Cantalouette 1

In the Dordogne region of France, the recent excavations of two Early Middle Paleolithic sites have revealed the coexistence of two different techniques of flint tool production: flake debitage and bifacial tool shaping.
At Cantalouette 1, large centripetal cores were reduced to produce flake blanks to be shaped into bifacial pieces according to functionally predetermined models. Flaking thus preceded shaping in a continuous reduction process. At the same time, smaller cores were reduced to produce smaller flake blanks that would be transformed into more diverse flake tools. The function of this site was associated with both tool production, bifacial or not, and in situ tool use.
At Combe Brune 3, certain blocks were successively reduced through flaking and shaping operations. The flaking operation consisted of short series of flake removals from two or three intersecting surfaces. These flakes were very robust and only slightly retouched, or used without retouch. The bifacial pieces produced were unique in their associations of active parts. Many of the bifacial pieces were present only briefly at the site, where they were used and/or resharpened, while the flake tools were consumed in situ.
These two occupations, like others in the Bergerac zone of the Dordogne region, reveal techno-economic relationships between flaking and shaping productions that are both functional and economic. A true collective anticipation of tool needs can thus be discerned at Cantalouette 1, with the predetermination of flakes and their shaping according to predetermined techno-types. At Combe Brune 3, these behaviors appear more individual, as is shown by the great variability of production schemes and the status of certain mixed blocks that were both flaked and shaped.