Bahn Paul G. Pyrenean Prehistory. A palaeoeconomic survey of the French sites

Aris & Phillips, 1983. — 511 p. — ISBN: 0-85668-260-8.The French Pyrenees occupy a key gateway position between southern France and the Iberian Peninsula. In prehistoric studies this region has long been overshadowed by the Perigord - yet it is an archaeologically rich area, and was the scene of work by some of the earliest and greatest pioneers of prehistory: Noulet, Lartet, Piette, and the first work by the abbe Breuil. It contains two type-sites Aurignac and the Mas d'Azil - and many of the finest examples of palaeolithic parietal and portable art. It is the region with the most evidence for the enigmatic activities of Magdalenian man in deep caves; and it is rich in megalithic monuments.
This book is the first synthesis of the prehistory of the French Pyrenees; it attempts to present an up-to-date account of the subject, from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, and from Tautavel to the Iron Age. It lays emphasis not on the artifacts, but on the site-locations and the development of subsistence patterns, and relates them to environmental /climatic change and to topography. It argues that Upper Palaeolithic man could have manipulated herds of animals, that Mesolithic man was by no means a miserable eater of snails, and that the distribution of megalithic monuments is directly related to the seasonal altitudinal movements of pastoralists.