Cultural changes and adaptations to climatic and environmental changes of the last Neanderthals in southern France

• Main Author: Fourcade, Tiffanie
• Other Authors: Archéosciences Bordeaux, Université de Bordeaux (UB)-Université Bordeaux Montaigne (UBM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Environnements et Paléoenvironnements OCéaniques (EPOC), Observatoire aquitain des sciences de l'univers (OASU), Université Sciences et Technologies - Bordeaux 1 (UB)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Sciences et Technologies - Bordeaux 1 (UB)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université Michel de Montaigne - Bordeaux III, Christelle Lahaye, María Fernanda Sánchez Goñi
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: French
• Published: HAL CCSD 2022
• Subjects: Middle Paleolithic; Upper Paleolithic; Deep-sea cores; Palynology; Luminescence; IRSL dating; Western Europe; Lithic technocomplex; Cultures; Neanderthal; HAM; Europe occidentale; Technocomplexes lithiques; Néandertal; Paléolithique moyen récent; Paléolithique supérieur; Carottes sédimentaires marines; Palynologie; Datation IRSL; [SHS.ARCHEO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Archaeology and Prehistory; [SHS.ART]Humanities and Social Sciences/Art and art history; Greenland; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://theses.hal.science/tel-03924503; https://theses.hal.science/tel-03924503v2/document; https://theses.hal.science/tel-03924503v2/file/These_Tiffanie_FOURCADE.pdf

The aim of this work is to improve the temporal resolution of palaeoenvironmental sequences and their chronologies as well as the chronology of the different technocomplexes and cultures of southern France from the end of the Middle Palaeolithic to the beginning of the Upper Palaeolithic. To this end, two multiproxy studies were carried out, using two deep-sea cores from the Bay of Biscay and the Gulf of Lion to reconstruct vegetation and climatic changes in southwestern and southeastern France during Greenland warming and cooling (Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles, D-Os) and North Atlantic cooling events (Heinrich events, HEs). The results show different amplitudes in the forest expansion following D-O warming depending on the latitude and related to different orbital configurations. During the Heinrich Stadials (HSs), the different magnitude of the semi-desert expansion in the two regions appear to be the result of different intensities of the thermohaline circulation and local oceanic processes associated with the instability of the Laurentian cap. IRSL dating of core MD04-2845 and the application of the age-depth model (ChronoModel & ArchaeoPhases) using Bayesian statistics and stratigraphic constraints on both cores has allowed the refinement of the chronologies of environmental changes. The construction of critical archaeological databases for both regions and the application of ChronoModel to the archaeological sequences have improved the timing of technological changes of Neanderthals and Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH) in Western Europe. Despite the improved chronologies, the identification of potential synchronicities remains difficult due to the uncertainties associated with the different chronologies. Nevertheless, this study suggests that the progressive aridification of the landscape during the last ice age favoured the arrival of AMH in Western Europe, leading to competition with Neanderthals for the same ecological niches and producing the disappearance of the latter. Ce travail a pour but ...