Le Paléolithique supérieur de la Moldavie

Upper Palaeolithic lithic industries in Moldavia primarily can be attributed to traditional culture's known across Europe: (Aurignacian and Gravettian. followed by Epigravettian). However, they coexsist with other industries marked by the presence of bifacially retouched tools, in reportedly early contexts, but which are poorly dated and often heterogeneous. Such industries, considered in the literature as belonging to three of four vaguely defined cultural traditions, most probably should be grouped in a single cultural entity, the Prut culture. The main occupations can, with our current state of knowledge, be classified in a well-supported and well-dated regional chronostratigraphic scheme; they are attributed to Typical Aurignacian (33 000-29 000 BP), Gravettian (29 500-23 000 BP), Early Epigravettian (20 000-17 000 BP) and Late Epigravettian (13 500-11 000 BP). Data from Moldavia also are relevant to broad cultural phenomena: the Aurignacian exploration of a territory extending from to the centre of the Russian plain and to the northern foothills of the Ural (beginning at 33 000 BP), the multiple geographic origins of the Gravettian (around 30 000 BP), the presence of non-Aurignacian and non-Gravettian lithic industries (with bifacial tools, likely around 27 000-26 000 13P), the reappearance of technological characteristics of "Aurignacoid" aspect (from 21000 13P), and the massive return to a tradition with backed tools (from 20 000 BP). The data from Moldavia plays a role ill a broad palaeohistory, at a continental scale. (C) 2004 Elsevier SAS. Tous droits reserves.