De la paléontologie du xixe siècle à l’archéozoologie du xxe siècle

Abstract

Large mammal fossil bones have been highly considered during debates about the Antiquity of Man. At early XIXth century, scholars looked for evidence of contemporaneity between knapped tools and extinct animals. The first classifications of prehistoric ages were based on these fossil bones. A turn occurred in the second half of the XIXth century. Animal palaeontology, which was an emerging discipline, reinforced two theses: on one hand about evolution, on the other hand about the animal origin of Man. In addition, Lyell published in 1863 the first general work about palethnology, although he did use this term. Since then, raw and transformed animal bones have been also used as evidence of Prehistoric subsistence habits and socio-cultural behaviours. By comparing ancient and modern methods, we will attempt to show the contribution of fossil bones to the progress of knowledge about the antiquity of Man and the evolution of palaeontology, through adaptation to new theoretical approaches, to what is nowadays called archaeozoology.

Keywords

• archaeozoology
• biochronology
• palaeoecology
• palaeoethnology
• palaeontology
• taphonomy