Small Specialized Hunting Sites and their Role
in Epigravettian Subsistence Strategies
A case Study in Northern Italy
Marco PERESANI, Rossella DUCHES, Riccardo MIOLO,
Matteo ROMANDINI, Sara ZIGGIOTTI
Download
Abstract
This case study focuses on the debate concerning “hunting camps” (“halte de chasse”). Zooarchaeological, lithic and functional data lead us to interpret the Epigravettian site of Grotta del Clusantin as being linked with activities oriented toward the hunting of rodent colonies living near the site, along with a small number of ungulates. In the context of an advanced occupation of the highlands, this site appears to have been a specialized, perhaps intermittently occupied camp, oriented toward immediate consumption rather than being a part of a structured economic system involving a spatio-temporal division in the exploitation of marmot carcasses. In terms of ecological evolution, the Pradis Plateau can be thus viewed as one of the first hunting basins occupied during the middle Late Glacial interstadial and even shortly after, before the Epigravettian dispersion to other pre-alpine plateaus above 1000 m in altitude. The recent discovery of this marmot hunting camp contributes to our knowledge of hunter-gatherer behavior from the Late Glacial period until the beginning of the Holocene.
To cite this article
Peresani M., Duches R., Miolo R., Romandini M., Ziggiotti S., 2011 – Small Specialized Hunting Sites and their Role in Epigravettian Subsistence Strategies. A case Study in Northern Italy, in Bon F., Costamagno S., Valdeyron N. (eds.), Hunting Camps in Prehistory. Current Archaeological Approaches, Proceedings of the International Symposium, May 13-15 2009, University Toulouse II – Le Mirail, P@lethnology, 3, 251-266.
Issues and perspectives of the Alpine Neolithic:
the case of the Maurienne (Savoie – France)
Éric THIRAULT
Download
Abstract
In this paper, we question the significance of “Alpine” research on the Neolithic, applying both a theoretical and practical approach based on the example of the Maurienne valley (Savoie). The adjective “Alpine”, accompanied by that of “Neolithic”, might have only a geographic sense. We nonetheless believe that it makes an implicit reference to the “Alpine economy”, a concept developed by geographers to describe a modern economic system concentrated on the raising of bovids for the production of cheese. Though comparisons between the modern era and the Neolithic are dangerous, the concept of mobility seems to be a common point and a corollary of that of identity. The necessity of a regional approach led us to conduct research in the high Maurienne, an east-west axial valley on the internal Alps. An ancient, relatively abundant documentation and fieldwork conducted by several volunteer archaeologists shows several occupation points in this territory between 500 and 1500 m in altitude, with a few points as high as 2200 m. The first dated occupations are attributed to the Vasi a Bocca Quadrata culture (2nd half of the Vth millennium BC), but it is not until the Final Neolithic that two excavated sites give insight into the settlement patterns. Information concerning the resources exploited by human groups is rich in this case and reveals regional markers. Therefore, rather than think of an Alpine Neolithic, we prefer to speak of a Neolithic occupation in the Alps.
To cite this article
THIRAULT É., 2009 – Issues and Perspectives of the Alpine Neolithic: the Case of the Maurienne (Savoie – France), P@lethnology, Varia, 398-414.
Archéologie et Sciences humaines
