Encyclopedia of Prehistory, Volume 4, Europe

space) two children, buried head to head, were adorned with thousands of mammoth ivory beads, pendants, bracelets, and fine stone and ivory weapons. The Sungir burials are contemporary with or perhaps even older than the Perigordian of western Europe. Several modest (e.g., grave goods such as flint tools, worked bone items, occasional ivory beads, or seashells) burials from the preceding Aurignacian age and subsequent late Upper Paleolithic have been found in this area, but none has been unequivocally assigned to the Perigordian.

Suggested Readings

Bernaldo de Quiros, Federico (1982). Los Inicios del Paleolitico Superior Cantabrico. Santander: Centro de Investigacion y Museo de Altamira, Monografias.

Bordes, Fran90is (1968). "La Question perigordienne." In La Prehistoire: probtemes et tendences. Paris: Editions du Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique, 59-70.

David, Nicholas, and Harvey M. Bricker (1987). "Perigordian and Noaillian in the Greater Perigord." In The Pleistocene Old World: Regional Perspectives, ed. O. Soffer. New York: Plenum, 237-250.

Delpech, Fran90ise (1993). 'The Fauna of the Early Upper Paleolithic: Biostratigraphy of Large Mammals and Current Problems in Chronology." In Before Lascaux: The Complex Record of the Early Upper Paleolithic, ed. H. Knecht, A. Pike-Tay, and R. White. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 71-84.

Delporte, Henri (1993). "Gravettian Female Figurines: A Regional Survey." In Before Lascaux: The Complex Record of the Early Upper Paleolithic, ed. H. Knecht, A. Pike-Tay, and R. White. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 243-247.

Harrold, Francis (1989). "Mousterian, Chatelperronian, and Early Aurignacian in Western Europe: Continuity or Discontinuity?" In

The Human Revolution: Behavioural and Biological Perspectives on the Origins of Modern Humans, ed. P. Mel1ars and C. Stringer. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 677-713.

Knecht, Heidi (1991). "Technological Innovation and Design during the Early Upper Paleolithic: A Study of Organic Projectile Technologies." Ph.D. diss., Department of Anthropology, New York University (University Microfilms, Ann Arbor).

Lavil1e, Henri, Jean-Philippe Rigaud, and James Sackett (1980). Rock Shelters of the Perigord: Geological Stratigraphy and Archaeological Succession. New York: Academic Press.

Mel1ars, Paul (1989). "Major Issues in the Emergence of Modern Humans." Current Anthropology 30: 349-385.

Otte, Marcel (1984). "Paleolithique superieur en Belgique." In Peuples Chasseurs de la Belgique Prehistorique dans Leur Cadre Naturel, ed. D. Cahen and P. Haesaerts. Brussels: Patrimoine de J'Institue royal des Sciences naturel1es de Belgique, 157-179.

Peyrony, Denis (1934). "La Ferrassie: Mousterien, Perigordien, Aurignacien." Prehistoire 3: 1-92.

Pike-Tay, Anne (1993). "Hunting in the Upper Perigordian: A Matter of Strategy or Expedience?" In Before Lascaux: The Complex Record of the Early Upper Paleolithic, ed. H. Knecht, A. Pike-Tay, and R. White. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 85-99.

Rigaud, Jean-Philippe (1988). 'The Gravettian Peopling of Southwestern France. Taxonomic Problems." In Upper Pleistocene Prehistory of Western Eurasia, ed. H. Dibble and A. Montet-White. Philadelphia: University Museum Monographs, 54, 387-396.

Perigordian 241

Straus, Lawrence (1992). Iberia before the Iberians: The Stone Age Prehistory of Cantabrian Spain. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

Straus, Lawrence, Marcel Otte, Achilles Gautier, Paul Haesaerts, I. Lopez Bayon Philippe Lacroix, Anthony Martinez, Rebecca MilIer, Jonathan Orphal, and Aaran Stutz (1997). "Late Quaternary Prehistoric Investigations in Southern Belgium." Prejostpore Europeenne II: 145-184

Taborin, Yvette (1993). "Shel1s of the French Aurignacian and Perigordian." In Before Lascaux: The Complex Record of the Early Upper Paleolithic, ed. H. Knecht, A. Pike-Tay, and R. White. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 211-227.

SUBTRADITIONS

Perigordian IV (Middle

Perigordian)

TIME PERIOD: 30,000-28,000 B.P.

LOCATION: The Perigordian IV is known only from levels at the two southern French sites of La Gravette and Abri Pataud.

DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: The diagnostic materi-

als of the Perigordian IV are lithic points known as Gravettes, micro-Gravettes, and jlechettes (characterized by short, semiabrupt retouch at one or both extremities of the blade blank), the same points that serve to define the early Gravettian in much of Europe.

CULTURAL SUMMARY

Environment

The Gravettian, which covers a span of 7000-8000 years, is divided into three largely successive stages (Otte 1990) recognized across Late Pleistocene Europe. The first Gravettian stage, the representatives of which include the eponymous site of La Gravette in France and the earliest of the symbolically complex Pavlovian assemblages of Moravia, began at or shortly after 30,000 B.P. (Otte 1990). In France, this stage has been called Perigordian IV (Peyrony 1933; de SonnevilleBordes 1960: 179-189) or Middle Perigordian (Bordes 1968; David and Bricker 1987). The Perigordian IV falls within an extended time of relatively warm, humid climate that can be correlated with the Kesselt interstadial of palynology and to Oxygen Isotope Stage 2 of the sequence based on deep-sea cores (Laville and Texier

242Perigordian

1986: AI3). The Perigordian IV sites of La Gravette (Lacorre 1960) and Abri Pataud (Movius 1977) are situated within southwest France's Aquitaine basin, which consists of massive limestone cliffs that border river valleys and support elevated plateaus. The limestone cliffs house numerous caves and rock shelters of Cretaceous-period bedrock that were occupied throughout the Perigordian (Laville et al. 1980). The region is a mosaic of plateaus, gentle valley slopes, and steep gorges crossed by major easterly flowing rivers. The grassy areas of floodplain and valley slopes supported herds of reindeer, red deer, aurochs, bison, and horse; small numbers of wild boar and roe deer were supported by patches of forest, and chamois and ibex occasionally visited the steeper cliff sides (Delpech 1983, 1993).

