Cedric Beauval

Note sur la révision des moyens techniques permettant d'acquérir des données anthropométriques en contexte préventif

by Natacha Crépeau, Fanny Chenal, and Cedric Beauval

Bulletins et Mémoires de la Société d'Anthropologie de Paris, 2016

De nombreuses séries ostéoanthropologiques ont été fouillées et étudiées par les membres de la SA... more De nombreuses séries ostéoanthropologiques ont été fouillées et étudiées par les membres de la SARL Archéosphère, société agréée pour la réalisation de fouilles archéologiques préventives de 2005 à 2015. Nous avons engagé sur chacune d'entre elles des analyses ostéométriques plus ou moins approfondies en fonction des problématiques d'étude et de l'état de conservation des restes osseux. Une réflexion s'est alors engagée sur le choix des variables et leur mode d'acquisition sur le terrain comme en laboratoire, afin de concilier les contraintes temporelles et les problématiques de chaque site. Ainsi, les moyens techniques couramment employés (fiches de terrain et base de données) ont été revus, optimisés et testés pour s'adapter au contexte préventif tout en limitant les pertes d'informations et en facilitant le traitement des données. Le développement d'une base de données en réseau a particulièrement contribué à ces améliorations. Nous proposerons en conclusion quelques pistes de réflexion pour perfectionner et diffuser ces outils à d'autres institutions, avec pour objectif d'améliorer l'acquisition des données métriques et leur partage au sein de la communauté scientifique.

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The challenges of identifying partially digested human teeth: first description of Neandertal remains from the Mousterian site of Marillac (Marillac-le-Franc, Charente, France) and implications for palaeoanthropological research

by William RENDU and Cedric Beauval

Paleo, 2017

excavations at the collapsed cave site of Marillac (Marillac-le-Franc, Charente, France) 1 , unco... more excavations at the collapsed cave site of Marillac (Marillac-le-Franc, Charente, France) 1 , uncovered in the lower half of the stratigraphy, a series of Late Pleistocene sedimentological facies containing a MIS 4/3 fauna. Also discovered were Middle Paleolithic artefacts (Quina Mousterian) and numerous fragmentary Neandertal fossils corresponding to a MNI of seven individuals. Analyses of the geomorphology of the eastern locus of the site, of the artefacts and especially of the animal bones of the lower part of the stratigraphy, suggest that over the course of time the site was intermittently used by Neandertals for processing animal carcasses. Cave carnivores appear to have sometimes been involved in scavenging activities of the remains abandoned by humans. Re-examination of two teeth -that were provisionally interpreted as bovid or cervid deciduous incisors by a palaeontologist unfamiliar with Pleistocene mammal fauna -have been identified as Neandertal maxillary permanent incisors. Originally considered as faunal deciduous incisors, what made their identification particularly difficult were the significant modifications to both the crown and roots of these teeth.

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2017 - Encart 6. – Vestiges néandertaliens, sépultures moustériennes et taphonomie : tout (ou presque) reste à faire. . . In Brugal (Ed) "TaphonomieS",

by William RENDU and Cedric Beauval

TaphonomieS, 2017

TaphonomieS Des ossements d'éléphant dans une grotte ; de bison dans un dépôt lacustre ; des rest... more TaphonomieS Des ossements d'éléphant dans une grotte ; de bison dans un dépôt lacustre ; des restes humains et des outils lithiques associés à des fossiles de lions ou d'hyènes… Éléphant cavernicole, bison aquatique, chasseurs ou chassés ? Ces exemples préhistoriques nous interpellent quant à leurs origines et aux associations qu'ils suscitent. Comment ces accumulations du passé touchant un vaste éventail d'objets (faune, flore, productions humaines…) se sont-elles constituées et conservées au cours du temps, durant des centaines, des milliers, ou des millions d'années ? C'est dans cette perspective que se placent les études en taphonomie, largement pluri-et inter-disciplinaires, intégrant de multiples approches scientifiques. L'ouvrage décline ces approches dans le cadre temporel du Quaternaire (les trois derniers millions d'années environ), contemporain de l'apparition et de l'évolution de la lignée humaine et des grandes glaciations de l'hémisphère nord de la planète. Depuis la molécule et la cellule jusqu'aux organismes, parcellaires ou complets, la taphonomie – ou plutôt les « TaphonomieS » –, science plurielle, forme un nouveau champ d'analyses particulièrement fécond et fédérateur. Ce livre a pour objectif à la fois d'en révéler la démarche et de présenter un certain nombre d'études conduites par des équipes françaises. Du passé au présent, et vice-versa, cette « nouvelle » discipline devrait et doit intéresser non seulement tous les chercheurs et étudiants travaillant sur des vestiges du passé selon des reconstitutions systémiques, mais aussi les acteurs actuels de nos sociétés « anthropocènes », productrices de nombreux déchets et vestiges qui nous survivront, on ne sait dans quelles conditions et états… ? L'ouvrage concrétise les travaux du groupement de recherches « Taphonomie, En-vironnement et Archéologie » (TaphEnA) du CNRS-INEE. Divisé en six parties, il regroupe vingt-sept chapitres rédigés par quarante-cinq auteurs de diverses spécialités des sciences de la Terre, de la vie, et des sciences humaines.

