http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=1760 Entrées d’index fr 0 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6157 Mortuary practices in the Palaeolithic have been of special interest to archaeologists reconstructing ritual and burial of Palaeolithic man. Very often expressed and widely accepted is the opinion that Palaeolithic humans buried the entire intact corpses of most of their dead. The results of an anthropological approach to Palaeolithic mortuary practices do not confirm such a conclusion. This approach is based on two main aspects : 1. patterns of skeletal representation for 826 individuals from the European Palaeolithic and 2. human bone modifications of fossil human remains and their interpretation. The results of this anthropological approach, which will be discussed in detail in the present paper, and the archaeological record of the Palaeolithic human remains clearly demonstrate that mortuary practices in the Palaeolithic were usually celebrated with disarticulated human bones resulting from activities involving human corpses and bones of “favoured” dead. After completed and finished mortuary ceremonies for the deceased the human remains (mainly broken bones) were either thrown away, intentionally deposited or buried. Only 6.1 % of the Middle Palaeolithic and 15.9 % of the Upper Palaeolithic individuals are represented by complete or nearly complete skeletons resulting from burials/depositions of the entire intact corpse of “highly favoured” dead. Burials of entire intact corpses were first celebrated about 100,000 to 80,000 years ago by anatomically modern humans in Kafzeh and Skhul, but later on in the Middle Palaeolithic of the Near East and Europe exclusively done by populations of archaic Homo sapiens. Mortuary practices in the Palaeolithic were necessarily closely connected with reflections on life and death and began with late Homo erectus about 500,000 – 300,000 years ago independently in Europe, Africa and Asia. Reflections on life and death also initiated reflections on the world in which humans were living and on the afterworld. The great variety and complexity of mortuary practices and mortuary rites in the Palaeolithic reflect the many unsolved problems and contradictions between life and death, between humans and their natural as well as their socio-cultural environment, which faced the humans daily. Tue, 03 Feb 2026 16:29:38 +0100 Tue, 03 Feb 2026 16:29:44 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6157 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6112 Ethnoarchaeology, considered as a subdiscipline of archaeology, has a growing significance for prehistory research as the significance of ethnology is reduced by the withdrawal of ethnologists (at least in German speaking countries) from fields such as the “incipient” peoples and their material culture which traditionally had combined the two disciplines. When 30 years ago L.R. Binford wrote about “archaeology as anthropology” and initiated thus a “revival” of archaeological material, the time of processual archaeology had come. Binford’s views on different behaviour during hominisation especially in the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic inspired discussions also among European archaeologists. An applied example (Simek 1987) concerning the French Palaeolithic is critically considered which refers to Binford’s model of changing human behaviour in land use and social structure. Different levels of behaviour and the impact on the archaeological record are stressed. Further on, a theory of Binford (1991) is discussed which demonstrates that the social role of elderly male members in a community is dependent on living conditions and environment for a hunter society. Tue, 03 Feb 2026 14:45:43 +0100 Tue, 03 Feb 2026 14:45:57 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6112 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6051 Biorhythms are present in all organic life and probably evolve very slowly. The suggestion is made in this paper that there has probably not been much change in the biorhythms of Paleolithic Man and modern peoples. Therefore, through an understanding of the biorhythms of modern peoples, we can extrapolate that similar patterns would have been present in earlier members of Homo sapiens. This provides us with new possibilities in reconstructing the behavioral patterns of our near ancestors. In addition, the biological similarity between Paleolithic peoples and modern peoples would lead us to search for some of the causes of modern illnesses in disrupted biorhythmical patterns that have come about relatively recently in our evolutionary history, because of overwhelmingly large changes in our everyday environment. Fri, 30 Jan 2026 14:00:07 +0100 Fri, 30 Jan 2026 14:00:13 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6051 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6039 Palaeolithic populations displayed a strong morphological differentiation. The average biological distance between groups from Europe is much more higher in the Palaeolithic than in subsequent periods. Palaeolithic populations differ from post‑Palaeolithic ones on mortality structure, fertility structure, population size and density, biological state and dynamics etc., and also on response intensity to various environmental and cultural factors, i.e. the level of adaptability reactions (ecosensitive ones). A great deal of anthropological papers showed biological consequences of “Neolithic revolution”. Research objects were chiefly characteristics displaying a high level of reactions to ecological (environmental) factors such as nutrition, diseases, climate, soil composition etc. Individuals’ responses to agents altering phenotypic formation of morphological traits were mainly analysed. Relatively few works concerned to the role of natural selection in morphological variability formation of Palaeolithic and post‑Palaeolithic populations. The paper deals with an estimation of opportunity for natural selection operating by differential mortality and differentiating fertility (differential reproduction) in Palaeolithic and post‑Palaeolithic populations. On the ground of palaeodemographical and biodemographical data analysis of modern hunter‑gatherers and agriculturalists’ groups and morphological data it was shown, that in Palaeolithic differential death‑rate (if occured: indirect evidence is an occurrence of a strong races origination process), particularly in the reproductive period, could be the main field of natural selection activity. In post‑Palaeolithic populations severe decline of mortality is not observed, but rather intensification of this process in the first phase of neolithisation. At the same time processes of races origination are subject to diminution. Rapid increase of Neolithic populations density as in subsequent periods suggests considerable increase