Settlements

Although this subphase of the Perigordian is known only from two sites, settlement strategies that can be generalized for the period as a whole apply to the Perigordian IV as well. General characteristics probably included hunter-gatherer communities using an assortment of three major types of cave, rock-shelter, and open-air sites across the year: (1) seasonal home-base camps of local bands; (2) small-scale, short-term, special-activity camps such as hunting stands, butchering sites, lithic-procurement sites; and, possibly, (3) larger scale, short-term "aggregation" sites where more than one local band would meet one or more times during the year and where more heightened social interaction would occur, such as the performance of ritual activities in decorated caves, the taking of mating partners, and larger scale hunting and exchange ventures (Bahn 1982; Binford 1980; Taborin 1993). Living spaces in caves, rock shelters, and temporary lightweight structures (probably tents covered with hides or bark) may have contained stone-lined hearths and rudimentary architectural alterations such as wind screens, partial walls, and floor platforms.

Estimations of site/population densities for Middle and Upper Paleolithic hunter gatherers are very difficult because detailed settlement patterns remain to be defined at the regional level. However, if Perigordianage people paralleled northern hunter gatherers of the ethnohistorical record in many aspects of their social and economic lives, their group size probably varied from as few as 12 to 25 band members during much of the year to as many as a hundred or more members during brief annual periods when the larger social group aggregated (Bahn 1982; Binford 1980; contributors to Winterhalder and Smith 1981).

Although comprehensive study of the health status of Perigordian peoples is not available, a recent study of Middle and Upper Paleolithic skeletons from southern France (Brennan 1991) observed patterns of change in frequencies of periostitis, enamel hypoplasias, and Harris lines, and in stature. Each stress indicator suggested that stress decreased from the Middle to Upper Paleolithic and increased again from the early (including the Perigordian) to late Upper Paleolithic. The first change is interpreted as a result of an increase in cultural complexity, efficiencies in tool manufacture and use, and food-procurement strategies that occurred from the Middle to Upper Paleolithic. The second change in overall health status occurring from the early Upper Paleolithic to the late Upper Paleolithic is seen as a result of climatic change where the increasing cold leading to the glacial maximum at about 18,000 B.P. would have taken a toll on any individuals who were not in good health and may have also restricted the availability of plant and animal resources (Brennan 1991). Nonetheless, stress levels during both the Middle and Upper Paleolithic were relatively low when compared with more recent populations. Data related to longevity during the Perigordian period are inconclusive at present, but it appears that both Neandertals and Upper Paleolithic individuals had about a 10 percent chance of living past the age of 40 (Brennan 1991). In sum, people living during the Perigordian probably enjoyed better health status than many populations that preceded and followed them.

Economy

The subsistence economy of the Perigordian IV was based primarily on the hunting of medium-to large-sized game, which may have been supplemented in some areas by the occasional collection of secondary resources. However, there is no substantial evidence for the exploitation of supplemental resources such as plants, birds, fish, and small game at Perigordian IV sites. The availability and movement of favored game may have factored into the seasonal land-use patterns of the Perigordian IV hunter gatherers. Reindeer were the most frequently taken prey, followed by red deer, horse, bovine, and far less frequently, cliff dwelling chamois and ibex and forest dwelling roe deer and wild boar (Bouchud 1975; Delpech 1993). Although the relatively high percentage of reindeer bones relative to those of other animals recovered at Perigordian sites of all subphases has often been interpreted as evidence for specialized hunting of reindeer, there is no evidence for

large-scale mass kills that would be consistent with such a subsistence strategy (Enloe 1993; Pike-Tay 1993; Spiess 1979). Rather, it is more likely that the high percentage of reindeer bones reflects the fact that either

(1) reindeer were the most abundant mediumto largesized prey animal in the local environment and/or (2) reindeer were the object of short-term seasonal specialization. (In the Perigordian IV occupation at Abri Pataud Level 5, reindeer were killed exclusively during the winter months [Spiess 1979].) Gravette and microGravette points and jlechettes are the most archaeologically visible components of Perigordian IV hunting technology. Antler and bone implements are extremely rare at the two sites, but two types of sagaie (organic projectile tips) have been identified on the basis of fragmentary pieces (Bricker 1994; Lacorre 1960).

The production of ornaments and pendants of bone, ivory, shell (fossil shells as well as fresh ones), and stone, which first appeared on a grand scale during the preceding Aurignacian period, continued in the Perigordian. Materials for the production of these ornaments traveled, probably through exchange networks, up to distances of 300 km in some cases. However, it is not until the Perigordian V and VI levels at Abri Pataud that Mediterranean shells first occur; in the Perigordian IV levels, the use of shell is rarer and is limited to the nearer Atlantic species (Taborin 1993). Although local raw materials were used for the production of stone tools, the presence of fine-quality nonlocallithic raw material became commonplace in Perigordian tool assemblages.

Sociopolitical Organization

The people associated with the Perigordian tradition were hunter gatherers who probably lived in modestsized multifamily groups (bands) that came together one or more times per year to form larger social groups where heightened social and economic interactions (e.g., the acquisition of exogamous mates, the trade and exchange of exotic materials, and ritual and ceremonial activities) would occur. Ethnographic research demonstrates that not all hunter-gatherer groups are egalitarian communities. However, the Perigordian lacks the kind of evidence that allows assessment of measures of social control (such as differential access to resources among community members) that can often be assessed from both skeletal remains (health status) and material culture (grave goods) in a large cemetery population from a more recent prehistoric community. Upper Paleolithic burials are rare, and multiple burials from this period are even more rare (Harrold 1980). It is likely

Perigordian 243

that status distinction and leadership positions within Perigordian-age communities were related to an individual's abilities and were restricted to particular economic or cultural arenas.

Religion and Expressive Culture

Two major categories of cultural expression important during the Perigordian period are (1) the elaborate decoration of cave walls with bas-relief, engraved, and painted images; and (2) the production of small threedimensional statuettes of animals and humans, especially the well-known female figurines with exaggerated physical attributes. Recent radiocarbon dates taken directly from cave drawings in southern France overlap with the Perigoridian IV period (Bahn 1995-96). On the other hand, it seems at present that the majority of the Perigordian statuettes pertain to the Perigordian Vc or Noaillian phase (Delporte 1993: 244).

