Baume Flandin et Abri du Maras : deux exemples de débitage laminaire du début du Pléistocène supérieur dans la Vallée du Rhône (sud-est, France)

Assemblages with blades are rare in the south of Europe and most of them are dated from the isotopic stages 4 and 3. The blades are, otherwise, often produced on Levallois cores with unipolar and bipolar methods. According to the sites, the blades are more or less retouched as different kinds of tools. However, there are no specific links between this blank and the tools, and never between the artefacts and the fauna remains (activities). The hypothesis of traditions or needs among time and space are asked without answer, while the blades are present in the north of Europe and the Near East in far older periods. Several sites can be considered to describe the variability of the technical behaviour and the archaeological context of the blades in south-east France, extending to north Italy. The two sites, Abri du Maras and Baume Flandin, located in the middle Rhône valley, yield evidence of a laminar debitage linked to a Levallois method and a “direct” method. The technical choices used in the two sites are accorded to the specificity of the laminar assemblages in the southern Europe.