Université Paris 1 - Panthéon-Sorbonne, UMR 7041, ArScAn Équipe Archéologies environnementales, Maison Archéologie & Ethnologie (MAE), René-Ginouvès, 21, allée de l'Université, 92 023 Paris, Nanterre Cedex, France.
Aix Marseille Univ, UMR 7269, LAMPEA, Maison méditerranéenne des sciences de l'homme, 5, rue du Château de l'Horloge, B.P. 647, 13 094 Aix-en-Provence Cedex 2, France.
J Hum Evol. 2017 Nov;112:70-78. doi: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2017.07.016. Epub 2017 Oct 3.
Soot marks, witnesses of past human activities, can sometimes be noticed in concretions (speleothem, travertine, carbonated crust, etc.) formed in cavities. We demonstrate here that these deposits, generally ignored in archaeological studies, turned out to be a perfectly suitable material for micro-chronological study of hominin activities in a site. At the Grotte Mandrin (Mediterranean France), thousands of clastic fragments from the rock walls were found in every archaeological level of the shelter. Calcareous crusts containing soot deposits are recorded on some of their surfaces. They appear in thin section as thin black laminae. Microscopic observation of these crusts revealed that they kept track of many occupations. We show that is possible to link them with the archaeological units identified during the excavation. Minimum Number of Occupations (MNO) can be built out of these sooted crusts. MNO are usually high and attest to the cumulative nature of each archaeological unit. They are witnesses of each occupation of hominin groups in each archaeological level of the cave. This study also shows that, in Grotte Mandrin, a very short time separates the first Middle/Upper Paleolithic transitional groups' occupations from those of the last Mousterians. The research perspectives on soot deposits are diversified and raise the possibility of studying multiple aspects of past human life, and in this case, to rethink the Middle/Upper Paleolithic transition, with an unmatched temporal resolution. Sooted concretion analysis provides high temporal resolution archaeology. There is a real possibility of extending this study with chronological implications to cavities of all ages and areas.
煤烟痕迹，是过去人类活动的见证，有时会在洞穴中形成的沉积物（钟乳石、石灰华、碳酸壳等）中被发现。我们在这里证明，这些在考古研究中通常被忽视的沉积物，实际上是研究遗址中人类活动微年代学的完美材料。在法国地中海地区的 Mandrin 洞，在庇护所的每一个考古层都发现了来自岩壁的数千个碎屑碎片。一些表面记录了含有煤烟沉积物的钙质壳。在薄片中，它们呈现出薄的黑色薄片。对这些壳的微观观察表明，它们记录了许多人类活动。我们表明，将它们与挖掘过程中确定的考古单位联系起来是可能的。可以从这些煤烟壳中建立最小职业数量（MNO）。MNO 通常很高，证明了每个考古单位的累积性质。它们见证了洞穴每个考古层中每个人类群体的每次占领。这项研究还表明，在 Mandrin 洞，从中石器时代/旧石器时代过渡期的第一批人类占领到最后一批莫斯特人的占领之间，时间非常短。对煤烟沉积物的研究前景多种多样，提出了研究过去人类生活多个方面的可能性，在这种情况下，重新思考中石器时代/旧石器时代过渡期，具有无与伦比的时间分辨率。煤烟凝结分析提供了高时间分辨率的考古学。有可能通过具有时间意义的关联，将这项研究扩展到所有年龄和地区的洞穴。
