Régismont-le-Haut open-air-site provides interesting insights into daily camp organisation during dominance of the Aurignacian stone tool industry

Régismont-le-Haut, an Aurignacian open-air campsite, provides an occasion to investigate aspects of Aurignacian site variability that are rarely broached: (1) the relatively poorly known area connecting the Aquitaine and Mediterranean Basins, and (2) the high-resolution spatial organization of an Early Upper Palaeolithic campsite.

While more difficult to integrate directly into chronological models of Aurignacian evolution, mostly derived from stratified rock-shelter and cave sites from the northern Aquitaine Basin, it is argued that studying open-air sites like Régismont-le-Haut can furnish detailed information that rock shelter/cave sites cannot, therefore providing critical building blocks and possible reading keys to help reconstruct prehistoric circulation systems and marry synchronic and diachronic perspectives on variability.

A detailed description of the geomorphological and sedimentary context, as well as the differing materials and activities (lithic industry and use-wear, faunal remains, mineral colouring materials, personal ornamentation, limestone blocks, fireplaces) that occur on-site, is provided. A summary of activities occurring in two complementary loci ensues, followed by a preliminary spatial reading of one of the primary domestic units. The contemporaneity of the two loci is then treated, and the article finishes with a discussion regarding how Régismont-le-Haut fits both diachronically and synchronically within the Aurignacian.

Insights into Aurignacian daily life and camp organization: The open-air site of Régismont-le-Haut

Lars Anderson, Mathieu Lejaya, Jean-Philip Brugal, Sandrine Costamagno, Claire Heckel, Marinade Araujo Igreja, Jean-Victor Pradeau, Hélène Salomon, Farid Sellami, Isabelle Théry-Parisot, Carolyn Barshay-Szmidt, Romain Mensana, François Bon

DOI: 10.1016/j.quaint.2018.04.034

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