1. The Middle Paleolithic occupations of Mutzig-Rain (Alsace)
- Author
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Koehler, Héloïse, Wegmüller, Fabio, Audiard, Benjamin, Auguste, P., Bahain, Jean-Jacques, Bocherens, Hervé, Diemer, Simon, Preusser, Franck, Pümpin, Christine, Sévêque, Noémie, Stoetzel, Emmanuelle, Tombret, Olivier, Wuscher, Patrice, STOETZEL, Emmanuelle, Archéologie d'Alsace, Universität Basel, Culture et Environnements, Préhistoire, Antiquité, Moyen-Age (CEPAM), Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (1965 - 2019) (UNS), COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) (COMUE UCA)-COMUE Université Côte d'Azur (2015-2019) (COMUE UCA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Côte d'Azur (UCA), Évolution, Écologie et Paléontologie (Evo-Eco-Paleo) - UMR 8198 (Evo-Eco-Paléo (EEP)), Université de Lille-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Histoire naturelle de l'Homme préhistorique (HNHP), Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Université de Perpignan Via Domitia (UPVD)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), University of Tübingen, Archéologie et histoire ancienne : Méditerranée - Europe (ARCHIMEDE), Université de Strasbourg (UNISTRA)-Université de Haute-Alsace (UHA) Mulhouse - Colmar (Université de Haute-Alsace (UHA))-Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication (MCC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), University of Freiburg [Freiburg], GeoArchEon SARL, Archéozoologie, archéobotanique : sociétés, pratiques et environnements (AASPE), Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université de Bâle, and Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen = Eberhard Karls University of Tuebingen
- Subjects
[SHS.ARCHEO] Humanities and Social Sciences/Archaeology and Prehistory ,[SHS.ARCHEO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Archaeology and Prehistory - Abstract
International audience; The site of Mutzig, discovered by chance in 1992 (Sainty et al., 1994), has been the focus of programmed excavations since 2009. Located in Alsace (Bas-Rhin, France), it is presently one of the only reliable sites attributable to the regional Middle Paleolithic, thus providing rare evidence for a zone still relatively unknown for Early Prehistory. The excellent preservation of the remains and the deep stratigraphic sequence make the site a potential reference site for environmental and behavioral analyses about the Middle Paleolithic in this region. The entire sequence is attributed to the Middle Paleolithic, with 7 in situ levels. The different occupations reflect the same relatively cold steppe-like environmental context, with reindeer, woolly mammoth, steppe horse, steppe bison and woolly rhinoceros being identified. Small mammals also indicate a cold climate, but not of Pleniglacial type. Isotope analyses of oxygen and carbon in horse and mammoth teeth also indicate temperatures colder than today and an open environment. These data, as well as the OSL and U-Th/ESR dates obtained thus far, place the occupations of Mutzig during the Early Weichselian Glacial (MIS 5, ca. 90,000 BP), which biometric analyses and analyses of large and small fauna tend to corroborate.The archaeological material is abundant in each of the different layers, altogether forming an inventory of more than 2500 faunal remains and more than 1300 lithic artifacts recorded. The excavation is currently being conducted across an area of around 30 m². At least four archaeological levels contain burned elements and one level a combustion structure.We could have with the analyses of this site a clarification of the environment and Neandertal ways of life in Alsace
- Published
- 2017