Alpine chough Pyrrhocorax graculus from Pleistocene sites between Pyrenees and Alps: Natural versus Cultural Assemblages.
Résumé
This paper deals with the question of human exploitation of Alpine chough Pyrrhocorax graculus in the South of France during the Palaeolithic. According to the ethological features of this little corvid, special attention is paid to the determination of the taphonomical history of each bone assemblage. Analytical tools that can serve to answer this question are presented and criticized. Ten assemblages serve to support the methodological approach and improve the knowledge of prehistoric hunter-gatherers use of birds. In the state of the art, the oldest evidence of exploitation of Chough comes from the Middle and Upper Magdalenian.