New insights into the study of past populations: archeozoology and cementochronology in the Middle Palaeolithic / Audrey Roussel

New insights into the study of past populations: archeozoology and cementochronology in the Middle Palaeolithic / Audrey Roussel, in colloque "1st Virtual Conference for Women Archaeologists and Paleontologists. Nouveaux apports à l’étude des populations et environnements passés" organisé par le laboratoire Travaux et Recherches Archéologiques sur les Cultures, les Espaces et les Sociétés (TRACES) de l’Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès et le laboratoire Paléontologie Évolution Paléoécosystèmes (PALEVOPRIM) de l'Université de Poitiers, sous la responsabilité scientifique de Julie Bachellerie, Ana Belén Galán López (Traces), Émilie Berlioz et Margot Louail (Palevoprim). Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès, 8-9 mars 2021. [Conférence enregistrée à distance].
Session 3 : Exploitation of natural resources and raw materials, subsistence strategies.

The upper Middle Paleolithic is marked by climatic changes of great amplitude (glacial and interglacial periods) which have affected the environment of human communities living in Western Europe and, consequently, their behavior. The problems of group organization in the face of seasonal variations in resources in the environment (seasonality) and spatial variations in biotopes (territorial mobility) are therefore central to our understanding of their lifestyles. In recent years, archaeological research has led to questioning models based on the hypothesis of opportunistic practices of big game exploitation, with little planning, in favor of more complex strategies (collective and specialized hunts, storage and deferred consumption). South of France is rich of archaeological sites and many dynamics of the research carried out there. Is a particularly interesting space to apprehend the rhythms and ruptures in the adaptations ofpast prehistoric societies in the face of environmental changes and for identifying adaptive responses on a regional scale. To provide new answers to these problems, the approach used in this doctoral work combines classic archeozoological methods (demography, transport, seasonality) with a technique for microscopic analysis of animal teeth, cementochronology. This method provides more precise information on the biological ages of individuals and their seasonality of slaughter.
The results presented here are based on the study of the dental remains of ungulates (deer, fallow deer, ibex, aurochs, and bison) from the Canalettes (Aveyron), Rescoundudou (Aveyron) and Mandrin (Drôme) sites. Through this study, we propose a reflection onour current knowledge of this prehistoric period, as well as the contribution of new methods to our understanding of faunal assemblages of anthropic origin.