Le mobilier funéraire de la Dame de Saint-Germain-la-Rivière (Gironde) et l’origine paléolithique des inégalités

Abstract

Abstract Grave goods associated to the Saint-Germain-la-Rivière burial and the Palaeolithic origin of social inequality. Archaeozoological and technological analysis of the grave goods associated to the Saint-Germain-la-Rivière burial (15 570 ± 200 BP) and their comparison with ornaments and faunal assemblages from contemporary Magdalenian sites and burials reveal the exceptional character of this inhumation. The great number of perforated red deer canines and the preference for teeth from young stags contrast with the virtual absence of red deer in south-western France faunal assemblages dated to the same period as the burial. The rarity and probable exotic origin of these teeth, the small number of paired canines, and the technological and morphological homogeneity of 1 the collection suggest that the teeth were obtained through long distance trade and represented prestige items. As observed in a number of hunter-gatherer populations and in disagreement with the supposed egalitarian character of Upper Palaeolithic societies, these items may have materialised the integration of this individual into a privileged social group.