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Bones retouchers and site function in the Quina Mousterian: the case of Les Pradelles (Marillac-le-Franc, France)

by Costamagno Sandrine, Marie-Cécile Soulier, Meignen liliane, Cedric Beauval, and William RENDU

The over-representation of faunal remains, the particularity of the carcass processing and the li... more The over-representation of faunal remains, the particularity of the carcass processing and the lithic industry suggest that the Les Pradelles Mousterian site was used as a task specific location dedicated to the exploitation of reindeer, killed in large number during their migrations. This study focuses on Facies 4a, where almost 500 retouchers were recovered. We discuss the place of retouchers in the technical equipment of the hunter-gatherers of Les Pradelles and the significance of their abundance in the context of a site involving short-term occupations for secondary butchery activities. The relatively stringent selection of blanks is most likely related to constraints caused by the use of reindeer bones whose intrinsic qualities were not necessarily optimal for use as retouchers. Despite the high number of available bone remains, some types of bones were routinely exploited, which leads us to suggest a selection of some blanks during the butchery stage rather than a selection of appropriate remains among the butchery waste. Based on comparisons with published experimental data, three major groups of retouchers have been identified and their roles in the preparation of lithic equipment have been established. The over-representation of retouchers compared to the number of abandoned scrapers in the cave attests to the exportation of a significant proportion of the scrapers. The "exported" tools were used either for activities carried out near the site or were part of the toolkit taken away during travel to other locations. These results demonstrate how retouchers help in characterizing the interconnections between the animal exploitation and the lithic tool production technical subsystems .

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Marillac-le-Franc, Les Pradelles

by jean-guillaume bordes and Cedric Beauval

Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société.

Le gisement moustérien des Pradelles (Marillac-le-Franc, Charente): bilan de six années de fouilles (2002-2007)

by jean-guillaume bordes, Pierre GUIBERT, Guillaume Seguin, and Cedric Beauval

Bulletin de liaison et d'information-Association des archéologues; Direction des antiquités Poitou-Charentes, 2010

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Le gisement moustérien des Pradelles (Marilac-le-Franc, Charente) : passé, présent, futur

by jean-guillaume bordes, Alan Mann, and Cedric Beauval

Le gisement moustérien des Pradelles (Marillac-le-Franc, Charente) : passé, présent, futur Résumé... more Le gisement moustérien des Pradelles (Marillac-le-Franc, Charente) : passé, présent, futur Résumé Le gisement des Pradelles se situe sur la rive droite de la Ligonne, sur la commune de Marillac-le-Franc en Charente, à quelques kilomètres à l'est de La Rochefoucauld. C'est entre 1967 et 1980 qu'il est l'objet de véritables fouilles scientifiques dirigées par B. Vandermeersch. Les données recueillies permettront l'obtention de nombreux résultats. En 2001, une équipe scientifique internationale est mise en place pour mener un projet d'étude du gisement et d'exploitation des données anciennes. À l'issue des quatre premières années de fouilles, de nouvelles analyses sédimentolo-giques et stratigraphiques peuvent être présentées. Les résultats obtenus sur le matériel lithique et les vestiges de faune montrent que l'occupation du gisement est corrélée à son évolution géomorphologique. Pour la base du remplissage sédimentaire, le site aurait fonctionné co...

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Carnivore and Neandertal interactions at Les Pradelles site (Charente, Southwest France)

by jean-guillaume bordes, Alan Mann, and Cedric Beauval

HAL - hal.archives-ouvertes.fr, CCSd - Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Direct. Accueil;... more

