Biostratigraphic and palaeoenvironmental implications of the Middle Palaeolithic and Chatelperronian occupations of La Tour Fondue site in Chauriat (Puy-de-Dôme, France)

This article presents results of the excavations carried out in 2004 on part of the rock shelter of La Tour Fondue at Chauriat (fig. 1). The aim of this intervention was to specify the chronological and stratigraphic position of the human settlements, to characterize them at a cultural level and to establish the local palaeoenvironment. The sedimentary deposits were more than 3.20 m deep (fig. 5 to 7). They yielded a large quantity of micromammals associated with macrofauna. Studying these provided a bioclimatic and palaeoenvironmental framework that can be divided into five stages, starting at the end of Isotope Stage 5 and ending between Isotope Stages 3 and 2. The Middle Palaeolithic human occupations found in the upper levels occurred during a temperate episode with a cold tendency in Isotope Stage 5 (“Chauriat 1” Stage) and lasted until the “Chauriat 4” Stage at the end of Isotope Stage 3. For their lithic industries, Middle Palaeolithic people used tertiary flints found next to the shelter without considering their quality. These materials were used to obtain flakes in Levallois and discoid production modes. The upper levels contain Chatelperronian and unspecified Upper Palaeolithic occupations. The Chatelperronian took place in a climate correlated with an interstadial at the limit between Stages 3 and 2 (“Chauriat 5” Stage). Chatelperronian people were different than their predecessors in favouring better quality raw materials, found about twenty kilometres from the site. The industries of the upper levels aimed at producing straight and short blades blanks knapped with a soft stone hammer for the Chatelperronians, and long and curved blades blanks knapped with a soft organic hammer for the last occupiers of the shelter.