A New Look at the End of the Middle Palaeolithic Sequence in Southwestern France

International audienceIn the south west of France the majority of research concerning the Middle-to-Upper Palaeolithic transition tends to focus upon the Chatelperronian and Aurignacian at the expense of the end of the Middle Palaeolithic. This contribution attempts to rectify this shortcoming by demonstrating that the classic model of a direct MTA-Chatelperronian filiation is no longer valid as these two techno-complexes are in fact separated by two final Mousterian phases: a Discoid-Denticulate Mousterian followed by a Levallois Mousterian with large scrapers