An autumn at Pincevent (Seine-et-Marne, France): refitting for an ethnographic approach of a Magdalenian settlement

Abstract

To provide an image of the Magdalenians who came to hunt reindeers on the banks of the Seine River 13,000 years ago, we largely, but not only, relied on flint refitting that is just one of the many analytical tools. This reconstruction of a Paleolithic camp shows habitations and workshops extending over an area of nearly 5.000 m2. The refitted debitage sequences enabled us to identify individuals from their performances. There are young apprentices knapping for un-useful production, only to acquire a skill. Productive knappers can be experienced or only competent. By applying a frame of reference to the refitting done in each habitation, we have identified knappers whose skills we have assessed and that we can count. Their numbers vary according to the different habitations, and we can propose an evaluation of the size of the group and show that the organization of the camp and of each of the habitations obeyed rules. The connections highlighted for each category of remains do not always have the same intensity nor the same meanings. By analyzing the relationships between the units indicated by the flint, but also stones and fauna refittings, we have outlined, probably in a very fragmentary way, some aspects of the social organization of those Magdalenian families, suggesting that certain relationships of dependency existed between them: three families accept a particular status of the master of the fourth residence whose social unit appears different from the others, and with whom the community of the camp maintained relationships of allegiance.