A late Neandertal femur from Les Rochers-de-Villeneuve, France

by jean-guillaume bordes, Jean-Baptiste Mallye, and Cedric Beauval

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2005

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Problems of Identification and Quantification in Archaeozoological Analysis, Part I: Insights from a Blind Test

by Arianne Boileau and Cedric Beauval

Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 2017

In archaeozoology, counts are generally considered as replicable data that accurately represent t... more In archaeozoology, counts are generally considered as replicable data that accurately represent the initial abundances of elements, individuals, or taxa, although perhaps only at the ordinal scale. However, few studies have tested these assumptions with control data. To improve our knowledge of these issues, we conducted a blind test that involved the analysis of two large experimental samples composed of modern ungulate specimens of known element and taxon. Because the samples differed in level of fragmentation, the blind test provides substantial information on the impact of bone processing on faunal identification and quantification. Our results suggest that Number of Identified SPecimens (NISP) and Minimum Number of Elements (MNE) provide measures of abundance for whole assemblages and for samples limited to non-long bones that are both replicable and accurate at the ratio scale. However, the same metrics generally failed, even at the ordinal level, to predict abundances in analyses restricted to long bones and long bone portions. Given these mixed results, it seems judicious, in agreement with the current majority view among archaeozoologists, to treat faunal tallies as ordinal-level information. Despite issues of reproducibility and the difficulty of aggregating counts with MNE, the blind test also indicates that this measure is more robust at predicting skeletal abundances than NISP. Substantial variations in rates of long bone fragmentation and identification probably explain the poorer performance of NISP in the blind test.

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Problems of Identification and Quantification in Archaeozoological Analysis, Part II: Presentation of an Alternative Counting Method

by Arianne Boileau and Cedric Beauval

Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 2017

Archaeozoologists commonly use Number of Identified SPecimens (NISP) and Minimum Number of Elemen... more Archaeozoologists commonly use Number of Identified SPecimens (NISP) and Minimum Number of Elements (MNE) as measures of anatomical abundances. According to a blind test examining the reproducibility and accuracy of identifications of ungulate remains (Morin et al.), NISP provides estimates of skeletal abundances that are less robust than those based on MNE. However, although results were improved with the latter method, MNE is not free of problems. Here, we show through an analysis of paired NISP-MNE data for 24 classes of elements that MNE is prone to inflate the representation of rare parts (as measured by NISP), a phenomenon more strongly expressed in certain elements than in others. Moreover, some elements show a wide scatter of points, which raises issues of data reproducibility. MNE is also known for being seriously affected by aggregation methods. These fundamental problems severely undermine the value of MNE as a measure of abundance. This article introduces an alternative counting method that avoids many of the weaknesses of MNE. This counting method, called the Number of Distinct Elements (NDE), focuses on the occurrence of pre-determined, invariant landmarks counted on mutually exclusive specimens. Preliminary experimental results suggest that NDE counts are robust predictors of skeletal, and perhaps taxonomic, abundances. Moreover, the NDE approach eliminates the complex and time-consuming task of spreading or drawing specimens to identify fragment overlap. Furthermore, NDE values are additive and easy to calculate. Given these features, the NDE approach represents a compelling alternative to MNE in archaeozoological analysis.

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Neandertal cannibalism and Neandertal bones used as tools in Northern Europe

by Hélène Rougier, Isabelle Crevecoeur, Cedric Beauval, Herve Bocherens, Christoph Wissing, Hans van der Plicht, and Anja Furtwängler

Almost 150 years after the first identification of Neandertal skeletal material, the cognitive an... more Almost 150 years after the first identification of Neandertal skeletal material, the cognitive and symbolic abilities of these populations remain a subject of intense debate. We present 99 new Neandertal remains from the Troisième caverne of Goyet (Belgium) dated to 40,500–45,500 calBP. The remains were identified through a multidisciplinary study that combines morphometrics, taphonomy, stable isotopes, radiocarbon dating and genetic analyses. The Goyet Neandertal bones show distinctive anthropogenic modifications, which provides clear evidence for butchery activities as well as four bones having been used for retouching stone tools. In addition to being the first site to have yielded multiple Neandertal bones used as retouchers, Goyet not only provides the first unambiguous evidence of Neandertal cannibalism in Northern Europe, but also highlights considerable diversity in mortuary behaviour among the region's late Neandertal population in the period immediately preceding their disappearance. Neandertal funerary practices remain at the forefront of palaeoanthropological research, generating heated debates following the revision of old data and new excavations at key sites such as La Chapelle-aux-Saints 1,2 , Roc de Marsal 3 , Saint-Césaire 4 and La Ferrassie 5. More generally, attention has focused on the variability of Neandertal mortuary practices to evaluate their cognitive and symbolic implications, especially as they may provide insights concerning the social systems of this fossil human group 6. Neandertals are known to have buried their dead and are associated with mortuary behaviours that are often difficult to interpret in Palaeolithic contexts. The site of Krapina (Croatia) is an instructive example in this sense. Evidence for cannibalism was first proposed for this site as early as 1901 7 based on the fragmentation and traces of burning from a large collection of early Neandertal remains. This evidence has since been disputed by proponents of alternative explanations for the human bone modifications who argue for natural processes while others maintain that the anthropogenic manipulations are best interpreted in the context of secondary burials 8. Several studies dedicated to cannibalism have proposed that securely identifying anthropogenic modifications related to this practice should incorporate evidence for the

