PALEO-BEARS

In Europe, the period from 50,000 to 30,000 years ago is characterized by significant climate fluctuations that induced deep turnovers in the mammalian communities, including human populations such as Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans. Numerous archaeo-paleontological findings have been uncovered in caves, which correspond to natural occupations by Ursids (Ursus spelaeus, Ursus arctos) or to occupations alternating with human groups. Interactions between humans and bears, which include sub-synchronous occupations, rock art, and the anthropogenic modification of bear skulls, are particularly evident at the Chauvet cave, which is an important decorated cave that also served as a denning place by cave bears during the early Late Paleolithic. This project proposes a multidisciplinary approach to investigate several Ursid deposits, with the dual objective of characterizing the eco-ethology of both cave bears and brown bears as well as examining human-bear interactions and anthropogenic modifications of bear remains during the Late Pleistocene. The first section of the project consists of a paleoecological approach (population dynamics, carnivore traces on bones, radiocarbon dates within and between sites, the study of Ursid diet (stable isotopes in relation to paleoenvironmental data), morphometry (photogrammetry) of bioglyphs (traces of bears' activities in caves). The second part corresponds to an anthropozoological approach that encompasses paleolithic zooarchaeology (use of Ursid bones), the taphonomic characterization of brown bear ritual deposits in Holocene Scandinavia, and the role of bears in current/recent ceremonials in Eurasia. Through this approach on Ecology/Archaeology/Ethnology, this project aims to specify the roles played by natural factors such as climate variations, inter-predator competition and cultural factors such as human utilization of caves, predation and symbolism on the co-evolution and extinction of bears during the Paleolithic.