Until recently, researchers thought that the naturalistically painted and engraved images of animals adorning the cave walls of southern France, the Pyrenees, and northern Spain were the products of late Upper Paleolithic cultural complexity and may have come about in response to both social and ecological conditions brought on by the Last Glacial Maximum. However, recent direct dating of cave drawings by the radiocarbon method now shows that this cultural complexity appeared much earlier in southern France if not elsewhere. We know now that painted caves first became important parts of the social landscape with Aurignacian and Perigordian-age peoples. Paintings from the caves of Chauvet (Ardeche), Cosquer (Bouches-du RhOne), Cougnac (Lot), and Peche Merle (Lot), fall between c. 32,00O-c. 24,000 B.P. beginning with the Aurignacian and extending into Perigordian periods (other recently dated drawings from the well-known Cantabrian and Pyrenean caves fall between c. 14,33O-c. 12,000 B.P. as was previously thought) (Bahn 1995-96; Valladas et al.

1992).

The cave art, done for the most part by practiced individuals, represents a highly conventionalized way of portraying the natural world. We do not know whether the decorated caves all served the same function or whether their roles changed through time. We do not know whether they were centers of sacred ceremony or pilgrimage for communities or only for the eyes of select individuals, perhaps only those who painted them. Nonetheless, animals such as bison, aurochs, horse, and deer as well as cave lions and woolly rhino were depicted far more frequently and with far more care than human beings ever were (Bahn and Vertut 1988;

244Perigordian

Clottes 1996). We also know that the interiors of painted and engraved caves were not places where people took part in daily necessary activities of cooking, eating, or preparing animal skins and tools, because no living debris has accumulated in these special sites.

Another venue for expressive culture is mortuary treatment. Although researchers continue to debate whether or not Neandertals intentionally buried their dead, it is widely accepted that something akin to modern mortuary treatment and sentiment accompanied the interment of over 90 Upper Paleolithic-aged individuals across Eurasia (Gargett 1989; Harrold 1980). The most spectacular Upper Paleolithic burials are those from the site complex of Sungir on the Russian plain (Bader 1978; Soffer 1985). At Sungir, an adult male, and some distance away (probably in time as well as space) two children, buried head to head, were adorned with thousands of mammoth ivory beads, pendants, bracelets, and fine stone and ivory weapons. The Sungir burials are contemporary with or perhaps older than the Perigordian of western Europe. Although several modest (e.g., grave goods such as flint tools, worked bone items, occasional ivory beads, or seashells) burials from the preceding Aurignacian age and subsequent late Upper Paleolithic have been found in western Europe, none has been unequivocally assigned to the Perigordian tradition (Harrold 1980).

References

Bader, O. N. (1978). Sungir: Verhnepaleoliticheskaya stoyanka. Moscow: Nauka.

Bahn, Paul (1982). "Inter-site and Inter-regional Links during the Upper Palaeolithic: The Pyrenean Evidence." Oxford Journal of Archaeology I: 247-268.

Bahn, Paul (1995-96). "New Developments in Pleistocene Art."

Evolutionary Anthropology 4,6: 204-215.

Bahn, Paul, and Jean Vertut (1988). Images of the Ice Age. New York: Facts on File.

Binford, Lewis (1980). "Willow Smoke and Dog's Tails: HunterGatherer Settlement Systems and Archaeological Site Formation."

American Antiquity 45: 4-20.

Bordes, Fran~ois (1968). "La Question perigordienne." In La Pnihistoire: probkimes et tendences. Paris: Editions du Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique, 59-70.

Bouchud, Jean (1975). "Etude de la faune de l'Abri Pataud." In

Exacavation of the Abri Pataud, Les Eyzies (Dordogne), ed. H. Movius Jr. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, Peabody Museum, American School of Prehistoric Research Bulletin, 30, 69153.

Brennan, Mary Ursula (1991). "Health and Disease in the Middle and Upper Paleolithic of Southwestern France: A Bioarcheological Study." Ph.D. diss., New York University.

Bricker, Harvey M. (1994). "Le Perigordien moyen (niveau 5) de l'abri Pataud." In Les Fouilles Movius al'abri Pataud, ed. H. M. Bricker. Paris: Documents d'Archeologie Fran~aise.

Clottes, Jean (1996). "Thematic Changes in Upper Paleolithic Art: A View from the Grotte Chauvet." Antiquity 70: 276-788.

David, Nicholas, and Harvey M. Bricker (1987). "Perigordian and Noaillian in the Greater Perigord." In The Pleistocene Old World: Regional Perspectives, ed. O. Soffer. New York: Plenum, 237-250.

Delpech, Fran~oise (1983). Les Faunes du PaJeolithique Superieur dans Ie Sud-Ouest de la France. Paris: Editions du Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique, Cahiers du Quaternaire, 6.

Delpech, Fran~oise (1993). "The Fauna of the Early Upper Paleolithic: Biostratigraphy of Large Mammals and Current Problems in Chronology." In Before Lascaux: The Complex Record of the Early Upper Paleolithic, ed. H. Knecht, A. Pike-Tay, and R. White. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 71-84.

Delporte, Henri (1993). "Gravettian Female Figurines: A Regional Survey." In Before Lascaux: The Complex Record of the Early Upper Paleolithic, ed. H. Knecht, A. Pike-Tay and R. White. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 243-247.

Enloe, James (1993). "Subsistence Organization in the Early Upper Paleolithic: Reindeer Hunters of the Abri du Flageolet, Couche V." In Before Lascaux: The Complex Record of the Early Upper Paleolithic, ed. H. Knecht, A. Pike-Tay, and R. White. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 101-115.

Gargett, Robert (1989). "Grave Shortcomings: The Evidence for Neandertal Burial." Current Anthropology 30, 2: 157-190.

Harrold, Francis B. (1980). "A Comparative Analysis of Eurasian Paleolithic Burials." World Archaeology 12, 2: 195-211.

Lacorre, Fernand (1960). La Gravette. Le Gravetien et la Bayacien.

