Bone retouchers and site function in the Quina Mousterian : the case of Les Pradelles (Marillac-le-Franc, France)

Abstract

The over-representation of faunal remains, the particularities of carcass processing and the lithic industry suggest that Les Pradelles Mousterian site was used as a task specific location dedicated to the exploitation of reindeer, killed in large numbers during their migrations. 700 bone retouchers were identified in association with the numerous reindeer remains. Thus, we investigate the anthropological meaning of the presence of such a large set of retouchers in the particular context of a hunting camp. We focus our study on the four main stratigraphic units (2a, 2b, 4a, 4b) and compare the corpus to the different patterns of the lithic industry from the same units. Comparisons with other Mousterian sites attributed to Quina or different techno-complexes underline the specificity of Les Pradelles. The integration of the zooarchaeological and technological data to the site context (notably its topography) raises hypotheses on the use of the site by Neanderthal populations

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