous areas, at the end of the territory, in deprived areas or in reserves) and assimilation of the indigenous population under the domination of the arrivals,
— Failure of the installation for environmental, economic or military reasons,
— Settlement under the control of the indigenous population (in border areas, in territories to be repopulated, on the outskirts of cities).
Not all of these population displacements have been brutal and massive. They have also often been progressive and requested by indigenous peoples for various reasons: repopulation, military protection, agricultural development, commercial activities, craft activities, job offers, etc.
Historical periods have thus recorded tragic events (war crimes, genocides, exoduses) as beneficial events (peace, prosperity, economic development) at the origin of the demographic and geographical expansion of diasporas around the world that the conquest of the oceans has accelerated.
The end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first century saw the emergence of new modes of movement of populations, with globalization (rural exodus, reception of refugees, cross-border work, seasonal work, brain drain, student flows, etc.) whose flows are directed towards democratic states.
They go back north to the right season for migratory herd hunts and good quality flint procurement. Episodes of climate improvement in the LGM see temporary resettlements in average Europe (Badegoulian, Sagvarian).
The African continent is the most affected. Northern Africa is deserted. The settlement of southern Africa is reduced to coastal occupation. The tropical wetland has been reduced in favor of a savannah occupied by human groups in East and Central Africa. In the Near East, human groups occupy coastal areas and relic oases of the Interior. The Arabian Peninsula, Central Asia, Siberia and Mongolia are deserted. Our knowledge of Sundaland settlement is still fragmentary because of the
rise of sea level in Holocene that have engulfed coastal settlements, but this humid tropical continent where climatic variations are more attenuated has certainly been an important peopling area at the last glacial maximum. Australia has deserted forcing human groups to refuge north to the Gulf of Carpentaria, where the sea has folded, and to the South in the island of Tasmania connected to the continent.
On the recently colonized American continent, human groups are fleeing south (particularly in Brazil) due to the expansion of the Laurentian ice sheet. They will go up to the North after the end of the last glacial maximum (pre-Clovis and Clovis sites). Material culture changed during the last glacial maximum revealing the effort of human groups to adaptation. The lithic industries have become more lamellar. In Europe, flint foliated points have replaced reindeer and ivory points. The Near East saw the beginning of epipalaeolithic industries, southern Africa the “microlithic” facies of Robberg and the Far East, the beginning of microblade technology (pressure knapping).
The density of human population has declined sharply due to the abandonment of the territories but also to changes in the exploitation of smaller territories and seasonal mobility. The simulations estimated a minimum population decrease in a factor of 4. The know-how acquired in adaptation as well as those inherited from the isotopic stage 3 will allow human groups a rapid redevelopment after the end of the last glacial maximum, which will see a rapid reconquest of territories and demographic expansion.
This transition is generally synchronized around the world. This technological revolution has long and still been explained by the arrival in Eurasia of a Homo sapiens (“Modern Man”) which will replace Homo neanderthalensis, who disappears before 37,000 BP thanks to new dating that allowed to correct the old radiocarbon dates that had wrongly rejuvenated the survival of Neanderthal (Iberian Peninsula, Crimea) until about 26,000 BP. The material culture manufactured by modern men colonizing Europe has been attributed since the 1960s to several
authors: Aurignacian, Protoaurignacian, Bohunician, IUP, gradually going back in time the date of arrival in Europe, which is currently around 48,000 BP.
The problem of the arrival of modern man is made complex by the fact that Neanderthal and Sapiens manufacture at MIS 5 the same industry of the Middle Palaeolithic. Consequently, the process of passage from the industries from the Middle Palaeolithic to the Upper Palaeolithic and the migrations of modern man are two independent but partly synchronous processes, which must be studied distinctly to better understand them.
Knowledge of MIS 3 prehistoric sites is growing rapidly. In the 1980s, Europe and the Near East were the best-known regions. Then, data began to accumulate in Central Asia, Siberia, Southeast Asia, Australia, Egypt, Southern and Eastern Africa and South America, allowing the first synthesis, even sometimes fragile, at the worldwide level.
