Homme ou carnivores? Protocole d’étude d’ensembles osseux mixtes: l’exemple du gisement moustérien des Pradelles (Marillac-le-Franc, Charente)

Abstract

In many archaeological assemblages, the presence of traces made by humans and made by carnivores on faunal stocks raise the problem of the role played by these two agents in the accumulation and the modification of bones. This article presents a critical review of the different criteria considered to distinguish hunting from the scavenging by men and carnivores. The Mousterian site of Les Pradelles is analysed on the basis of this synthesis. From this study, it emerges that the anthropic impact on bones decreases from the basis to the summit of the stratigraphical sequence, the inferior levels corresponding to sites of habitat (in a very broad sense) and the upper levels corresponding to dens of carnivores. In the lower levels, the capacity of Neandertals to hunt all sizes of ungulates is clearly demonstrated. This study evidences the necessity to diversify modern approaches so as to document the complexity of archaeological deposits. Finally, it allows one to demonstrate that the refitting method recommended by C. W. Marean (Marean, 1998; Marean & Kim, 1998; Bartram & Marean, 1999) for the determination of diaphysis fragments is not always necessary for the distinction of hunting from scavenging on bone assemblages strongly ravaged by carnivores, the determination of fragments of diaphysis from morphological criteria being, in most of the cases, sufficient.