Découverte d’une dent perforée de Lynx boréal dans les niveaux gravettiens de la grotte de Gargas (Hautes-Pyrénées, France).
Résumé
The Gargas Cave is a key site for the Gravettian in Europe because of its exceptional rock art and its rich archaeological filling. This site was excavated between the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century. A new research program started in 2004, the main aim of which is to establish a precise chronological and cultural frame for the Gravettian levels of the cave. New excavations were made from 2004 to 2012. They allow discovering a tooth of a Eurasian lynx that was pierced. This paper deals with the taxonomical identification and the technical description of this tooth, which is also studied within the context of the production of body ornaments from Gargas cave. A skull of Eurasian lynx from the Pyrenees, which is a part of the collections of the Museum of Natural History of Toulouse, was used as specimen in order to determine specifically this ornament, which is, for the moment, the unique remain of lynx recognized for this site. The documentation about discoveries of Lynx lynx remains within the Pyrenean region is also mentioned.