Laval: Imprimerie Barneoud.

Laville, Henri, and Jean-Pierre Texier (1986). "Le Quaternaire en Perigord." In Quaternaire et prehistoire en Perigord: Excursion de I'A.F.E.Q. 8, 9, 10 mai 1986, ed. H. Laville, J.-P. Rigaud, and J.-P. Texier. Bordeaux: Institut de Quaternaire de l'Universite de Bordeaux I and Direction des Antiquites Prehistoriques d'Aquitaine, AI-A21.

Laville, Henri, Jean-Philippe Rigaud, and James Sackett (1980). Rock Shelters of the Perigord: Geological Stratigraphy and Archaeological Succession. New York: Academic Press.

Movius, Hallam L., Jr. (1977). Excavation of the Abri Pataud, Les Eyzies (Dordogne): Stratigraphy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, Peabody Museum, American School of Prehistoric Research Bulletin, 31.

Otte, Marcel (1990). "Revision de la sequence du Paleolithique Superieur de Willendorf (Autriche)." Bulletin de rInstitut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, Sciences de la Terre 60: 219-228.

Peyrony, Denis (1933). "Les Industries "aurignaciennes" dans Ie bassin de la Vezere." Bulletin de la Societe Prehistorique Franfaise

30: 543-559.

Pike-Tay, Anne (1993). "Hunting in the Upper Perigordian: A Matter of Strategy or Expedience?" In Before Lascaux: The Complex Record of the Early Upper Paleolithic, ed. H. Knecht, A. Pike-Tay, and R. White. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 85-99.

Soffer, Olga (1985). The Upper Paleolithic of the Central Russian Plain.

New York: Academic Press.

Sonneville-Bordes, Denise de (1960). Le PaJeolithique superieur en Perigord. Bordeaux: Imprimerie Delmas.

Spiess, Arthur (1979). Reindeer and Caribou Hunters: An Archaeological Study. New York: Academic Press.

Taborin, Yvette (1993). "Shells of the French Aurignacian and Perigordian." In Before Lascaux: The Complex Record of the Early Upper Paleolithic, ed. H. Knecht, A. Pike-Tay, and R. White. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 211-227.

Valladas, Helene, H. Cachier, P. Maurice, F. Bernaldo de Quiros, J. Clottes, V. Cabrera Valdes, P. Uzquiano, and M. Arnold (1992). "Direct Radiocarbon Dates for the Preshistoric Paintings at the Altamira, El Castillo and Niaux Caves." Nature 357: 68-70.

Winterhalder, Bruce, and Eric A. Smith, eds. (1981). Hunter-Gatherer Foraging Strategies: Ethnographic and Archeological Analyses. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.

Perigordian Va/Vb (Perigordian

VljV2; Early Upper

Perigordian)

TIME PERIOD: 28,000-25,000 B.P.

LOCATION: Perigordian V assemblages are known from numerous sites in southern France, Belgium, and Spain.

DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Primary diagnostic

lithic tools of Perigordian Va/Vb assemblages are tanged Font-Robert points and/or the so-called truncated elements (which may be the the first examples in the regional Upper Paleolithic of composite cutting tools or weapons armed with multiple lithic components). GraveUes and micro-GraveUes continue to appear in these assemblages as they did in the Perigordian IV. Although antler and bone sagaies are rare, they occasionally occur in Perigordian Va/Vb assemblages.

CULTURAL SUMMARY

Environment

The Perigordian Va/Vb stage appears to have begun sometime during the cold and dry phase of the Inter- Kesselt-Tursac cold of the pollen-based terminology and to have continued into the more mild conditions of the early Tursac oscillation (Laville and Texier 1986). Major river systems with gentle to steep valley slopes housing limestone caves and rock shelters are topographic features that are shared by important Perigordian V sites from the Aquitaine basin in France, Cantabrian Spain, and the Mosan basin of southern Belgium. Recent research shows that site topographic location factored into the seasonal use of sites by Perigordian hunter gatherers (Pike-Tay 1991; Pike-Tay, Cabrera, and Bernaldo de Quiros 1999). The local lithology of

Perigordian 245

each region varies, however, which accounts for the range of variation in the availability of flint, chert, quartzite, ophite, and other lithic raw materials. The limestone slabs that form the bedrock of the Perigord region in France and the central Cantabrian province of Santander were deposited during the Cretaceous (Bernaldo de Quiros and Cabrera Valdes 1993; Laville et al. 1980). In central and southern Belgium, Pleistocene loess deposits supported the grassy steppes, which fed the herds of herbivores so critical to human survival during the Perigordian (OUe 1984). Open-air Perigordian sites are found in such primary and redeposited loess deposits, whereas important cave and rock-shelter sites are found in the band of Carboniferous limestone carved by the Lesse and Meuse rivers (OUe 1984; Otte and Straus 1995).

Pollen analyses from the Perigordian levels indicate a prevalence of open grasslands with pine thickets, occasional birch stands, and localized presence of juniper, alder, and oak, consistent with generally cool climatic conditions (Laville et al. 1980; Leroi-Gourhan 1971, 1980; Munaut 1984). The large carnivores such as cave bear, cave hyena, wolf, wild dog, lion, and leopard, which frequently alternated cave tenancy with Neandertals in earlier times, persisted throughout the Perigordian as well, although in decreasing numbers (Altuna 1973, 1989; Cordy 1984; Delpech 1983). In a few Perigordian sites, however, fox, small felids, and mustelids are more prominent than before, leading some researchers to suggest that these small fur-bearing carnivores may have been taken for their pelts (Straus 1992). The classic late Pleistocene megafauna, mammoth, woolly rhino, and giant deer, were rare but occasionally present; animals preferring the open grasslands such as horse, aurochs, bison, and even saiga antelope (Belgium only at this time) competed with the ever-abundant reindeer as preferred prey of Perigordian hunters in France and Belgium. Throughout the climatic oscillations that occurred during the span of the Perigordian, both the French and Belgian sites were affected by changes in the range and distributions of the great herbivore populations supported by the North European plain. However, in Cantabrian Spain, even the harshest climatic shifts were buffered by the Atlantic, and as a result red deer and horse dominate the faunal assemblages whereas reindeer are very rarely encountered. Mountainand cliff-dwelling ibex and chamois are found in Perigordian levels in France, Belgium, and Spain. Red deer, wild boar, and other forest species are found in all three regions during the warmer periods (Altuna 1973, 1989; Cordy 1984; Delpech 1983, 1993).

