Reassessment of the transitional sequence of Les Cottés (Saint-Pierre-de-Maillé, France). Zooarchaeological approach

The evolution of behaviors during the transition from the Middle to the Upper Paleolithic has become a major topic in prehistory and scholars have particularly focused on the environment exploitation. Studying the hunting behaviors of different human populations in a same location (i. e. the same geographic and geomorphologic constraints) provides a valuable source of information on the strategies they developed. In this context, Les Cottés site, which exhibits the complete transitional sequence with levels attributed to the Mousterian, Chatelperronian and the early phases of the Aurignacian, is of prime interest to address this particular topic. The zooarchaeological study has identified major changes happening through the stratigraphy. The frequency of reindeer in the faunal spectrum increases from 35% of the NISP (level 08) to 70% (level 04inf) and finishes by overwhelming the faunal assemblage (95% in level 02). Simultaneously carnivore remains and modifications decrease significantly, suggesting a drop in their frequentation of the cavity. The different early Aurignacian deposits are the best documented and behavioral reconstructions have been proposed. While in the first Aurignacian level the site seems to have worked as a base camp devoted to the exploitation of the reindeer carcasses, evolution in the skeletal part representation and in the carcass processing suggests a possible change in the status of the site in the more recent stratigraphic units.