A Material Anecdote But Technical Reality

Abstract

Southwestern France has long played a prominent role in defining Mousterian industries and in the succeeding debates concerning Neandertal lithic production in Western Europe. Current analytical approaches applied to Mousterian industries from the Aquitaine Basin demonstrate technical behaviours previously unknown or poorly documented. These relate mainly to the existence of Mousterian lithic micro-productions. Concerning this particular technical domain, this article discusses Mousterian industries with concrete evidence of bladelet and short blade production. These industries come from the well-known site of Combe-Grenal (Dordogne, southwest France). Long implicated in the history of research on the Mousterian, current investigations yield new results concerning the realization of bladelet productions before the final Middle Paleolithic and, by extension, before the regional transitional phase to the Upper Paleolithic.