Isabelle Crevecoeur

Thanks to @cnrs.fr @cnrsecologie.bsky.social @agencerecherche.bsky.social @univbordeaux.bsky.social @pacea.bsky.social @naturalsciences-be.bsky.social for their financial and/or institutional supports

Congratulations to @quentin-cosnefroy.bsky.social for his great work on the biological identification of the fragemented Goyet Neandertals!

Thanks to all the co-authors & teams involved in this project lead by @hrougier.bsky.social for years ! Such a joy to see how far we can go with small pieces 🦴

‼️📢 Neandertal as prey‼️
We demonstrated selective cannibalism behavior at the end of the Middle Palaeolithic in Northern Europe

#Neandertal #Prehistory #Cannibalism #MiddlePaleolithic #Goyet

Very proud of @nclsmartin.bsky.social 👏👏‼️

Great work !! @quentin-cosnefroy.bsky.social 👏👏

Well done @nclsmartin.bsky.social👏👏

@teyssand31.bsky.social

Happy to be associated to this paper led by @isabellecrevecoeur.bsky.social with important input of @solangerigaud.bsky.social

Heureux d’être associé à ce travail de longue haleine dirigé par @isabellecrevecoeur.bsky.social avec la participation décisive de @solangerigaud.bsky.social

Thanks so much @lemoustier.bsky.social !!

Merci Caroline!! Du réchauffé pour toi 😅😉, mais quelle plaisir de voir cela publié !

@hrougier.bsky.social @umr5608traces.bsky.social @univrouen.bsky.social @univ-amu.fr @mnhn.fr #MuséeNationalPréhistoire @cerege.bsky.social @archeosciences-bordeaux.fr @rennesuniv.bsky.social @ubmontaigne.bsky.social @ull.es @trentuniversity.bsky.social

🥇Last but not least, thanks to all the volunteer excavators and all the institutions that supported Saint-Césaire Research Project:
@cnrs.fr @univbordeaux.bsky.social @pacea.bsky.social
Département de Charente-Maritime, Ministère de la culture, DRAC Nouvelle Aquitaine, #Paleosite
(20/20)

🥇 This study is proof that teamwork really does make the dream work. Every contribution mattered, and together we built something bigger than the sum of its parts. Feeling lucky to work with such an amazing, multidisciplinary team of brilliant people (19/20)

⛏️ 🐚 This rare combo of early Upper Paleolithic industry + shell beads in W. Europe highlights cultural variability and suggests Châtelperronian makers were influenced by, or part of, early Homo sapiens dispersals (18/20)

🧑🧑 We suggest repeated encounters between biologically & culturally distinct groups shaped how people saw themselves & others, sparking in Europe a need for intergroup and self-identification (17/20)

🐚 🦴 Potential ornaments in Middle Paleolithic contexts are rare and lack beads. Ornament use only becomes widespread and consolidated with Homo sapiens groups arriving in the region ~55–42 ka (16/20)

🐚 🦴 Compared to these sites, Saint-Césaire stands out for its monospecific bead accumulation and site function. It is also unlike other Châtelperronian ornamentations, which center on bone and tooth beads (15/20)

🌍 🐚 Regional diversity of personal ornament in Europe associated to pre-Aurignacian Upper Palaeolithic techno-complex, with shell beads exclusively found in Mediterranean-Uluzzian contexts (14/20)

🧹 📈 Spatial stats tested associations among artefacts, fauna, shells & pigments.
▶️ Shells + pigments + Châtelperronian cluster together;
▶️ Bison links with Mousterian

‼️First evidence of shell beads with Châtelperronian artefacts ‼️

(13/20)

🧹 📈 The two lithic components show distinct alteration patterns, size distributions, and post-depositional processes (solifluxion vs. runoff), enabling clear spatial differentiation (12/20)

⛏️🧹 Unlike the area excavated by Levêque, this layer is ~45% Châtelperronian (2 points, 3 cores, 15 blades/fragments), while the Mousterian component is mixed and heterogeneous, combining Discoid and Levallois systems (11/20)

⛏️🧹 Both Châtelperronian & Mousterian artefacts occur in that layer dated between ~48-42 ka—so which techno-cultural association? Taphonomic, lithic & spatial analyses by François Bachellerie, Brad Gravina & Marc Thomas provide a clear answer... (10/20)

🔴 🔬Geochemical analyses of the red and yellow pigments by Laure Dayet show they aren’t local—their source lies at least 40 km from La Roche-à-Pierrot (9/20)

🐚 🔬Microscopic analyses by @solangerigaud.bsky.social revealed that perforated shells show no wear, and pigment staining comes from nearby hematite. With 14 intact shells, little/no wear, and high fragmentation, the evidence supports a shell ornament workshop (8/20)

🐚 The littorina, characterized by a wide range of natural colors when fresh, originate from the Atlantic coast, situated about 100 km away from La Roche-à-Pierrot at the time of the occupation (7/20)

🐚 🔴 In just 1 m², 184 shells and shell fragments (MNI = 58, mostly Littorina obtusata), alongside 183 pieces of hematite were recovered—both with clear human modifications. Thirty shells show pressure perforations, and the pigments bear percussion marks (6/20)

⛏️🧹 From 2018 to 2020, excavations of the layer once attributed to Levêque’s Châtelperronian revealed—in the best-preserved and thickest part of the sequence—the oldest known shell ornament workshop, dated to at least 42,000 years ago (5/20)

⛏️🧹 New excavations at La Roche-à-Pierrot—begun in 2013 under François Bachellerie & Eugène Morin, and directed by Isabelle Crevecoeur since 2015—aim to untangle site formation processes and have yielded fresh chronological and archaeological data (4/20)
doi.org/10.1016/j.qu...

No Reliable Evidence for a Neanderthal-Châtelperronian Association at La Roche-à-Pierrot, Saint-Césaire - Scientific Reports Scientific Reports - No Reliable Evidence for a Neanderthal-Châtelperronian Association at La Roche-à-Pierrot, Saint-Césaire

📖Since Levêque’s 1976–1987 excavations, reassessments of the faunal and lithic collections have revealed stratigraphic issues and questioned the Châtelperronian association with the Neandertal remains as 95% of that layer’s artefacts are actually Mousterian (3/20).
www.nature.com/articles/s41...