The MIS 3 also saw the settlement by Sapiens of Sahul (Australia and New Guinea) from Sundaland (Indonesian continent), and most likely from America through the Bering Strait from eastern Siberia. The authors of these peopling are Homo sapiens. Their routes are the subject of several scenarios: exits from Africa, arrivals in Europe, progression in South Asia to Southeast Asia and Sahul, progression to Central Asia, Siberia and China. The dates of these progressions have not yet been definitively established, having started at MIS 5 and completed at the end of MIS 3.
Palaeoclimatology studies all well-preserved remnants of geological, zoological, botanical and physical processes that have recorded climate variations by climatic markers (physical, chemical, isotopic, biological units that are reliable and accurate estimators of temperature and humidity, which are the main characteristics of climate, but others as well).
Geological formations that best record climate variations are ice caps, mountain glaciers, fossil shorelines marking changes in sea, lake and river levels, river terraces, high latitude loess (and fossil soil) sequences, sand sequences (and fossil soils) of deserts, stratigraphy of rock shelter and cave shelters, peat lands, mountain lakes and volcanic lakes (maars), travertine, coral reefs, karstic speleothem and sediments deposited at the bottom of the sea.
Many biological fossils, derived from animal and plant life, are good climatic markers, such as mollusks, rodents, birds, mammals for animal life, or such as, diatom frustules, corals, radiolars, coccolites, ostracodes, plant pollens, leaf stomata, tree rings for plant life. Physical and chemical units are numerous, including oxygen isotopes O16/O18, Beryllium 10Be and 14C which marks solar activity, magnetic susceptibility, and measurement extracted from ice air bubbles (essentially compounds of organic chemistry H, O, N, C and their isotopes).
Cores usually obtained by more or less deep surveys are sampled and analyzed.
The chronological calibration of the recording (through various techniques such as radiocarbon dating, dating of tephras, paleomagnetism, etc.), signal processing (to obtain a record at constant sedimentation speed), the improvement of the signal (by the correlation between the different curves), spectral analysis (for the verification of Milankovitch’s theory or to search for cycles) will allow the construction of paléotempérature and palaeo-humidity curves.
Climate curves have revealed isotopic stages (MIS) that have been numbered (pair for glacial maxima, odd for interglacial maxima) from the first stage, which corresponds to the Holocene. The oscillations considered to be climatic events were also numbered, these are the events of Dansgaard-Oeschger (DO or more used GIS) for the Pleistocene of the last 100,000 years and the events of Bond for the Holocene,
to which must be added the events of Heinrich, which are interpreted as cold and brief events due to iceberg break-ups in a warming phase.
prehistorian, whose scientific contributions were major and are still
relevant today. His work on palaeopathology, which dates back to the
1920s, is the particular focus of this study. His work on documentary
reproductions of prehistoric art and on ichnology (footprints) still
constitutes an essential reference.
The update of the latest available and published data highlights the following chronology :
1. For Eastern Europe (Dnieper, Boug and Don basins) : Eastern Gravettian, Final Eastern Gravettian, Local Aurignacoid industries (Muralovkian, Zamiatnine culture and others), Early Epigravettian of the steppe area, gap, Mezinian of the Dnieper basin, late Epigravettian of the steppe area;
2. For the northeastern foothills of the Carpathians (Dniester, Prut and Bistrita basins) : Eastern Gravettian, Aurignacoid industries, gap, Early Epigravettian (Molodovian s.s), gap, final Epigravettian;
3. For Central Europe : Eastern Gravettian, gap, Aurignacoid industries, gap, Sagvarian, gap, Magdalenian and Late Epigravettian
The typological and technological studies of lithic and bone industries reveal large differences, due to strong changes in human systems during the last glacial maximum. And the mere presence of backed bladelets (which also exist in the Solutrean, Badegoulian and Magdalenian cultures in Western Europe) is not sufficient to cluster these industries under the same name of Epigravettian. So we propose to give different names to these different industries.
between Moroccan and French prehistorians (A. Debenath, J.P. Raynal, L. Wengler, R. Nespoulet), still active today.
