L’abri sous-roche du Rozel (France, Manche) : un habitat de la phase récente du Paléolithique moyen dans son contexte géomorphologique

• Main Authors: van Vliet-Lanoë, Brigitte, Cliquet, Dominique, Auguste, Patrick, Folz, Elise, Keen, David, Schwenninger, Jean-Luc, Mercier, Norbert, Alix, Philippe, Roupin, Yves, Meurisse, Murielle, Seignac, Hélène
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: French
• Published: Association française pour l’étude du quaternaire 2009
• Subjects: aurochs; cervidés; Cotentin; débitage laminaire volumétrique; dune; environnement tempéré; foyers; habitat; Levallois; morse; Paléolithique moyen; plage; quartz; silex; blade volumetric industry; Cotentin peninsula; dears; flint; hearths; middle Palaeolithic; occupation layers; raised beach; temperate environment; walrus; wild oxen; archeo; hist; Flint; Morse; Raised Beach; Subarctic; walrus*
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/quaternaire/826

Located on the Western coast, the Rozel provided an archaeological complex characterized by two occupation levels. The shelter has preserved traces of a habitat with combustion structures, lithic tools, and faunal remains, an exception on the Cotentin peninsula. The settlement is located in littoral dune upon a complex raised beach.Initially attributed to an Early Perigordian occupation, this site has been reinvestigated from a stratigraphic and cultural point of view. The Rozel shelter is the only occupation in the region presenting a mixed lithic industry. The raw materials used for tools are vein quartz found inside the shelter, and flint cobbles from the active gravel ridges. The successive gravels ridges raised step by step during the weichselian regression were rapidly buried by drift dune sands limiting exploitation of there high content of suitable flint knapping nodules. In the two occupation layers “debitage” seems to be oriented to the production of predeterminated flakes (manly Levallois technique) and elongated flakes. An operating procedure ‘laminaire de type paléolithique supérieur’, has been revealed in the upper floor, in relation with the main occupation of the site. Le Rozel is an integral part of the series if sites presenting volumetric blade industries from the beginning of the Weichselian. The preserved fauna attests of mostly temperate environments dominated by wild ox, deer and some horses. The particular interest of this site is the occurrence of a fragment of walrus bone in association with the occupation attesting of temporary subarctic climatic conditions. Analysis of the faunal remains attests to various slaughtering and butchering techniques indicating different methods used according to species. All these multidisciplinary approaches assign all of Le Rozel shelter occupations to the beginning of the Weichselian, not to the Early Upper Palaeolithic. Situé sur la côte ouest du Cotentin (Manche), le site du Rozel a livré un complexe de deux niveaux d’occupations anthropiques. ...