THE UISPP JOURNAL
Agnès Lamotte, Philippe Feray, Laurent Deschodt, Pascal Depaepe, Jean-Luc Locht, Pierre Antoine, Thomas Desmadryl – HANDAXES AND LEAFPOINTS INDUSTRIES IN THE MIDDLE PALAEOLITHIC IN NORTHERN FRANCE: STATE OF KNOWLEDGE ON CONTEXTS, CHRONOSTRATIGRAPHY, TYPO-TECHNOLOGY CONSIDERATIONS AND THEIR MEANINGS
In north-eastern France, the recent phases of the Middle Palaeolithic are characterized by lithic facies without bifaces or with bifaces and very rarely with isolated leafpoint artefacts associated with debitage. Bifaces are tools which are found in very different proportions and have different meanings in this large territory. A few rare leafpoint finds have been discovered since the Riencourt-les-Bapaume excavations in 1989, while the number of lithic series attributable to the Mousterian de Tradition acheuléenne is more significant with the Ploisy, St-Amand-les-Eaux and St-Hilaire-sur-Helpe sites. No prondnicks have been discovered since the Mont-Beuvry discoveries. Prondnicks and leafpoints are a marginal phenomenon that shows that Neanderthals from eastern and/or central Europe have only very occasionally occupied or set foot northern France, but little more in eastern France where such tools are much more present. With each climatic fluctuation, the settlement patterns have probably found a different origin and a more or less extensive north/south or east/west deployment. The time has come to review the characterization of cultural groups from the late Middle Paleolithic over a geographical area ranging from the plains to the plateaus of Burgundy-Franche-Comté towards the Hauts-de-France region.
Reference as:
Lamotte A, Feray P, Deschodt L, Depaepe P, Locht J-L, Antoine P, Desmadryl T. 2021. Handaxes and leafpoints industries in the Middle Palaeolithic in northern France: state of knowledge on contexts, chronostratigraphy, typo-technology considerations and their meanings. UISPP Journal 3(2), pp 1–22. https://doi.org/10.62526/ULJ65B