246Perigordian Settlements

Characteristics of Perigordian Va/Vb settlement probably included hunter-gatherer communities using an assortment of three major types of cave, rock-shelter and/or open-air sites across the year: (1) seasonal homebase camps of local bands; (2) small-scale, short-term, special-activity camps such as hunting stands, butchering sites, lithic-procurement sites; and, possibly, (3) larger scale, short-term "aggregation" sites where more than one local band would meet one or more times a year and where more heightened social interaction would occur such as the performance of ritual activities in decorated caves, the taking of exogamous partners, and larger scale hunting and exchange ventures (Bahn 1982; Binford 1980; Taborin 1993). Recent research provides evidence that the availability and movement of favored game factored into the seasonal land-use patterns of Perigordian Va/Vb hunter gatherers (PikeTay 1991, 1993; Pike-Tay and Bricker 1993).

Living spaces in caves, rock shelters, and temporary lightweight structures (probably tents covered with hides or bark) may have contained stone-lined hearths and rudimentary architectural alterations such as wind screens, partial walls, and floor platforms.

Estimations of site/population densities for the Middle and Upper Paleolithic hunter gatherers are very difficult because detailed settlement patterns remain to be defined at the regional level. However, if, Perigor- dian-age people paralleled northern hunter gatherers of the ethnohistorical record in important aspects of their social and economic lives, their group size probably varied from as few as 12 to 25 band members during much of the year to as many as a hundred or more members during brief annual periods when the larger social group aggregated (Bahn 1982; Binford 1980; contributors to Winterhalder and Smith 1981).

Although comprehensive study of the health status of Perigordian peoples is not available, a recent study of Middle and Upper Paleolithic skeletons from southern France (Brennan 1991) observed patterns of change in frequencies of the stress indicators of periostitis, enamel hypoplasias, and Harris lines, and in stature. Each stress indicator suggested that stress decreased from the Middle to Upper Paleolithic and increased again from the early (including the Perigordian) to late Upper Paleolithic. The first change is interpreted by the author as a result of the increase in cultural complexity, efficiencies in tool manufacture and use, and foodprocurement strategies that occur from the Middle to Upper Paleolithic. The second change in overall health status occurring from the early Upper Paleolithic to the

late Upper Paleolithic is seen as a result of climatic change where the increasing cold leading to the glacial maximum at about 18,000 B.P. would have taken a toll on any individuals who were not in good health and would have affected the range of important plant and animal resources (Brennan 1991). Nonetheless, stress levels during both the Middle and Upper Paleolithic were relatively low when compared with more recent populations. Although data related to longevity during the Perigordian period are inconclusive at present, it appears that both Neandertals and Upper Paleolithic individuals had about a 10 percent chance of living past the age of 40 (Brennan 1991). In sum, people living during the Perigordian seemed to enjoy better health status than many populations that preceded and followed them.

Economy

The subsistence economy of the Perigordian Va/Vb was based primarily on the hunting of mediumto largesized game, which may have been supplemented in some areas by the occasional collection of plants, birds, fish, and small game. Evidence for the use of such supplemental resources is very scarce. However, the use of marine mollusks and marine birds in Perigordian levels at the Spanish site of El Castillo, less than a day's journey to the Cantabrian seacoast, is well documented (Cabrera Valdes 1984).

In France and Belgium, reindeer were generally the most frequently taken prey, followed by horse, bovine, red deer, saiga antelope (only in Belgium at this time), occasionally the cliff-dwelling chamois and ibex, and during warmer periods, roe deer and wild boar (Cordy 1984; Delpech 1983, 1993). Although the extremely high percentage of reindeer bones relative to bones of other animals recovered at French and Belgium Perigordian sites has often been interpreted as evidence for specialized hunting of this species, there is no evidence for large-scale mass kills, drives, or surrounds consistent with such a subsistence strategy (Enloe 1993; Pike-Tay 1993; Spiess 1979). Rather, it is more likely that reindeer were the object of short-term seasonal specialization. Interesting in this regard are the red deer-dominated Perigordian Va/Vb levels D2 and D3, at the site of La Ferrassie in Southwest France (Delpech 1983). Season of death determinations of the red deer from these levels indicate exclusively warm-season kills, consistent with the use of this upland site for hunting red deer in their preferred summer habitat (Pike-Tay 1991). In Cantabrian Spain, evidence for specialized hunting of ibex and

chamois in the high mountains appears for the first time in the region during the Perigordian (Straus 1992).

Surviving technology of the Perigordian Va/Vb is almost entirely limited to lithic armatures including many tanged Font-Robert points, Gravettes and microGravette points, and the so-called truncated elements, which have been interpreted as components of composite projectile points (Peyrony 1934: 86) Organic projectile points (antler and bone sagaies). appear only occasionally in Perigordian Va/Vb assemblages (e.g., at La Ferrassie [Peyrony 1934: 84, Fig. 86-1] and at Le Flageolet I [Rigaud 1982: Fig. 226-3]). It is important to note that Rigaud's (1976) work at the site of Le Flageolet I has demonstrated that Font Robert points, truncated elements, and Noailles burins-tools Peyrony (1936) considered to be chronologically segregated diagnostic types-sometimes co-exist within the same Perigordian V archaeological unit.

Long-distance trade and/or travel, sometimes as far as 300 km, was undertaken for the procurement of highquality lithic raw material for tools, as well as of seashells and possibly mammoth ivory for the production of ornaments. For example, at the Abri Pataud in Southwest France, shell use is greater in the Perigordian V than previously, and Mediterranean as well as Atlantic shells were acquired (Taborin 1993: 225).