the wettest (interglacial) periods of the MIS 11, 5 and 3 isotopic stages, and which led to the migration of populations across all the continents of the planet. In the Holocene, the fragility of agro-pastoral societies and the first states led to their rapid destabilization in the event of climatic deterioration following brutal events (such as those of 8200 BP and 4200 BP), but also as a consequence of multi-centennial variations (crisis of 1277 BC, Roman optimum, deterioration of the late Roman Empire and the early Middle Ages, medieval optimum, Little Ice Age) but also multi-year events linked to the vagaries of the weather or volcanic eruptions, which can decimate half of a population by famine. But periods of climatic and societal crises also coincide with the origin of technological revolutions (from 4200 BP, the spread of Bronze metallurgy and maritime transport across the Mediterranean for the supply of copper and tin, and the development of a large arsenal of hydraulic techniques; 1200 BC, the spread of iron metallurgy).
After quickly presenting the Gontsy site, the history of the excavations, the settlement and its spatial organization, and finally the six huts, the paper develops the particular method that is the excavation of mammoth bone swelling, or rather the structure it presents, totally different from stripping a thin occupation level. It has been shown that this structure is a dwelling collapse structure, with an external and inner stratigraphy showing from bottom to top: level of occupancy/level of loess giving flowed from the walls/ level bones of the walls having tipped outwards and the inside/
level of fragmented bones. The outer edge is a collapsed wall built on a circle of foundation skulls, alveoli planted in the ground, mounted with large bones different depending on the location: wall skulls, mandibles, pelvis, scapulae and long bones, and consolidated by loess extracted from adjacent pits. The central structure is an oval dwelling, about 15 m2 in area, with an accumulation of burnt bones in the center. Its walls are made up of skulls, tusks, pelvis, scapulae and long bones. In the centre, tusks
and reindeer antlers come from the hut’s roofing system. The intermediate area, which separates the outer edge from the central area, delivered whole or broken bones, which fell from the outer edge and the central structure. It is also a circulation area with two areas of activity marked by a concentration of stones, flint, dye, rodent bones and mammoth rib fragments. The dwelling 5 also delivered the remains of rodents (hare, marmot) and furry carnivores (polar fox, wolf). Some remains of bison and reindeer are also present. The lithic industry, by its knapping, tooling and
raw materials, is no different here from other parts of the settlement and corresponds to an industry of the Mezinian. Stones, in the form of granite and shale slabs or pebbles, are significantly present and are associated with activity areas. A bone industry and adornment elements complete the inventory. The study concludes that the dwelling 5 is a structure consisting of a circular protective enclosure, an intermediate area that is a place of varied activity and a central structure, which is a collapsed swelling. The hypothesis of a ritual structure is totally contradicted by the data
is also to write the history of Humanity, in what it often has darkest, despite the considerable demographic growth of the human population of the last twelve thousand years.
To structure this contribution, it was distinguished the colonization of a virgin land by the human species, the installation in partially populated or depopulated territory, and the installation in an already populated territory. The different modes of these installations were analyzed:
— Extinction, extermination, total or partial expulsion (in mountainous areas, at the end of the territory, in deprived areas or in reserves) and assimilation of the indigenous population under the domination of the arrivals,
— Failure of the installation for environmental, economic or military reasons,
— Settlement under the control of the indigenous population (in border areas, in territories to be repopulated, on the outskirts of cities).
Not all of these population displacements have been brutal and massive. They have also often been progressive and requested by indigenous peoples for various reasons: repopulation, military protection, agricultural development, commercial activities, craft activities, job offers, etc.
Historical periods have thus recorded tragic events (war crimes, genocides, exoduses) as beneficial events (peace, prosperity, economic development) at the origin of the demographic and geographical expansion of diasporas around the world that the conquest of the oceans has accelerated.
The end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first century saw the emergence of new modes of movement of populations, with globalization (rural exodus, reception of refugees, cross-border work, seasonal work, brain drain, student flows, etc.) whose flows are directed towards democratic states.
