Nouvel essai de synthèse sur le Paléolithique moyen alsacien

• Published in: Revue Archéologique de l’Est
• Main Authors: Héloïse KOEHLER, Simon DIEMER, Olivier MOINE, Patrice WUSCHER
• Format: Article
• Language: French
• Published: Société archéologique de l’Est 2020-11-01
• Subjects: Alsace; lithic industry; Mousterian; Middle Paleolithic (350; 000 /35; 000 BP)
• Online Access: https://journals.openedition.org/rae/13458

Relative to other regions, few Middle Paleolithic sites have been identified in Alsace. In recent years, archaeological and geoarchaeological studies have attempted to remedy this situation. This research, initiated in 2011 and synthesized in the collaborative research program “PaléoEls” since 2015, aims to re-study existing data and to explore new Paleolithic and Mesolithic sites in the context of both research and preventive archaeology operations. This work has led to a new synthesis of the Middle Paleolithic, which is summarized in this article. This summary presents the current state of research and will surely evolved as new discoveries are made. The Middle Paleolithic sites are located along the edge of the Rhine Plain in varied contexts and at highly variable depths, sometimes on the surface, sometimes deeply buried. The “historic” sites of Mutzig and the Achenheim-Hangenbieten quarries provide the most information, which is then completed by new discoveries. At present, most of the occupations are attributed to : 1) the early phase of the Middle Paleolithic, contemporary with the Saalian and sometimes dating to the Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 9, and : 2) to the early Weichselian glaciation, i.e. SIMs 5d to 5a. On the other hand, no site is clearly attributed to the Lower or Middle Pleniglacial periods, contemporary with SIMs 4 and 3, even if contemporary sedimentary layers were identified. The study of the lithic industries led to the formulation of chrono-cultural hypotheses concerning the settlement dynamics of Neandertals in northwestern Europe.