THE LOWER PALAEOLITHIC SITE OF PEN HAT (CROZON, BRITTANY) AND ITS REGIONAL STRATIGRAPHIC CONTEXT

The two exceptional sites of Pen Hat and Trez Rouz (Crozon Peninsula, Brittany), and that of Tregana (North of the Brest Harbour, Brittany) are rare owing to the preservation of Pleistocene formations dated by infrared stimulated luminescence, electron spin resonance and radiocarbon. They highlight the regional occurrence of periglacial cover sands from the MIS 6, and of a high marine level attributed to the MIS 9a. These three sites in Western Finistere are key-sites to determine the conditions of occupation of archaeological sites during the Middle Pleistocene. During late MIS 11, the men settled south-east of the relief of the Toulinguet point, in an area sheltered from the prevailing west and north winds on the shore of a lagoon, between two pebble spits, an outcrop for small flint pebbles. Human occupations are mainly observed at the end of the interglacial periods thanks to the preservation of sediments of high marine stands or of early marine regressions with some fast ice, allowing hunting' possibilities on the just cleared sandy plains. Small and poorly prepared flakes with a single raw cutting-edge characterise this lithic series. Pen Hat toolkit appears atypical in the landscape of the Briton Lower Palaeolithic, especially known for its Large Cutting Tools of grained rocks (pebble tools and handaxes). Comparisons with the contemporaneous units of the Menez-Dregan reference site (layers 9 to 7) reveal some similarities. Nevertheless, it remains insufficient for a better inside the variability of the Lower Palaeolithic in Armorican lands. This suggests to explore another Middle Pleistocene sedimentary sequences with interesting archaeological potential, such as Pen Hat, Trez-Rouz and Tregana. If Pen Hat-Toulinguet represents clearly a key site and, for the moment, an atypical assemblage at a regional scale, its technology is seemingly coherent with the variability of the assemblages of the Lower European Palaeolithic.