La chasse du renne et du cerf par les communautes humaines gravettiennes, epigravettiennes et mesolithiques de l’espace carpatique-dniestreen

Abstract

The Hunting of the Reindeer and the Deer by the Gravettian, Epigravettian and Mesolithic Human Communities of the Carpathian-Dniestrean Space

It is well known that Gravettian hunters were the best reindeer hunters, while the Epigravettian and Mesolithic hunters especially hunted the red deer. The first explanation consists in the environmental conditions, almost identical in the various regions of Europe, during the periods when these communities lived; archeological excavations undertaken in their establishments allowed determining of several realities: the modalities of locating the habitats (even the habitations); the predilection for the geographicgeomorphological areas; the climate micro-episodes (for instance, the periglacial climate for several geographical micro-regions); the usage of hard materials of animal origin – reindeer and red-deer antlers – as supports for implements, weapons, body ornamental items or art objects, even the usage of horns in the field of the funeral rites, etc. The existence of regional variations was noticed: for instance, in its artistic representations, etc., which are more numerous, Atlantic Europe being dominated by reindeer hunting. In this context, it appears that the red deer is an animal to which a very rich symbolism is attached, so being also the case of the bison or of the reindeer in other geographic regions and prehistoric cultures.
Therefore, a special attention is paid to the paleozoological finds in the Gravettian and Epipaleolithic – Mesolithic habitat levels, which are also identified throughout the East-Carpathian territory and the Russian Plain. We shall present such finds from Mitoc-Malu Galben and also in other important sites of the considered geographic area, due to their multifunctional character (existence of species as environmental elements, their usage as food, or the usage of the skins and carcasses in constructions, of bones and horns for artistic creations or in order to arrange cult-related structures).
The East-Carpathian territory of Romania, situated between the Eastern Carpathians and the Prut, then the Dniestr, to which the Romanian Plain is added (between the Danube and the Southern Carpathians), is very well studied from the archeological point of view. There were discovered several sites with levels of the Gravettian habitat and belonging to the Epigravettian (of Mediterranean aspect) and to the Mesolithic, with a rich and varied archeological material. Among the fauna remains, the category belonging to the reindeer (Gravettian) and the red deer (Epigravettian-Mesolithic) is the one which dominates statistically. The human communities used the reindeer and the red deer not only for food, as they also used horns for making implements and weapons and as supports for art objects.

Keywords: Epigravettian; Mesolithic; bone; antler; mobile art; reindeer; red deer.