Frettes (Haute-Saone, France): A middle palaeolithic open air-site, first results

Frettes is an open air site discovered in 1900 by Docteur Bouchet. Since that date, the site has been prospected by several other local researchers. The surface industry condensed by areas of 50 m2, shows something defined around a Ferrassie Mousterian with oriental similitudes. Following a sondage campain in 1988 and 1989, the site has been dug in 1990 and 1991 by Gilles Huguenin. This excavation spread over 48 m2 and 3746 artefacts constitute one main lithic serie with about 78 artefacts per meter. During the first polls of 1988-1989 of 4 m2 of extension and the fulfilment of a 200 m trench which had for aim to compare polls all together, the lithic obtained was rich of Levallois finds (cores, flakes, tool-flakes), blade finds (rare cores, blades, blade-tools). During the excavation of 1991-1991, the lithic inventory shows the same typology and technology characteristics that we can describe as following: a main Levallois composition and in a lesser extent a blade composition. For the blade part of the lithic serie, we can notice the important part of blade cores done on the tranche of nodules or flakes and the great part of ventral flake realization next to the tradition flat or volume cores. During those researches, the question of a single or recurrent occupation was naturally written. The spatial analysis pleads for one main occupation. The blade artefacts commonly show the same characteristics than the Levallois artefacts position and density: common areas of high density, common areas of lower density, decline areas from higher density to the lowest. The archaological level shows a short vertical dispersion, around 7 cm, the maximum is 12 cm located on plots where the chalk records accidents. Retouched tool are made by noches, simple scrapers, double scrapers, few burins and endscrapers. Tools are also composed of truncatures and blade convex scrapers. The typology of the flakes is in accordance with types of cores: Levallois flakes, blades or allongated flakes, crested-blade. Located on the east side of a great chalky depression, the stratigraphy of the site can be very poor, away or can be developed with more than 2 meters of deposits before to find the rock. The raw material is local, the blue and white flints are coming from the Bajocien system. Other minerals are also present, they are non-silex like quartz or quartzite coming from the Saone river and his area far from 20 km from the site. This stratigraphy also permits us to propose a first model of major phase of deposit and major phase of frequentation of the landscape by hominids. This article underlines the first totally new results of the stratigraphy, the interpretative results and show us the main characters of an industry composed by Levallois and blade methods and where refittings are numerous and do reflect all debitage steps. (C) 2014 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.