The Neanderthal exploitation of the large mammals of the Ramandils cave ( Port-la-Nouvelle, Aude, France). Alternations of occupations during the Middle Paleolithic on the northwestern Mediterranean coast.

Lucile Rusch∗1,2, Anne-Marie Moigne3, and Sophie Gr´egoire4,5

1Universit´ede Perpignan Via Domitia (UPVD) – Universit´ede Perpignan Via Domitia – 52 avenue Paul Alduy - 66860 Perpignan Cedex 9, France 2Histoire naturelle de lHomme´ pr´ehistorique(HNHP) – Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Universit´ede Perpignan Via Domitia, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique : UMR7194 – Institut de Pal´eontologie Humaine 1, rue Ren´ePanhard 75013 Paris, France 3Mus´eumNational dHistoire´ Naturelle (MNHN) – Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle – 57, rue Cuvier - 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France 4Histoire naturelle de lHomme´ pr´ehistorique(HNHP) – Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Universit´ede Perpignan Via Domitia, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique : UMR7194 – Institut de Pal´eontologie Humaine 1, rue Ren´ePanhard 75013 Paris, France 5Universit´ede Perpignan Via Domitia (UPVD) – Universit´ede Perpignan Via Domitia – 52 avenue Paul Alduy - 66860 Perpignan Cedex 9, France

R´esum´e

Ramandils cave (Port-la-Nouvelle, Aude, France) is a coastal site in the northwest margin of the Mediterranean Basin systematically excavated between 1983 and 1994 by Paul Bouti´e and his team (Bouti´eet al., 1994). This deposit delivered an abundance of lithic industry characterized by a continuous and small typical Mousterian facies of the Middle Palaeolithic technocomplexes with alternations more or less rich in denticulates (Mol`es,2008). Faunal remains record a diversity of large mammals, carnivores, meso and microfauna and many terrestrial and marine shells indicating various exploitations of the different coastal resources. Two human teeth were found in level II without sepulchral context like most caves of the same regional Middle Palaeolithic complex. The archaeostratigraphic sequence is formed of more than twenty relatively homogeneous human occupation levels determined by the lithic and faunal distribution. The recurring activity of the Carnivores represented by bone remains, coprolites and characteristic marks (tooth marks, fracturing, digested bones) indicates an alternation of the occupations between several predators (lynx, cave hyena, wolf) and Neanderthal populations.

The human exploitation of large fauna is attested with a predominance of red deer in most levels which represents more than a third of the large mammals. It is associated with horse,

∗Intervenant

sciencesconf.org:uispp2018:182905 aurochs, wild european ass and wild boar with a low MNI for each (less than 10 individuals per species). Depending the remains, different seasons are represented for each species stud- ied.

This faunal material only contains 5% of complete elements. Many taphonomic phenom- ena occured showed by the fragmention and the major concretion of the remains. However archaeozoological data show a strong anthropogenic impact related to butchery activities (bone marrow removal) and an intensive use of fire as exhibited by over 50% of remains being heated to totally burned. This Neanderthal site is located near major areas of flint’s supply. Displacements are there- fore oriented towards the north through the semi local territory qualified as intermediate, never exceeding 20 km from the cave, in which are also collected the other lithic materials in secondary position near the rivers. Moreover, the faunal material transported comes from different biotopes indicating a varied exploitation of the marine and terrestrial resources in a coastal context. Along the stratigraphy, we can relate the opening of the landscape with the increase of lithic raw materials diversity. These Neanderthal occupations are therefore characterized by regional mobility with a succession of short seasonal periods recording an intensive exploitation of animal resources.

Mots-Cl´es: Middle Paleolithic, Neanderthal, Mediterranean coast, large mammals, zooarchaeology, Taphonomy, Resources, Territory.