Apogée et déclin de la méthode Yubetsu. Les débitages lamellaires par pression dans le Nord Pacifique lors du peuplement du Nouveau Monde (de la fin du Pléistocène au début de l’Holocène)

• Published in: Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française
• Main Author: Gómez coutouly, Yan axel
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: French
• Published: Paris : Société Préhistorique Française 2018
• Subjects: peopling of the New World; Pressure flaking knapping; microblades; North Pacific; lamelles; Nord Pacifique; peuplement du Nouveau Monde; débitage par pression; archeo; socio; Bering Strait; British Columbia; Canada; Kolyma; Pacific; Kamchatka; Yakutia; Alaska; Siberia
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3406/bspf.2018.14858; https://www.persee.fr/doc/bspf_0249-7638_2018_num_115_1_14858

This research is based on a doctoral thesis on the diffusion of microblade technology in the North Pacific, from the Far East to its dispersal to Canada through Siberia and Alaska. This is a pioneering work where, for the first time, distant and difficult-to-access collections from both sides of the Bering Strait have been systematically studied using the same analytical protocol. The progression of pressure-flaked microblade knapping has been tracked, from its origin in the Far East about 25,000 years ago until its diffusion to Canada. Pressure-flaked microblades are a privileged marker allowing migrations and interactions of prehistoric human groups to be witnessed, and are here used to follow the progression of these industries to North America within the context of the initial colonization of the New World. Indeed, few tool types or techniques allow such traceability. It is precisely for this reason that, as early as the 1930s, N. C. Nelson suggested for the first time a possible cultural connection between Asia and America, based on the similarities between microblade cores from Shabarakh Usu in Mongolia and the Campus site in Alaska. Since then, numerous studies have been carried out on microblade industries in north-east Asia and north-western America, including the pioneering work of M.-L. Inizan, who recognized the culturally relevant character of tracking the progression of the pressure technique for producing microblades. In this article, we analyse region by region the microblade components, distribution and the knapping methods used for the production of pressure-flaked microblades (Yubetsu method, Horoka method, Campus method, etc.), discussing in particular the diffusion (or non-diffusion) of certain methods. The analysis was made through the direct study of 24 collections dated between c. 22000 and 9000 cal. BP from the Russian Far East (Primorye), Siberia (Yakutia, Kolyma, Tchoukotka and Kamchatka) and north-western North America (Alaska and British Columbia), as well as some younger materials ...