Eine neue mittelpaläolithische Freiland­fundstelle in der Nordwestschweiz mit dem Nachweis eines MTA-Faustkeils

Abstract

A New Middle Palaeolithic Open-Air Site in North-Western Switzerland with Evidence of an MTA Biface

Numerous Middle Palaeolithic sites are known from north-western Switzerland, which can generally be dated to the last glaciation and can be summarised under the »cultural term« of Moustérien. Apart from isolated attempts to categorise them as belonging to a particular Moustérian facies, no absolute dating are available for the individual sites. With the surface find of a heart-shaped biface (biface cordiforme) in the Füllinsdorf-Oberholz site discovered by a volunteer in 2016, a find inventory can now be assigned to the Moustérien de tradition acheuléenne (MTA) for the first time in Switzerland, the dating spectrum of which is around 50 ka BP. In addition to this biface, the series contains a scraper (racloir à dos aminci) and a limace made of flint, as well as two choppers made of hard volcanic rocks. Several flakes and two cores prove the use of the Levallois technique. Füllinsdorf-Oberholz lies at the southern end of a zone of MTA sites that extends far northwards along the Rhine. According to current knowledge, this zone, which is mainly defined by MTA bifaces, is clearly distinct from the other MTA distribution with its main zone in south-west France.