What Occupation Type in the Unit F at Payre (Ardèche, France)?: A Specialised Hunting Stop or a Short-term Camp? An Example of a Multidisciplinary Approach

Abstract

The middle Rhône Valley in the south east of France offers an opportunity to address the question of Neandertal mobility and the status of their occupations by comparing a broad corpus of sites in a limited chronological and geographic context. The combined study of occupation levels from ten deposits has revealed three occupation types defined based on the management and use of animal resources (Daujeard, 2008). This diver- sity is represented by technical choices and diverse tool assemblages. In addition to faunal criteria, this work compares other parameters, such as archaeostratigraphy, lithic artefacts and dental microwear to determine site function and occupation duration. We present the example of unit F at the site of Payre, dated to MIS 8/7 and defined as a recurring short -term camp.