Sociopolitical Organization

Perigordian-age peoples of France, Spain, and Belgium were hunter gatherers who probably lived in modest-sized multifamily groups (bands) that came together one or more times per year to form larger social groups where heightened social and economic interactions (e.g., the acquisition of exogamous mates, the trade and exchange of exotic materials, and ritual and ceremonial activities) took place. Ethnographic research demonstrates that not all hunter-gatherer groups are egalitarian communities. However, the Perigordian lacks the kind of evidence that allows assessment of measures of social control such as differential access to resources among community members, which can often be assessed from both skeletal remains (health status) and material culture (grave goods) in a large cemetery population from a more recent prehistoric community. Upper Paleolithic burials are rare, and rarer still are multiple burials from this period (Harrold 1980). It is likely that status distinction and leadership positions in Perigordian communities were task specific and related to an individual's abilities in particular economic or cultural arenas.

Perigordian 247

Religion and Expressive Culture

The two major categories of cultural expression surviving from the Perigordian period were (1) the elaborate decoration of cave walls with bas-relief, engraved, and painted images, and (2) the production of small three-dimensional statuettes of animals and humans, especially the well-known female figurines with exaggerated physical attributes. Recent radiocarbon dates taken directly from cave drawings in southern France overlap with the entire Perigordian period (Bahn 1995-96). However, it seems at present that the majority of the Perigordian statuettes pertain to the Perigordian Vc or Noaillian phase (Delporte 1993:

244).

Until recently, researchers thought that the naturalistically painted and engraved images of animals adorning the cave walls of southern France, the Pyrenees, and northern Spain were the products of late Upper Paleolithic cultural complexity, probably included elements of ritual and ceremony, and came about in response to intensified social and ecological conditions brought on by the Last Glacial Maximum. However, cave drawings that have recently been directly dated by the radiocarbon method now show that this cultural complexity appeared much earlier. We know now that painted caves first became important parts of the social landscape with Aurignacian and Perigordian-age peoples. Paintings from the southern French caves of Chauvet (Ardeche), Cosquer (Bouches-du Rhone), Cougnac (Lot), and Peche Merle (Lot), fall between c. 32,00O--c. 24,000 B.P. beginning with the Aurignacian and extending into the Perigordian (other recently dated drawings from the well-known Cantabrian and Pyrenean caves fall between c. 14,33O--c. 12,000 B.P. as was previously thought) (Bahn 1995-96; Valladas et al. 1992).

The art in these caves represents a highly practiced and conventionalized way of portraying the natural world. It is not known whether the decorated caves all served the same function or whether their roles changed through time. Nor is it known whether they were centers of sacred ceremony or pilgrimage for communities or only for select individuals such as those who painted them. Nonetheless, we do know that animals such as bison, aurochs, horse, and deer as well as cave lions and woolly rhino were depicted far more frequently and with far more care than human beings were (Bahn and Vertut 1988; Clottes 1996). The interiors of painted and engraved caves were not places where people took part in daily necessary activities of cooking, eating, or preparing animal skins and tools, as no living debris has accumulated in these special sites.

248 Perigordian

Another venue for expressive culture is mortuary treatment. Although researchers continue to debate whether Middle Paleolithic Neandertals were purposely buried or not, it is widely accepted that something akin to modern mortuary treatment and sentiment accompanied the interment of over 90 Upper Paleolithic-aged individuals across Eurasia (Gargett 1989; Harrold 1980). The most spectacular Upper Paleolithic burials are those from the site complex of Sungir on the Russian plain (Bader 1978; Soffer 1985). At Sungir, an adult male, and some distance away (probably in time as well as space) two children, buried head to head, were adorned with thousands of mammoth ivory beads, pendants, bracelets, and fine stone and ivory weapons. The Sungir burials are contemporary with or perhaps even older than the Perigordian of western Europe. Although several modest (e.g., grave goods such as flint tools, worked bone items, occasional ivory beads, or seashells) burials from the preceding Aurignacian age and subsequent late Upper Paleolithic have been found in western Europe, none has been unequivocally assigned to the Perigordian tradition (Harrold 1980).

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Cueva Morin: Excavaciones 1966-1968, ed. J. Gonzalez Echegaray, and L. Freeman. Santander: Patronato de las Cuevas, 367-398.

Altuna, Jesus (1989). "Subsistence d'origine animale pendant Ie Mousterien dans Ie region Cantabrique (Espagne)." In L'Homme de Neandertal, 6, ed. L. Freeman, and M. Patou. Liege: ERAUL, 31-43.

Bader, O. N. (1978). Sungir: Verhnepaleoliticheskaya stoyanka. Moscow: Nauka.

Bahn, Paul (1982). "Inter-site and Inter-regional Links during the Upper Palaeolithic: The Pyrenean Evidence." Oxford Journal of Archaeology I: 247-268.

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Evolutionary Anthropology 4, 6: 204--215.

Bahn, Paul, and Jean Vertut (1988). 1mages of the lee Age. New York: Facts on File.

Bernaldo de Quiros, Federico, and Victoria Cabrera Valdes (1993). "Early Upper Paleolithic Industries of Cantabrian Spain." In Before Lascaux: The Complex Record of the Early Upper Paleolithic, ed. H. Knecht, A. Pike-Tay, and R. White. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 57-69.

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American Antiquity 45: 4--20.

Brennan, Mary Ursula (1991). "Health and Disease in the Middle and Upper Paleolithic of Southwestern France: A Bioarcheological Study." Ph.D. diss., New York University.

Cabrera Valdes, Victoria (1984). El Yacimiento de la Cueva de "El Castillo." Madrid: Bibliotheca Praehistorica Hispana, 22.

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Delpech, Fran90ise (1983). Les Faunes du Pateolithique Superieur dans Ie Sud-Ouest de la France. Paris: Editions du Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique, Cahiers du Quaternaire, 6.

Delpech, Fran90ise (1993). "The Fauna of the Early Upper Paleolithic: Biostratigraphy of Large Mammals and Current Problems in Chronology." In Before Lascaux: The Complex Record of the Early Upper Paleolithic, ed. H. Knecht, A. Pike-Tay, and R. White. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 71-84.

Delporte, Henri (1993). "Gravettian Female Figurines: A Regional Survey." In Before Lascaux: The Complex Record of the Early Upper Paleolithic, ed. H. Knecht, A. Pike-Tay, and R. White. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 243-247.

