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The development of the Azilian in Western Europe 14,000 years ago is considered a “revolution” in Upper Paleolithic Archaeology. One of the main elements of this rapid social restructuring is the abandonment of naturalistic figurative art on portable pieces or on cave walls in the Magdalenian in favor of abstract expression on small pebbles. Recent work shows that the transformation of human societies between the Magdalenian and the Azilian was more gradual. The discovery of a new Early Azilian site with decorated stones in France supports this hypothesis. While major changes in stone tool technology between the Magdalenian and Azilian clearly mark important adaptive changes, the discovery of 45 engraved schist tablets from archaeological layers at Le Rocher de l’Impératrice attests to iconographic continuity together with special valorization of aurochs as shown by a “shining” bull depiction. This evidence suggests that some cultural features such as iconography may lag far behind technological changes. We also argue that eventual change in symbolic expression, which includes the later disappearance of figurative art, provides new insight into the probable restructuring of the societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the second half of the Upper Paleolithic, Europe seems to have been divided in two vast techno-cultural entities with their particular chronological sequence: the Western Europe “classical sequence” and the Epigravettian sequence in the South. Essentially because of an imbalance of data and differences in methodologies between these two regions, their Upper Paleolithic sequences have rarely been compared. Thanks to the development of lithic technology in Europe and a recent active research about the Late-Glacial, it is today possible to attempt such a challenging exercise of comparing these two long sequences. In this paper, we solely focus on the Late Glacial. If the rare existing attempts of comparison focused on typology of lithic assemblages, our paper aims for a more global approach of lithic industries, based on recent technological studies. This approach allows highlighting key elements in term of human behaviors. Our data suggest a similar process of change between Western Europe and the Epigravettian during GI-1 (Bølling–Allerød). All the criteria of the so called “azilianization process” are actually present in the Epigravettian evolution sequence. This similar trend within both evolution sequences stopped abruptly, during the GS-1 (Younger Dryas). During this period and the very beginning of the Holocene (Preboreal), a massive return of blades and bladelets with high qualitative standards occurred in Western Europe while the simplification process is still in course in the Epigravettian region. In this paper, we attempt to compare the various responses of vegetation to the major climatic instability of the Late Glacial across Europe using a critical survey of the available environmental data. Considering the boundary that could have represented the Alps between Epigravettian and the Western Europe sequence, two high-resolution environmental sequences from north and south of the Alps are especially examined. Are the differences in terms of environmental changes between these two areas significant? Did they play a role in human behaviors and motivate technological changes? The comparison of palaeoenvironmental data with archaeological results tends to comfort some hypothesis of environmental determinism proposed by scholars, but also provide new elements moderating regional models that cannot really be applied at a continental scale. Climatic correlations with socioeconomic changes highlighted in this paper are no more than one possible way of investigation that will need to be tested and discussed in further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper gives an overview of stone tool management processes identified from the techno-functional analysis of two Northwestern France sites attributed to the end of the Lateglacial. Investigating recycling, secondary use and maintenance processes on these two sites which are very different regarding both site status and raw material availability gives an interesting contrast in how people use their equipment during this period. One of the most significant results is that according to circumstances, the long, large, and regular blades frequently transported from site to site are either specific butchering tool used quite expediently or highly curated tools employed in a variety of tasks. These analyses give food for thought about technological organization changes during the Lateglacial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically considers the use of radiocarbon dates as a demographic proxy for past population. Our goal is not to reject or valid this approach. We even did not focus on the various bias of this approach or on the several correction methods used to reduce them. We rather argue that when trying to interpret 14 C dates in a demographic perspective, it is essential to analyze socio-economic parameters. Studying the case of the Lateglacial Upper Palaeolithic of Southeastern France and Northern Italy, we demonstrate that the use of techno-economic approaches allows discussing this way to interpret the radiocarbon data. From this analysis we argue that a change in the density of dates cannot be simply interpreted in term of demography. We demonstrate that these