The beginning of the Gravettian in North-Western Europe. Changing behaviours between 28.000 and 26.000 BP

Between 30.000 and 28.000 BP, the material culture of European hunter-gatherers societies is affected by a series of modifications leading to the development of new technical and symbolic traits commonly labelled as “Gravettian”. The Gravettian period display a very broad distribution of these traits, whether in terms of geography or in terms of chronology. Their adoption, and the consecutive disappearance of those prevailing during the Aurignacian, is still largely debated. Several hypotheses are considered, going from a diffusion process coming from Central Europe, to a simultaneous development of the Gravettian in various areas across Europe. To address such question, regions like Central Europe and South-West France play a major role because of numerous sites offering reliable data. North-western Europe, on the contrary, is characterized by the scarcity of well-documented sites, a situation that also characterise the EUP in general in this region. Stratigraphic sequences, especially those of Belgium, are also problematic because of a long history of research starting in the 19th century. However, a limited number of open-air sites dated to the early phase of the Gravettian period, reunite the conditions for an extensive study of Early Gravettian technical behaviours: Maisières-Canal (Province of Hainaut, Belgium), Ormesson – Les Bossats (Seine-et-Marne, France) and, to a lesser extent, Station de l’Hermitage (Province of Liège, Belgium). The study of the lithic industries recovered at these sites, suggest that the appearance of the Gravettian was a progressive process in North-western Europe, taking place between 28.000 and 26.000 BP, and involving the development of at least one specific technical tradition. This tradition diverges from the usual Early Gravettian industries on technological, typological and functional grounds. Therefore, we intend to show that, despite the overall poverty of the data regarding the EUP in North-West Europe, this territory can nonetheless participate significantly to the reflections on the developmental process of the Gravettian.