Le Closeau revisited. New data and new approaches to the Final Azilian occupations at Closeau (Rueil-Malmaison, Hauts-de-Seine, France).
Le Closeau revisité. Actualités et perspectives autour des occupations de l’Azilien récent du Closeau (Rueil-Malmaison, Hauts-de-Seine, France)
Résumé
The discovery of the site of Closeau in the mid-1990s turned our knowledge of post-Magdalenian societies in the Paris basin
upside down. Up until then, all the data were from sites situated on the fringes of this region (the Somme Valley: Coudret and Fagnart 2015;
Normandy: Ambenay, Gouy: Valentin 1995 ; Fosse, Valentin et Billard 1997; Valentin, Fosse et Billard 2004; Seuil du Poitou: Le Bois Ragot,
Chollet and Dujardin dir. 2005). Level III.1 of Pincevent, positioned in the first part of the Allerød by C14, was one of the exceptions concerning
the discovery and the excavation of an occupation level attributed to the Azilian (Gaucher dir. 1996; Bodu, Orliac, Baffier 1996). Thus, the
excavation of Closeau, with 79 loci explored over 29,000 m², comprising occupations from the end of the Bølling until the recent Dryas,
profoundly modified our perception of this phase. In view of the potential of the site, the numerous works on Tardiglacial societies, conducted
over the past fifteen years (Langlais 2010; Naudinot 2010; Mevel in press; Valentin 2008,…), the abundant university studies on the occupations
of Closeau (Biard 2004; Debout 2000; Dessoles 2010; Kildea 1996; Mauger 2008; Mevel 2003; Thomas 2016; Teyssandier 2000), it is now
possible to apply a palethnographic approach to the occupations of this site, as was attempted during the 1998 monograph report (Bodu dir.
1998 and also Bodu 1995a, 1995b, 2000a, 2000b, 2003; Bignon and Bodu 2006). Based on abundant previously acquired data, on significant
ongoing intra and inter locus refitting, we can now legitimately undertake a discussion of the social and economic organization of
Azilian populations in the northern half of France. In sum, we can now consider a wide-scale Azilian palethnography. Here, we present the first
results of an analysis highlighting the technical variability of the industries attributed to the Allerød Azilian and the consequences of this on the
periodization of this technical tradition. In order to do so, we will analyze in detail several loci between the so-called intermediate “levels” and
the indeterminate levels of the site. Several assemblages present very different operational sequences, which are sometimes spatially
disjointed within the same loci.
- Do these represent diachronic occupations within zones artificially delimited by the excavation?
- Do they, on the contrary, denote levels with different technicity – linked for example to diversified, strictly contemporaneous production aims?
- Do these data nuance the somewhat caricatural perception we have of the Azilian and its evolution throughout time?
- Do these data lead to a more marked hierarchization of the Azilian in comparison to previous assumptions, particularly through the
identification of an intermediary marker?
In order to discuss the variability of the Azilian industries contemporaneous with the Allerød, we considered several assemblages attributed to
the “indeterminate” level (loci 25, 36 and 41) and the “intermediate” level (loci 34 and 51) (fig.1). These levels were named in this way as they
present “intermediate” technical characteristics between the Early Azilian and the Recent Azilian, and because the first observations of the
lithic material from the “indeterminate” level in 1998 were inconclusive as to an Azilian chronological attribution. This presentation is far from
exhaustive, but nonetheless highlights the technical diversity of the Azilian occupations attributed to the Allerød at Closeau (fig. 2). It also
emphasizes the difficulty of finding evidence of installations in fossilized occupations dating from between the end of the Azilian (Allerød/Recent
Dryas transition?) and the Belloisian (Recent Dryas /Preboreal transition?). Although the lithic productions of other assemblages are consistent,
nothing allows us, for the time being, to consider that they are contemporaneous with the “Laborian” occupation. In fact, we can call into
question the technical unity of the Belloisian phenomenon, as it was described in different works (Naudinot 2010; Biard and Hinguant 2014;
Valentin, Weber, Bodu 2014) and raise the question of the existence of intermediate markers in the Paris basin between the end of the Azilian
and the Early Dryas/Preboreal transition. Meanwhile, we can only underline the technical diversity of the lithic industries attributed to the
Allerød. For the moment, their position in the Azilian chronology remains complex. The attribution of the most simplified productions to the most
recent is based on a relative evolutive chronology which still requires clarification in the centre of the Paris basin. We observed that several
loci present levels with different technical complexity. This may be linked to diachronic occupations in these different loci, but they could also
represent levels with different skills, and may be related to different production projects, at one or several stages of the Azilian. The series from
loci 34 and 51 are clearly original in relation to the other, presumably contemporaneous assemblages. Although for now, it is fitting to remain
cautious as to their positon in the chronology, the existence of assemblages with regular blades and bladelets fossilized in the channel clearly
points to the existence of several phases during the Allerød. At Closeau, there are other assemblages with the same technical traits, but it is
also important to compare them to the well stratified sequences in the North of France in order to calibrate the Azilian and post-Azilian
occupations of Closeau.
Le gisement du Closeau (Rueil-Malmaison, Hauts-de-Seine) est le gisement de référence pour la fin du Tardiglaciaire du nord de la
France. La répartition, au sein de plusieurs horizons stratigraphiques, de 79 concentrations de vestiges permet d’envisager avec une certaine
acuité la compréhension des mutations techniques, économiques et sociales qui marquent les sociétés humaines depuis la fin du Bølling (niveau
inférieur) jusqu’à l’extrême fin du Dryas récent (secteur sud RN13). Les problématiques sous-jacentes aux derniers temps de l’Azilien sont
expressément posées au Closeau par la présence d’au moins une unité d’occupation attribuée au Laborien (Locus 25 : Bodu dir. 1998 ;
Bodu 2000 ; Debout 2000), localisée dans un horizon stratigraphique où l’on retrouve également des concentrations plutôt d’affinités aziliennes
(locus 36, 41, 45 pour les principales). D’ailleurs, si l’on se penche sur ces assemblages, on ne peut que relever la diversité des comportements
techno-économiques qui les caractérisent (Bodu dir. 1998 ; Kildea 1998 ; Debout 2000 entre autres références). Dans le cadre de cet article,
nous souhaitons rediscuter de la diversité des tendances techno-économiques des assemblages localisés stratigraphiquement au sommet des
dépôts sableux de l’Allerød. D’une part en proposant une synthèse des données déjà acquises (cadres chronologique, stratigraphique, études
lithiques) et, d’autre part, en présentant des données inédites collectées à partir de l’étude des séries lithiques des locus 36 et 34 qui ont livré
des assemblages se démarquant nettement de la majorité des concentrations attribuées à l’Azilien récent du Closeau.
Origine : Fichiers éditeurs autorisés sur une archive ouverte