Upper Pleistocene Loess-Palaeosols Records from Northern France in the European Context: Environmntal Background and Dating of the Middle Palaeolithic - Archive ouverte HAL Accéder directement au contenu
Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2014

Upper Pleistocene Loess-Palaeosols Records from Northern France in the European Context: Environmntal Background and Dating of the Middle Palaeolithic

Résumé

In Northern France the loess cover from the Last Glacial (Weichselian) is represented by a subcontinuous cover rising up to 8-9 m in thickness in the best locations as leeward slopes (E-NE exposition). In this large area, pedostratigraphic sequences from the Last Interglacial-glacial cycle (Eemian-Weichselian) have been intensely studied, especially in the frame of very active rescue archaeological programs that have provided hundreds of individual sequences from test-pits or excavations. In spite of variations in the thickness of the different stratigraphic units, driven by differences in geomorphological contexts and in location of the profiles regarding to sources of aeolian material, the pedostratigraphic sequences from the last Interglacial-glacial cycle exhibit a particularly constant pedosedimentary pattern including well identified pedological and periglacial marker horizons that can be followed towards the East in Belgium, in Germany and even in Central-Europe. The main objective of the presentation is to propose a summary of the pedostratigraphic sequence from Northern France and a global correlation scheme with surrounding areas. The great homogeneity that is evidenced in the response of Western European environments to rapid climatic changes provides a solid base for the discussion of relations between man, climate and environment since the Eemian Interglacial. In Northern France, the synthesis of the observations carried out on no more than 80 sequences during the last 20 years allows to draw a highly detailed pedostratigraphic and chronostratigraphic scheme that represents a unique database to discuss the relations between Palaeolithic occupations and environment. This frame can be summarised by the succession of four main chrono-climatic phases that follow the erosion of the interglacial brown leached soil (Eemian) during MIS 5d: 1. Early-glacial (112-72 ky): including a phase with grey forest soils (Early-glacial A: ~MIS 5a-5d GIS interstadials 21-24) and a phase with steppe-like soils (Early-glacial B: end of MIS 5a GIS 19 & 20). 2. Lower Pleniglacial (~70-58 ky): first typical homogeneous loess deposits marking the first occurrence of typical periglacial conditions. 3. Middle Pleniglacial (~ 58-30 ky): intense and short erosive episode (thermokarst)/deposition of thick body of bedded colluviums reworking the whole underlying units/development of a soil, or of a soil complex (Saint-Acheul-Villiers-Adam Complex) during most of MIS 3. 4. Upper Pleniglacial (~30-15 ky): main network of large ice-wedge casts/drastic acceleration of loess sedimentation (mainly between 27 and 22 ky) including tundra-gley horizons and large Ice wedge casts. In this context, the data concerning the last climatic cycle (Eemian-Weichselian) show that Human occupation of Northern France was clearly discontinuous, with a clear concentration of remains during the Early-glacial in forest-steppe contexts developed under continental climate. Only a few occupations were attributed to the Lower Pleniglacial and to the course of the MPGL. A total abandon of the region is attested between ca. 25 and ca. 15 ky mainly during the period of maximal loess deposition. Given these results there appears to be a strong relationship between the intensity of human occupation and the climatic and environmental context. This relationship appears to be conditioned by the relative abundance of large fauna, itself linked to vegetation density, as indicated by the extremely sparse biomass contemporaneous with the UPGL loess.
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Dates et versions

hal-02335880 , version 1 (28-10-2019)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-02335880 , version 1

Citer

Pierre Antoine, Sylvie Coutard, Emilie Goval, David Hérisson, Jean‑luc Locht, et al.. Upper Pleistocene Loess-Palaeosols Records from Northern France in the European Context: Environmntal Background and Dating of the Middle Palaeolithic. Middle Palaeolithic in North-West Europe : Mutidisciplinary Approaches, Kévin di Modica; Stéphane Pirson; Michel Toussaint; Grégory Abrams; Dominique Bonjean, Mar 2014, Namur, Belgium. ⟨hal-02335880⟩
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