variations can be the result of changes in the way people organize themselves in a territory. In other word, we argue that mobility patterns are somehow responsible for the density of dates and sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Overlooked in larger European syntheses for some time, northwestern France now plays an important role in a dynamic research program investigating the very end of the Lateglacial in Western Europe. The discovery of the well-preserved open-air site of La Fosse has allowed for significant advances in our understanding of different aspects of the Younger Dryas-Holocene transition in this region. This homogenous lithic assemblage adds further precision to the Lateglacial chrono-cultural sequence and provides essential new information for investigating techno-economic changes that appeared during this period. A techno-functional study of the lithic material combined with a spatial analysis of artifact distribution provides insights concerning the site's function. Several lines of evidence also shed light on occupation duration, activities carried out on-site, and the likely composition of the groups who occupied the site. The combination of the above lead us to interpret La Fosse as a large residential site. Following this, we propose a new mobility and land-use model for hunter-gatherer groups from the Younger Dryas-Preboreal transition in which La Fosse functioned as an aggregation site. This model confirms several previous hypotheses emphasizing the logistical character of mobility strategies of these societies. Finally, this scenario adds further details and precision concerning both the status and connections between different groups of sites within a complex socio-economic system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduce the papers of the JAS Special Issue: Radiocarbon Dating that were presented at the First Frison Institute Symposium at the 2013 Society for American Archaeology annual meeting. Papers here fall into two categories that reflect two growing trends in archaeology: the use of summed probability distributions as measures of human population, and the use of Bayesian statistics to refine radiocarbon age estimates. While caution is required, these two methods combined offer archaeology the possibility of tracking change in the size of human populations through time and across space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archaeological systematics, together with spatial and chronological information, are commonly used to infer cultural evolutionary dynamics in the past. For the study of the Palaeolithic, and particularly the European Final Palaeolithic and earliest Mesolithic, proposed changes in material culture are often interpreted as reflecting historical processes, migration, or cultural adaptation to climate change and resource availability. Yet, cultural taxonomic practice is known to be variable across research history and academic traditions, and few large-scale replicable analyses across such traditions have been undertaken. Drawing on recent developments in computational archaeology, we here present a data-driven assessment of the existing Final Palaeolithic/earliest Mesolithic cultural taxonomy in Europe. Our dataset consists of a large expert-sourced compendium of key sites, lithic toolkit composition, blade and bladelet production technology, as well as lithic armatures. The dataset comprises 16 regions and 86 individually named archaeological taxa ('cultures'), covering the period between ca. 15,000 and 11,000 years ago (cal BP). Using these data, we use geometric morphometric and multivariate statistical techniques to explore to what extent the dynamics observed in different lithic data domains (toolkits, technologies, armature shapes) correspond to each other and to the culture-historical relations of taxonomic units implied by traditional naming practice. Our analyses support the widespread conception that some dimensions of material culture became more diverse towards the end of the Pleistocene and the very beginning of the Holocene. At the same time, cultural taxonomic unit coherence and efficacy appear variable, leading us to explore potential biases introduced by regional research traditions, inter-analyst variation, and the role of disjunct macroevolutionary processes. In discussing the implications of these findings for narratives of cultural change and diversification across the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, we emphasize the increasing need for cooperative research and systematic archaeological analyses that reach across research traditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduce the papers of the QI Special Issue: Climate Change and Archaeology which were presented at the Second Frison Institute Symposium at the 2014 Society for American Archaeology annual meeting. Papers here examine the links between climate and cultural change, calling attention to the difficulty of determining the role played by climate in cultural change. Issues include whether chronological resolution of climate and cultural change is sufficient to determine that the former “caused” the latter. An additional issue is, assuming the chronological correlation is resolved, whether an observed behavioral or technological change can be attributed to climate change, or if the correlation is spurious. