The Magdalenian-Azilian Transition: Contributions from the Rocher de l’Impératrice Rock-shelter (Brittany, France)

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Succeeding the Magdalenian, the Azilian is one of the last techno-complexes of the Western Europe Upper Paleolithic. This period is characterized by major socio-cultural changes illustrated by techno-economic but also symbolic changes. One of the most famous elements of this process is the abandonment of naturalistic figurative art on portable pieces or on cave walls in the Magdalenian in favor of exclusive abstract expression on small pebbles. The development of these new concepts remains an important mystery of European Prehistory. The discovery of the Early Azilian site of Le Rocher de l’Impératrice (Plougastel-Daoulas, France) brings new essential evidence in order to investigate this key moment of European Prehistory. If the rich lithic assemblage collected in this small rock-shelter clearly shows the development of Azilian concepts, an exceptional artistic corpus suggests a clear iconographic continuity with the Magdalenian. This presentation develops new information about the "azilianization" process and its timing. We also argue that a culture is not a package and that whatever the origin of the change, various elements of a same cultural system do not necessarily react with the same timing.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24669