Enloe, James (1993). "Subsistence Organization in the Early Upper Paleolithic: Reindeer Hunters of the Abri du Flageolet, Couche V." In Before Lascaux: The Complex Record of the Early Upper Paleolithic, ed. H. Knecht, A. Pike-Tay, and R. White. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 101-115.

Gargett, Robert (1989). "Grave Shortcomings: The Evidence for Neandertal Burial." Current Anthropology 30, 2: 157-190.

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Laville, Henri, Jean-Philippe Rigaud, and James Sackett (1980). Rock Shelters of the Perigord: Geological Stratigraphy and Archaeological Succession. New York: Academic Press.

Leroi-Gourhan, Arlette (1971). "Analisis polinico de Cueva Morin." In Cueva Morin: Excavaciones, 1966-1968, ed. J. Gonzalez Echegaray, and L. Freeman. Santander: Patronato de las Cuevas Prehist6ricas, 359-365.

Leroi-Gourhan, Arlette (1980). "Analisis polinico de EI Pendo." In

El Yacimiento de la Cueva de "El Pendo", ed. J. Gonzalez Echegaray. Madrid: Bibliotheca Praehistorica Hispana, 17, 265266.

Munaut, A. V. (1984). "L'Homme et son Environnement Vegetal." In

Peuples Chasseurs de la Belgique Prehistorique dans Leur Cadre Naturel, ed. D. Cahen, and P. Haesaerts. Brussels: Patrimoine de I'Institue royal des Sciences naturelles de Belgique, 59-66.

Otte, Marcel (1984). "Paleolithique superieur en Belgique." In Peuples Chasseurs de la Belgique Prehistorique dans Leur Cadre Naturel, ed. D. Cahen, and P. Haesaerts. Brussels: Patrimoine de I'Institue royal des Sciences naturelies de Belgique, 157-179.

Otte, Marcel, and Lawrence Straus (1995). Le Trou Magrite. Liege: ERAUL.

Peyrony, Denis (1934). "La Ferrassie: Mousterien, Perigordien, Aurignacien." Prehistoire 3: 1-92.

Peyrony, Denis (1936). "Le Perigordien et I'Aurignacien: Nouvelles Observations." Bulletin de la Societe Prehistorique Franfaise 33:

616--619.

Pike-Tay, Anne (1991). Red Deer Hunting in the Upper Paleolithic of Southwest France: A Study in Seasonality. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports #569, Tempus Reparatum.

Pike-Tay, Anne (1993). "Hunting in the Upper Perigordian: A Matter of Strategy or Expedience?" In Before Lascaux: The Complex Record of the Early Upper Paleolithic, ed. H. Knecht, A. Pike-Tay, and R. White. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 85-99.

Pike-Tay, Anne, and Harvey Bricker (1993). "Hunting in the Gravettian: An Examination of Evidence from Southwestern France." In

Hunting and Animal Exploitation in the Later Paleolithic and Mesolithic of Eurasia, ed. G. Larsen Peterkin, H. Bricker, and P. Mellars. Washington D.C.: Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association, No.4, 127-143.

Pike-Tay, Anne, Victoria Cabrera, and Federico Bernaldo de Quiros (1999) "Seasonal Variations of the Middle-Upper Paleolithic Transition at EI Clastillo, Cueva Morin and EI Pendo (Cantabrian, Spain)." Journal of Human Evolution 36: 283-317.

Rigaud, Jean-Philippe (1976). "Les Gisements de Flageolet, commune de Bezenac." In Livret-Guide de {'Excursion A4: Sud-Oest (Aquitaine et Charente), IXe Congres de {,Union International des Sciences Prehistoriques et Protohistoriques, ed. J.-P. Rigaud, and B. Vandermeersch. Bordeaux: Congres de I'Union International des Sciences Prehistoriques et Protohistoriques, 99-104.

Rigaud, Jean-Philippe (1982). Le Paleolithique en Perigord: les donnees du Sud-Ouest sarladais et leurs implications. Bordeaux: These de Doctorat d'Etat des Sciences, Universite de Bordeaux I.

Soffer, Olga (1985). The Upper Paleolithic of the Central Russian Plain.

New York: Academic Press.

Spiess, Arthur (1979). Reindeer and Caribou Hunters: An Archaeological Study. New York: Academic Press.

Straus, Lawrence (1992). Iberia before the Iberians: The Stone Age Prehistory of Cantabrian Spain. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

Taborin, Yvette (1993). "Shells of the French Aurignacian and Perigordian." In Before Lascaux: The Complex Record of the Early Upper Paleolithic, ed. H. Knecht, A. Pike-Tay, and R. White. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 211-227.

Valladas, Helene, H. Cachier, P. Maurice, F. Berna1do de Quiros, J. Clottes, V. Cabrera Valdes, P. Uzquiano, and M. Arnold (1992). "Direct Radiocarbon Dates for the Preshistoric Paintings at the Altamira, EI Castillo and Niaux Caves." Nature 357: 68-70.

Winterhalder, Bruce, and Eric A. Smith, eds. (1981). Hunter-Gatherer Foraging Strategies: Ethnographic and Archeological Analyses. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.

Perigordian Vc (Noaillian;

Perigordian V3)

TIME PERIOD: 27,000-26,000 B.P.

LOCATION: Perigordian Vc (Noaillian) assemblages are known from numerous sites in southern France, Belgium, and Spain.

DIAGNOSTIC MATERIAL ATTRIBUTES: Lithic assemblages

containing high frequencies of specialized burin forms such as Noailles burins and Raysse burins have been called Perigordian Vc (or V3) or Noaillian. Use of the term "Perigordian" is favored by scholars who emphasize the continuities (e.g., the presence of Gravette

Perigordian 249

points) with earlier assemblages of southwestern France, whereas "Noaillian" tends to be used by those working in a broader geographic and temporal context in the European Gravettian. Although specialized burins are the primary diagnostic lithic tools of Perigordian Vc (Noaillian) assemblages, Gravette and micro-Gravette points are also important components of these assemblages, but they are much less frequent than in Perigordian IV and Va/Vb assemblages. Font-Robert points and truncated elements occur sporadically in Noaillian assemblages, but in even lower frequencies than those of Gravettes and micro-Gravettes, Antler, bone, and ivory sagaies appear to be in substantially higher numbers in the Noaillian than in the Perigordian IV and Va/Vb assemblages. The Isturitz sagaie, a long, sturdy projectile point, usually of antler, with a roughened and sometimes notched conical base, is the most characteristic of these.