They go back north to the right season for migratory herd hunts and good quality flint procurement. Episodes of climate improvement in the LGM see temporary resettlements in average Europe (Badegoulian, Sagvarian).
The African continent is the most affected. Northern Africa is deserted. The settlement of southern Africa is reduced to coastal occupation. The tropical wetland has been reduced in favor of a savannah occupied by human groups in East and Central Africa. In the Near East, human groups occupy coastal areas and relic oases of the Interior. The Arabian Peninsula, Central Asia, Siberia and Mongolia are deserted. Our knowledge of Sundaland settlement is still fragmentary because of the
rise of sea level in Holocene that have engulfed coastal settlements, but this humid tropical continent where climatic variations are more attenuated has certainly been an important peopling area at the last glacial maximum. Australia has deserted forcing human groups to refuge north to the Gulf of Carpentaria, where the sea has folded, and to the South in the island of Tasmania connected to the continent.
On the recently colonized American continent, human groups are fleeing south (particularly in Brazil) due to the expansion of the Laurentian ice sheet. They will go up to the North after the end of the last glacial maximum (pre-Clovis and Clovis sites). Material culture changed during the last glacial maximum revealing the effort of human groups to adaptation. The lithic industries have become more lamellar. In Europe, flint foliated points have replaced reindeer and ivory points. The Near East saw the beginning of epipalaeolithic industries, southern Africa the “microlithic” facies of Robberg and the Far East, the beginning of microblade technology (pressure knapping).
The density of human population has declined sharply due to the abandonment of the territories but also to changes in the exploitation of smaller territories and seasonal mobility. The simulations estimated a minimum population decrease in a factor of 4. The know-how acquired in adaptation as well as those inherited from the isotopic stage 3 will allow human groups a rapid redevelopment after the end of the last glacial maximum, which will see a rapid reconquest of territories and demographic expansion.
This transition is generally synchronized around the world. This technological revolution has long and still been explained by the arrival in Eurasia of a Homo sapiens (“Modern Man”) which will replace Homo neanderthalensis, who disappears before 37,000 BP thanks to new dating that allowed to correct the old radiocarbon dates that had wrongly rejuvenated the survival of Neanderthal (Iberian Peninsula, Crimea) until about 26,000 BP. The material culture manufactured by modern men colonizing Europe has been attributed since the 1960s to several
authors: Aurignacian, Protoaurignacian, Bohunician, IUP, gradually going back in time the date of arrival in Europe, which is currently around 48,000 BP.
The problem of the arrival of modern man is made complex by the fact that Neanderthal and Sapiens manufacture at MIS 5 the same industry of the Middle Palaeolithic. Consequently, the process of passage from the industries from the Middle Palaeolithic to the Upper Palaeolithic and the migrations of modern man are two independent but partly synchronous processes, which must be studied distinctly to better understand them.
Knowledge of MIS 3 prehistoric sites is growing rapidly. In the 1980s, Europe and the Near East were the best-known regions. Then, data began to accumulate in Central Asia, Siberia, Southeast Asia, Australia, Egypt, Southern and Eastern Africa and South America, allowing the first synthesis, even sometimes fragile, at the worldwide level.
The MIS 3 also saw the settlement by Sapiens of Sahul (Australia and New Guinea) from Sundaland (Indonesian continent), and most likely from America through the Bering Strait from eastern Siberia. The authors of these peopling are Homo sapiens. Their routes are the subject of several scenarios: exits from Africa, arrivals in Europe, progression in South Asia to Southeast Asia and Sahul, progression to Central Asia, Siberia and China. The dates of these progressions have not yet been definitively established, having started at MIS 5 and completed at the end of MIS 3.
Palaeoclimatology studies all well-preserved remnants of geological, zoological, botanical and physical processes that have recorded climate variations by climatic markers (physical, chemical, isotopic, biological units that are reliable and accurate estimators of temperature and humidity, which are the main characteristics of climate, but others as well).
Geological formations that best record climate variations are ice caps, mountain glaciers, fossil shorelines marking changes in sea, lake and river levels, river terraces, high latitude loess (and fossil soil) sequences, sand sequences (and fossil soils) of deserts, stratigraphy of rock shelter and cave shelters, peat lands, mountain lakes and volcanic lakes (maars), travertine, coral reefs, karstic speleothem and sediments deposited at the bottom of the sea.