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Neandertal cannibalism and Neandertal bones used as tools in Northern Europe OPEN

by Christoph Wissing, Cedric Beauval, Damien Flas, Herve Bocherens, Hans van der Plicht, Asier Gómez Olivencia, and Anja Furtwängler

Almost 150 years after the first identification of Neandertal skeletal material, the cognitive an... more Almost 150 years after the first identification of Neandertal skeletal material, the cognitive and symbolic abilities of these populations remain a subject of intense debate. We present 99 new Neandertal remains from the Troisième caverne of Goyet (Belgium) dated to 40,500–45,500 calBP. The remains were identified through a multidisciplinary study that combines morphometrics, taphonomy, stable isotopes, radiocarbon dating and genetic analyses. The Goyet Neandertal bones show distinctive anthropogenic modifications, which provides clear evidence for butchery activities as well as four bones having been used for retouching stone tools. In addition to being the first site to have yielded multiple Neandertal bones used as retouchers, Goyet not only provides the first unambiguous evidence of Neandertal cannibalism in Northern Europe, but also highlights considerable diversity in mortuary behaviour among the region's late Neandertal population in the period immediately preceding their disappearance. Neandertal funerary practices remain at the forefront of palaeoanthropological research, generating heated debates following the revision of old data and new excavations at key sites such as La Chapelle-aux-Saints 1,2 , Roc de Marsal 3 , Saint-Césaire 4 and La Ferrassie 5. More generally, attention has focused on the variability of Neandertal mortuary practices to evaluate their cognitive and symbolic implications, especially as they may provide insights concerning the social systems of this fossil human group 6. Neandertals are known to have buried their dead and are associated with mortuary behaviours that are often difficult to interpret in Palaeolithic contexts. The site of Krapina (Croatia) is an instructive example in this sense. Evidence for cannibalism was first proposed for this site as early as 1901 7 based on the fragmentation and traces of burning from a large collection of early Neandertal remains. This evidence has since been disputed by proponents of alternative explanations for the human bone modifications who argue for natural processes while others maintain that the anthropogenic manipulations are best interpreted in the context of secondary burials 8. Several studies dedicated to cannibalism have proposed that securely identifying anthropogenic modifications related to this practice should incorporate evidence for the

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New fossils at the “Troisième caverne” of Goyet (Belgium) and the mortuary practices of late Neandertals

by Isabelle Crevecoeur, Cedric Beauval, and Herve Bocherens

New data from an old site: Neandertals at Goyet (Belgium) and their mortuary behavior

by Isabelle Crevecoeur, Hans van der Plicht, Mietje Germonpré, Cedric Beauval, and Herve Bocherens

Evidence supporting an intentional Neandertal burial at La Chapelle-aux-Saints

by Isabelle Crevecoeur, thierry bismuth, and Cedric Beauval

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

The bouffia Bonneval at La Chapelle-aux-Saints is well known for the discovery of the first secu... more The bouffia Bonneval at La Chapelle-aux-Saints is well known for
the discovery of the first secure Neandertal burial in the early 20th
century. However, the intentionality of the burial remains an issue
of some debate. Here, we present the results of a 12-y fieldwork
project, along with a taphonomic analysis of the human remains,
designed to assess the funerary context of the La Chapelle-aux-
Saints Neandertal. We have established the anthropogenic nature
of the burial pit and underlined the taphonomic evidence of
a rapid burial of the body. These multiple lines of evidence support
the hypothesis of an intentional burial. Finally, the discovery of
skeletal elements belonging to the original La Chapelle aux Saints
1 individual, two additional young individuals, and a second adult
in the bouffia Bonneval highlights a more complex site-formation
history than previously proposed.

Pleistocene Mitochondrial Genomes Suggest a Single Major Dispersal of Non-Africans and a Late Glacial Population Turnover in Europe

by Frederique C Valentin, Isabelle Crevecoeur, Cedric Beauval, and Herve Bocherens

The first Upper Paleolithic human remains from Belgium: Aurignacian, Gravettian and Magdalenian fossils at the “troisième caverne” of Goyet

by Isabelle Crevecoeur, Cedric Beauval, and Herve Bocherens

Insight into the ecology of Neandertals in North-West Europe: stable isotopes and their palaeobiological implications

by Mietje Germonpré, Isabelle Crevecoeur, Cedric Beauval, and Herve Bocherens

Des Néandertaliens à la Troisième Caverne de Goyet (Belgique) et leurs gestes mortuaires

by Isabelle Crevecoeur, Mietje Germonpré, Cedric Beauval, and Herve Bocherens

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