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently recognized as part of Final Lateglacial tool-kits, trapezoids remain enigmatic tools. The analytical part of this paper focuses on macro and micro-wear traces observed on Late Laborian trapezoids (GS1-Holocene transition, Atlantic facade) and their meaning from a utilitarian point of view. The consistency in the nature and organization of the traces leads us to interpret these implements as transverse projectile tips. These results confirm previous assumptions and establish the emergence of the Late Laborian trapezoids as an unprecedented innovation, marking a break from previous local weapon technology (points of piercing type and/or lateral inserts). These results provide a starting point to discuss the origin and significance of these artifacts. Their presence in different parts of Europe during the Lateglacial had been tentatively interpreted fifteen years ago as the result of large-scale cultural renewals in a context of progressively milder climatic and environmental conditions. At the current state of research, this diffusionist hypothesis suffers from a lack of geographic, techno-economic and functional continuity. Although techno-functional investigations inevitably raise the question of the target of these projectile points, current data do not provide a precise answer. It is however suggested that variations in stone points type during the Late Laborian was not necessarily related to prey type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, the European archaeological records can be divided into two broad entities – the Epigravettian in the northern Mediterranean Basin and the industries characterized by the return of a well-developed blade technology in northwestern Europe. This large Western European techno-complex comprises several cultural traditions defined essentially by various types of projectile points. One of these cultures, the Laborian, occupies an area at the crossing of northern traditions (Ahrensbourgian) and the Epigravettian techno-complex. Situated between the Azilian and the Mesolithic, the Laborian (ca 12.5–11 Ka cal. BP) is, paradoxically, poorly defined in southwestern France where it was initially defined. In fact, data for this culture is essentially available in the surrounding regions and especially in northern and western France. Revaluation of key Laborian lithic assemblages as well as the discovery of new sites today allow to draw a new picture of the various cultural traditions occupying this large area around 12 Ka cal. BP. Despite the scarcity of data on hunted fauna, we can observe the dominance of the exploitation of large game typical of open temperate landscapes. Osseous industry is also rare but we note the maintenance of bone barbed points in few sites. Artistic. conventions (engraved pebbles or bones) show several symbolic innovations, such as the development of a unique zoomorphic art. Lithic hunting weaponry essentially based around pointed elements, much like during the Azilian, allows to highlight two chronological phases along the Laborian culture: an older phase with straight backed points with truncated bases (Malaurie points) and bitruncated backed blades ("rectangles") and a recent phase with pointed backed bladelets (Blanchères points) and bitruncated trapezoids. The production of large, standardized, straight blades with flat cross-sections during the Laborian reveals clear similarities with concepts recognized in Belloisian collections from Northern France even if blade lengths rarely reach the standards known on these sites. Finally, the technological study of domestic stone tools and hunting weaponry is an effective means for reconstructing larger scale evolution processes influencing these last Pleistocene societies and the persistence of their traditions into the European Mesolithic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper builds on recent research on the abrupt cooling event known as GS1 (Younger Dryas) from ca. 12.9 to 11.7 ka cal. BP. These studies have indicated the diversity of local responses to this period between different regions across Europe. Research has indicated both responses and lack of responses of humans to this event in different regions. In accordance with this research, this paper argues that it is necessary to move away from global models of human responses to the analysis of regional scales. We argue that it is necessary to consider the evolutionary dynamics that predated the GS1 cooling event before identifying its potential impact. This paper focuses on this aspect of the problem by considering evidence from three mountainous areas: the Pyrenees, the northern French Alps and Jura, and lastly southern and Apuan Alps. Recently studied sites are considered with specific attention to lithic industries. Our analysis focuses on (1) the identifiable changes in each industry and (2) the relationship with pre-existing cultural and technological dynamics. The analysis has produced two main results. First, there was a tendency towards a decrease in the standardization of blanks, especially in blades, which was common to the different areas. This change, however, predated GS1 and can therefore not be associated with cooling at the start of GS1. Second, the Northern Alps and Jura, in contrast to the two other areas, seems to reveal a break from the lithic technological traditions that occurred around 12.9 ka cal BP or the early stages of GS1. These results enable a discussion of the different mechanisms that can explain differential regional responses to GS1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]