CULTURAL SUMMARY

Environment

It is generally accepted that the Perigordian Vc or Noaillian first appears in southwestern France near the end of the pre-Tursac cold climate and continues into the earlier part of the more mild Tursac oscillation (Farrand 1994; Laville 1975: 376, 378-379, Tableau V).

Major river systems with gentle to steep valley slopes housing limestone caves and rock shelters are topographic features that are shared by important Perigordian V sites from the Aquitaine Basin in France, Cantabrian Spain, and the Mosan basin of southern Belgium. Recent research shows that site topographic location factored into the seasonal use of sites by Perigordian hunter gatherers (Pike-Tay 1991, 1993). The local lithology of each region differs in the availability of flint, chert, quartzite, ophite, and other lithic raw materials. The limestone slabs that form the bedrock of the Perigord region in France and the central Cantabrian province of Santander were deposited during the Cretaceous (Bernaldo de Quiros and Cabrera Valdes 1993; Laville et al. 1980). In central and southern Belgium, Pleistocene loess deposits supported grassy steppes, which fed the herds of herbivores so critical to human survival during the Perigordian (Otte 1984). Open-air Perigordian sites are found in such primary and redeposited loess deposits, whereas important cave and rock-shelter sites are found in the band of Carboniferous limestone carved by Belgium'S Lesse and Meuse rivers (Otte 1984; Otte and Straus 1995).

250 Perigordian

Pollen analyses from the Perigordian levels indicate a prevalence of open grasslands with pine thickets, occasional birch stands, and localized presence of juniper, alder, and oak, consistent with generally cool climatic conditions (Laville et al. 1980; Leroi-Gourhan 1971, 1980; Munaut 1984). Large carnivores included the cave bear, hyena, wolf, wild dog, lion, and leopard; animals that frequently alternated cave tenancy with Neandertals in earlier times persisted throughout the Perigordian as well, although in diminished numbers (Altuna 1973, 1989; Cordy 1984; Delpech 1983). In a few Perigordian sites, however, foxes, small felids, and mustelids are more prominent than before, leading some researchers to suggest that these small carnivores may have been taken for their pelts (Straus 1992). The classic late Pleistocene megafauna, mammoth, woolly rhino, and giant deer, are rare, but occasionally present, whereas herbivores preferring the open grasslands such as horse, aurochs, bison, and saiga antelope (Belgium only at this time) were probably outnumbered by the ever-abundant reindeer in France and Belgium. Throughout the climatic oscillations that occurred during the span of the Perigordian, both the French and Belgian sites were affected by changes in the range and distributions of these great herbivore populations supported by the North European plain. However, in Cantabrian Spain where even the harshest climatic shifts were buffered by the Atlantic, red deer and horse dominate the faunal assemblages, and reindeer are only rarely encountered. Mountainand cliff-dwelling ibex and chamois are encountered in Perigordian levels in France, Belgium, and Spain. Red deer, wild boar, and other forest species could be found in all three regions during the warmer periods (Altuna 1973, 1989; Cordy 1984; Delpech 1983, 1993).

Settlements

Although much work remains to be done before settlement patterns of the early Upper Paleolithic as a whole can be definitively outlined (Straus 1992; White 1985), evidence suggests some general characteristics of Perigordian Vc settlement strategies. The hunter-gath- erer communities of the period likely used an assortment of three major types of cave, rock-shelter, and/or openair sites across the year: (l) seasonal home-base camps of local bands; (2) small-scale, short-term, specialactivity camps such as hunting stands, butchering sites, lithic-procurement sites; and, possibly, (3) larger scale, short-term "aggregation" sites where more than one local band would meet one or more times a year and where more heightened social interaction (e.g., the

performance of ritual activities in decorated caves, the taking of mating partners, and larger scale hunting and exchange ventures [Bahn 1982; Binford 1980; Taborin 1993]) took place. Living spaces in caves, rock shelters, and temporary lightweight structures (probably tents covered with hides or bark) may have contained stonelined hearths and rudimentary architectural alterations such as wind screens, partial walls, and floor platforms (Laville et al. 1980). Recent research provides evidence that the availability and movement of favored game factored into the seasonal land-use patterns of Perigordian Vc hunter gatherers (Pike-Tay 1991; Pike-Tay and Bricker 1993).

Estimations of site/population densities for the Middle and Upper Paleolithic hunter gatherers are very difficult because detailed settlement patterns remain to be defined at the regional level. However, if Perigordianage people paralleled northern hunter gatherers of the ethnohistorical record in many aspects of their social and economic lives, their group size probably varied from as few as 12 to 25 band members during much of the year to as many as a hundred or more members during brief annual periods when the larger social group aggregated (Bahn 1982; Binford 1980; contributors to Winterhalder and Smith 1981).

Although comprehensive study of the health status of Perigordian peoples is not available, a recent study of Middle and Upper Paleolithic skeletons from southern France (Brennan 1991) observes patterns of change in frequencies of the stress indicators of periostitis, enamel hypoplasias, and Harris lines, and in stature. Results suggest that stress decreased from the Middle to Upper Paleolithic and increased again from the early (including the Perigordian) to late Upper Paleolithic. The first change is interpreted by the author as a result of the increase in cultural and technological complexity that occurred from the Middle to Upper Paleolithic. The second change in overall health status occurring from the early Upper Paleolithic to the late Upper Paleolithic is seen as a result of climatic change where the increasing cold leading to the glacial maximum at about 18,000 B.P. would have taken a toll on any individuals who were not in good health and may also have restricted the availability of plants and animals (Brennan 1991). Nonetheless, stress levels during both the Middle and Upper Paleolithic were relatively low when compared with more recent populations. Although data related to longevity during the Perigordian period are inconclusive at present, it appears that both Neandertals and Upper Paleolithic individuals had about a 10 percent chance of living past the age of 40 (Brennan 1991). In sum, people living during the Perigordian probably enjoyed better