Resumen de Enquête autour d'un outil: approche techno-économique, fonctionnelle et expérimentale des grattoirs châtelperroniens de Canaule II (Creysse, Dordogne, France)
Mickaël Baillet, François Bachellerie, Jean-Guillaume Bordes
After the Chatelperron knive/point, emblematic object, the endscraper is, numerically speaking, of prime importance within the Chatelperronian lithic industry. However, it remains under-studied. The techno-economical, spatial and functional study of the thirty-three endscrapers from Canaule II (Creysse, Dordogne) thus represents an opportunity of questioning the status of these tools within the Chatelperronian technical system. Both flint-knapping workshop and theatre of domestic activities, this site has indeed been well-preserved, and enables a great promise as to the reconstitution of their manufacturing sequence, handling, use, maintenance and abandonment. The results of this study are the following: 1) There is no specific production of endscraper blanks: these are chosen from among the large � sometimes elongated � flakes resulting from the shaping-out or rejuvenation phases of the laminar nucleus; 2) There is a variability as to, as much the morphology of the blanks, as to the aspect of their retouch; 3) One unique use is apparent: the scraping of dried skins, punctuated with the re-sharpening of the working edge as soon as the slightest wear appears. Nuancing our interpretation ethnographically, added to experiments alongside a tanner craftsman, we are putting forward the hypothesis that, here, this is a thinning procedure of skins. Bearing in mind that this corresponds to a very different stage of procedure from that of simple fleshing (both at the time and principle of intervention, as in the field of possible aims), we can conclude a minima that the Chatelperronians of Canaule II possessed an exacting know-how as to technical process, symptomatic of an authentic craftsmanship of leather.