Many biological fossils, derived from animal and plant life, are good climatic markers, such as mollusks, rodents, birds, mammals for animal life, or such as, diatom frustules, corals, radiolars, coccolites, ostracodes, plant pollens, leaf stomata, tree rings for plant life. Physical and chemical units are numerous, including oxygen isotopes O16/O18, Beryllium 10Be and 14C which marks solar activity, magnetic susceptibility, and measurement extracted from ice air bubbles (essentially compounds of organic chemistry H, O, N, C and their isotopes).
Cores usually obtained by more or less deep surveys are sampled and analyzed.
The chronological calibration of the recording (through various techniques such as radiocarbon dating, dating of tephras, paleomagnetism, etc.), signal processing (to obtain a record at constant sedimentation speed), the improvement of the signal (by the correlation between the different curves), spectral analysis (for the verification of Milankovitch’s theory or to search for cycles) will allow the construction of paléotempérature and palaeo-humidity curves.
Climate curves have revealed isotopic stages (MIS) that have been numbered (pair for glacial maxima, odd for interglacial maxima) from the first stage, which corresponds to the Holocene. The oscillations considered to be climatic events were also numbered, these are the events of Dansgaard-Oeschger (DO or more used GIS) for the Pleistocene of the last 100,000 years and the events of Bond for the Holocene,
to which must be added the events of Heinrich, which are interpreted as cold and brief events due to iceberg break-ups in a warming phase.
the reason of its exceptional interest. The IXe Congress UISPP in Nice in 1976 and the CNRS congress “The end of the glacial times” in Bordeaux in 1977 had given ideally the point of our knowledge on the subject. Forty years after, the results of research show significant progress in the Somme basin led by J.-P. Fagnart; in the Paris basin with excavations of the azilian site of Le Closeau,
led by P. Bodu, and syntheses of B. Valentin; in the Alps, the Jura and the East of France with the excavations of R. Desbrosse, P. Bintz, A. Thévenin and G. Pion. In Aquitaine, the excavations of G. Célérier in Pont d’Ambon (Dordogne), of A. Chollet in Bois Ragot (Vienne) and J.M. Séronie-Vivien in Pegourie and Sanglier caves (Lot) are the most important. In the Pyrenees, the excavations of M. Barbaza in the Moulin cave in Troubat (Ariège)
and M. Orliac in theTourasse cave, unfortunately unpublished (Haute-Garonne), complete the sequences of the rock-shelters of Duruthy (R. Arambourou) and Dufaure (L. G. Straus) in the Landes. The dynamics initiated by M. Escalon de Fonton in the Southeast and by H. Delporte and J.-P. Daugas in Auvergne, unfortunately, have not
been extended. If the Alleröd industries are now well known, and if the aziliniazation process begins to be well perceived, it is not yet the same neither for the industries of younger Dyas which need to be better known nor for the process of transition towards the Mesolithic which we are yet to understand.
About 80 Franch specialists of Neolithic, Bronze age and Iron age have produced this synthesis which give the last knowledge since forty years on French Protohistory.
A synthesis of "The Prehistory of France", written by about 80 French specialists of early prehistory
A synthesis of the excavations of the palaeolithic settlement of Gontsy (Ukraine) published for the twentieth anniveersary of the excavations of Gontsy (1993-2013)
The general theme held for the congress is :
ADAPTATION AND SUSTAINABILITY OF PREHISTORIC AND PROTOHISTORIC SOCIETIES CONFRONTED TO CLIMATE CHANGE
As for each UISPP World Congress, the Congress is open to all other sessions, regardless of the general theme above, which may be proposed in the context of the call for sessions.
119 session will take place during this week with more than 1700 scientific papers or posters.
Conferences will be given at the Musée de l'Homme on sunday (3rd & 9th June) and at the Institut de Paléontologie Humaine each evening.
All informations are here :
https://uispp2018.sciencesconf.org/