of fertility. We consider that just differential fertility and differential reproduction should be the field of natural selection activity in these populations. Differentiated mortality in reproductive period in Palaeolithic could be an effect of the following factors: change of ecological zone; radical alteration in occupied ecological zone caused (through differential mortality: fertility was relatively low, by the way) changes in biological state of population; intensification of morphological structure. Distinctions between groups inhabiting various ecological zones, what for Palaeolithic populations are the main factors have well‑defined adaptive significance. In post‑Palaeolithic populations change in populations density and structures caused differences in selective pressure on the natural selection, so differentiation appeared anew. Different “ways” of these populations’ development in these ecological conditions, after certain period of stabilisation of their adaptive structure (population size and dynamics), caused changes in phenotypic structure of morphological traits and created new morphological distinctions of regional level. The morphological structure of Palaeolithic populations is the result of: 1) the adaptation to their ecological conditions, as the response of natural selection, 2) the rearrangement of basic traits in situation of scarce population density, and 3) a great fertility in reproductive period. In the initial stage of the population density increase there was an effect of post‑Palaeolithic populations with distinctive morphological structure formed by natural selection. In stabilisation period effects of natural selection were of minor importance. In this stage morphological distinctions become the result of their ecological and social conditions. During Neolithic and post‑Neolithic times population density increased and post‑Neolithic groups represent that previously autochthonic (in adaptive morphological features “lost” their differentiation) but in changed conditions new cultural equipment of nutrients adapt the population being under different selective pressure. Common adaptive structure, new morphological processes were mutually independent. Palaeolithic “racial” distinctions became an essential adaptive distinction, so morphological processes of natural reduction (body size reduction, gracilisation, sexual dimorphism etc.) increased. Thu, 29 Jan 2026 16:46:40 +0100 Thu, 29 Jan 2026 16:47:39 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=6039 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=5842 Le musée Ourthe-Amblève présente un ensemble unique de fouilles pluridisciplinaires réalisées récemment dans les sites préhistoriques régionaux du Paléolithique inférieur (Belle-Roche), du Paléolithique moyen (grotte Walou), du Paléolithique supérieur (grotte Walou, grotte du Coléoptère, trou Jadot), du Mésolithique (Sougné A, Roche-aux-Faucons, Florzé), du Néolithique (abri Masson) et de l’Âge des Métaux (abri des Taons, trou de la Hé). The Ourthe-Amblève Museum exhibits a unique collection from multidisciplinary ecavations recently carried out at prehistoric regional sites from the Lower Palaeolithic (Belle-Roche), from the Middle Palaeolithic (the Walou cave), from the Upper Palaeolithic (the Walou cave, the Coléoptère cave and the Jadot hole), from the Mesolithic (Sougné A, Roche-aux-Faucons, Florzé), from the Neolithic (the Masson shelter) and from protohistory (the Taons shelter, the Hé hole). Tue, 06 Jan 2026 16:57:44 +0100 Tue, 06 Jan 2026 16:57:51 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=5842 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=5098 Two Eemian and four post-Eemian Middle Palaeolithic (MP) industrial traditions are recognised in the Crimea, namely : Late Acheulean, Eastern Taubachian, then Eastern Micoquian (Ak-Kaian), two kinds of para-Micoquian or Micoquian-related Charentoid industries (Kiik-Kobian and Staroselian), and Typical Mousterian (Kabazian). The Crimean MP undoubtedly belongs to the sphere of ideas and logic of development of the European Palaeolithic. However it survived until comparatively late (ca. 30 kyr BP) which adds originality to the process of the local MP / UP transition. Thu, 14 Aug 2025 14:44:56 +0200 Thu, 14 Aug 2025 14:45:09 +0200 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=5098 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=1996 The age of Palaeolithic sites is often a matter of debate. Absolute dating is problematic for the older records with an age beyond the limit of radiocarbon dating (>50 ka) and hence, other methods have to be applied. A classical method is the use of biostratigraphical data, using knowledge of the changes in flora and fauna that are caused by the evolution, extinction and migration or dispersal of species. The Quaternary larger and smaller mammal records are subdivided into a number of biozones that form a biostratigraphical framework that is widely applied among Quaternary continental stratigraphers. The Quaternary biozonation, described in this paper, plays an important role in Palaeolithic research. Thu, 16 Jan 2025 10:59:46 +0100 Fri, 25 Jul 2025 14:06:23 +0200 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=1996 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=1758 This paper details the interpretative role obsidian characterisation studies can play in earlier prehistoric archaeology. It reviews recent contributions to debates on early hominin cognitive development and social complexity, the question of Neanderthal mobility, and how obsidian sourcing is shedding light on colonisation processes globally. Methodologically it is suggested that by adopting a more holistic chaîne opératoire analytical framework, which integrates an artefacts’ elemental data with its techno-typological attributes, we can maximise the interpretative potential of our data, and provide a more powerful means of reconstructing past networks of interaction, or ‘communities of practice’. Cet article détaille le rôle caractéristique que peut jouer l’obsidienne dans les études d’archéologie préhistorique ancienne. Nous allons tenter d’examiner l’apport des débats récents sur le développement cognitif de l’hominidé archaïque, la complexité sociale, la question de la mobilité néanderthalienne et comment l’approvisionnement en obsidienne met en lumière le processus de colonisation à l’échelle globale. Méthodologiquement, on pense qu’en adoptant un cadre global pour la chaîne opératoire, intégrant les données élémentaires des artefacts avec leurs caractéristiques technotypologiques, on pourra maximaliser le potentiel interprétatif de nos données et fournir des moyens plus puissants pour reconstituer les réseaux passés d’interactions, ou de ‘communities of practice’. Mon, 06 Jan 2025 14:46:16 +0100 Mon, 06 Jan 2025 14:46:22 +0100 http://popups.lib.uliege.be/3041-5527/index.php?id=1758