Abstract

An analysis is presented of several Mousterian industries of Acheulian tradition from Western Europe dated to the first half of IOS 3 and manufactured by Neanderthals before the arrival of anatomically modern humans in Europe. It is shown that some behaviours previously thought to be characteristic of recent behaviours associated with anatomically modern humans were in fact shared with another species. Among those are: the variability of Mousterian technologies across time and space; the use of Upper Palaeolithic methods of production immediately prior to the arrival of anatomically modern humans in Europe; and the long-term planning of knapping activities across the territory.

This paper also demonstrates that some of these specific behaviours (the scheduling of lithic tool production within the territory) might eventually have been abandoned by Neanderthals, while others (the use of a volumetric method of producing blanks) were kept alive by them.

These results show that models of the development of behavioural ‘modernity’ have to take into consideration every line of evidence, including the testimony of the behaviour of anatomically non-modern humans. We do not have to consider a priori that anatomically modern humans were better suited or were the only ones capable of behavioural ‘modernity’. On the contrary, it is necessary to demonstrate how they were better adapted than Neanderthals. Evolutionary trajectories might be punctuated, and resulting from a combination of biological and contingent events which created a patchwork of changes.

Résumé

Le lien causal entre la ‘modernité’ culturelle, synthèse des changements comportementaux qui deviendront la norme à la fin du Pléistocène, et la modernité biologique doit être discuté à partir de l'ensemble des documents dont nous disposons. L’étude des comportements des Néandertaliens avant l'arrivée des hommes anatomiquement modernes en Europe, en s'appuyant sur les industries lithique MTA de la première moitié du stade isotopique 3, montre que des comportements d'abord jugés spécifiques de notre espèce ont en fait été partagés avec les Néandertaliens. Elle montre également que certains de ces comportements, comme l'organisation à long terme de l'activité de taille dans le territoire, ont été finalement abandonnés par les Néandertaliens, tandis que d'autres, comme l'utilisation d'une méthode de taille volumétrique, ont été conservés par les mêmes Néandertaliens.