The Lateglacial in the Atlantic Arc: Technical, socio-economic and graphical interactions between Human and Animal communities during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition (14500 - 11000 cal BP). – TAIHA

In several regions of Western Europe, the end of the Pleistocene witnessed a recomposition of biocenoses through the replacement of cold and steppe species by so-called temperate fauna. This process did not have the same rhythm, nor the same impacts, according to North-South and East-West gradients. Between 14500 and 11000 cal. BP, while the Iberian Peninsula shows by example the maintenance of a temperate biocenosis throughout the period, a recomposition occurs in particular in Atlantic France and further north, on the shores of the future English Channel, we observe a persistence of periglacial species in the beginning of the Holocene. At the same time, the technical, social and symbolic behaviors inscribed in the equipment and graphic expressions evolve. Rapid climatic and environmental changes most likely had varying impacts on the technical, economic, and graphic interaction patterns between human communities and certain elements of the environment.

The TAIHA project "Le Tardiglaciaire dans l’Arc Atlantique : Interactions techniques, socio-économiques et graphiques entre communautés Humaines et Animales durant la transition Pléistocène-Holocène (14500 – 11000 cal BP) " aims to interrogate this variability of techno-economic and graphic behaviors at the interface between human and animal communities. On the scale of the Atlantic Arc, the space studied here benefits from a longitudinal and latitudinal gradient of climatic variations and biocenoses. On a macro-regional scale (comparison of four subsets: northwestern Spain, western half of France and England), the confrontation of human behaviors and other environmental data makes it possible to question spatial variations and arrhythmias that need to be interpreted in the light of more precise local records. It is at the scale of the sites that it becomes possible to apprehend more precisely the spatio-temporal dynamics of these changes. The project thus aims for the first time to decompartmentalize disciplines. For this, it will be a question of combining petro-archaeological, techno-typological and use wear studies of lithic and bone tools and hunting weapons, involved in the acquisition and transformation of animals, but also archaeozoological analyses and paleoecological analyses with the study of graphic expressions. 14C dating on species or objects targeted in a controlled stratigraphic position will make it possible to calibrate the events described in time and synchronize human occupations with the global environmental framework. The corpus is composed of nine key sites spread from England to Spain. They correspond either to open-air occupations or to caves and shelters whose archaeostratigraphic reliability is already, or will be within the framework of the project, controlled by means of taphonomic approaches. The key sites will be the subject of in-depth analyses of lithic and bone elements, but also of decorated pieces. More targeted analyses will be carried out on several sites for which work has already been carried out on certain records. Finally, other sites will be consulted in the form of diagnostics, particularly in the context of methodological and taxonomic discussions.

The corpus is composed of 9 key sites spread between England and Spain which will be studied in an exhaustive way and 40 comparison sites will feed the project thanks to studies of targeted registers (lithic analysis, bone industry, fauna, mobile art...) or collective diagnoses on certain specific questions.

The TAIHA project will allow the consolidation of a network of researchers already involved but never gathered around the questioning of the different modalities of Human-Environment interaction. The scientific group mainly brings together archaeologists, specialists in lithic industries, bone industry and graphic behavior. These members, who come from various institutions, will be brought together within two partners: UMR 5199 PACEA in Bordeaux and UMR 7264 CEPAM in Nice.