The osseous industry in the Solutrean-Badegoulian transition of Abri Fritsch (Indre, France)
Résumé
Abri Fritsch is located in the Indre area, in the centre of France. The site was discovered in 1957 by A. Fritsch, who directed the excavation first, followed by J. Allain and F. Trotignon over 18 years. The stratigraphy reached three metres and it is composed of rich Solutrean, Early and Late Badegoulian layers. Nowadays, the site is being restudied by different archaeological disciplines to obtain more accurate data from the archaeological remains and reconstruct the way of life at Abri Fritch over time.
In this work, we focus on the Solutrean and Early Badegoulian osseous industry. The aim is to develop a systematic study from a technological point of view to identify and characterise operational schemes on bone and antler. Through the “Refitting by default” method we analysed waste products, blanks, roughouts and objects. It allowed us to observe how raw material was obtained and transformed into a toolkit. Then, we extracted enough economic information to compare both cultural periods from a technical and typological perspective, inferring not only from the employed techniques but from the variability of the manufactured tools and their use in daily life at the Abri Fritsch.