Etude paléontologique des Artiodactyles de la grotte Tournal (Bize-Minervois, Aude, France): Étude taphonomique, archéozoologique et paléoecologique des grands mammifères dans leur cadre biostratigraphique et paléoenvironnemental

Resumen

The Tournal cave (Bize-Minervois, Aude, France) has yielded remains of Homo Neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens as well as Mousterian, Aurignacian and Magdalenian cultural sequences. Faunal remains highlight large mammal evolution and Neandertal and modern Human subsistence patterns in the Northern Mediterranean environmental context. Palaeontological data from the Artiodactyls confirms a Late Pleistocene context (biozone MNQ26). Ibex remains correlated to oxygen isotope stage 3 (OIS 3) are attributed to Capra caucasica praepyrenaica, while those from levels correlated to OIS 2 may be characterised of Capra pyrenaica. Taphonomic study shows that bone assemblages have been affected by moderate biostratinomic and diagenetic processes with, however, variable conservation from the base to the top of the stratigraphy. Non-anthopic post-depositional alteration is more often observed in Units I and II. Carnivores sometimes gained primary access to bones during OIS 3 and secondarily accessed bones discarded by hominids from Mousterian and Aurignacian occupations. Archaeozoological study suggests that short-term Neandertal and Aurignacian occupations occurred during various seasons throughout the year while seasonal Magdalenian occupations took place from early winter to spring. Hunting often focused on Horse (E. Caballus) and Reindeer (R. Tarandus). Palaeoecological study highlights successive humid/dry variations causing habitat changes. The Variability Size index method (VSI) suggests that Reindeer had an important ecophenotypic adaptation capacity. Human occupation variability is linked to climate change.