[en] Can group mobility during the Upper Paleolithic be considered a form of nomadism? To answer this question, we must recognize that the archaeological record, invariably an altered picture of what was originally deposited by people, provides only limited access to prehistoric behavior. By also using ethnography, we can have a better understanding of the reality of a nomadic camp under periglacial conditions and evaluate if archaeologically-known campsites show similar material characteristics to ethnographic examples under similar environmental constraints. Whether they occupied caves and rock shelters or installed themselves in open air localities with protectives structures, Upper Paleolithic people typically inhabited spaces for short periods of time, because the groups themselves were moving according to vegetation cycles, ethology of animals, the accessibility of myriad raw materials, etc. If we work to identify Paleolithic group movements based simply on seasonality, we are essentially examining specific and limited moments in time and space. Still, it appears that people occupied spaces as if they were concentric circles. At the center was the core of the habitation, the material expression of the occupying social unit and the domain of women. Around these core units were private spaces associated with individual social groups and community spaces including areas used particularly by men. Surrounding the camp proper were the regions exploited by the group during their stay at the encampment. Finally, further beyond was the territory ranged by the people over the course of the seasons as they sought and exploited the resources that sustained them.Dependence on those elements of the environment that people exploited to survive required flexibility in human social organization and especially in the periodic aggregations and dispersals, small and large, of people. The distribution of gendered activities, which concerned as much the acquisition of food as the productive organization of daily life, was reflected in the spatial structure of habitation localities into female and male activity zones. Numerous criteria display the status and needs of individuals as much as that of social units.To survive in Pleistocene conditions, a vast array of knowledge was required, in particular in order to evaluate the relationship between time and environment and to exploit it. If there is technical versatility among individuals, variation in competencies produced by differential learning, this can be expressed by individuals in appropriate contexts. Thus structured, each family, the basic socio-economic unit, can find or fabricate all the implements necessary to live. Finally, ritual and symbolic practices permit humans to believe they exert a sort of control over their futures.We are comfortable with the idea of nomadism. But because we know archaeologically of halts in movement of short duration and of longer term, we cannot say if the norm during the Upper Paleolithic was a strict nomadism, with human groups making continual short pauses as they moved across the landscape, or a quasi-nomadism with long stops of several months at a time, during which the mobility of certain persons within the community was increased as they moved off from the main group to perform specific tasks in specific locations, followed by increased group mobility at other times of the year. The site of Pincevent allows us to illustrate this approach to prehistoric nomadism, as it exhibits evidence for several autumnal visits of short duration and for a winter occupation of long duration.

[fr] La mobilité des groupes du Paléolithique supérieur est-elle assimilable à du nomadisme ? N'ayant accès qu'à une petite partie de l'information, nous nous aidons de l'ethnographie pour comprendre ce qu'est un campement nomade en environnement périglaciaire et voir si les occupations que nous fouillons offrent des réponses semblables à des contraintes pour certaines similaires. Qu'ils aient occupé des abris-sous-roche ou dressé une structure de protection, cet espace approprié ne l'a été qu'un moment, les groupes se déplaçant selon des impératifs liés à l'acquisition des ressources végétales, animales et minérales, ainsi qu'à l'entretien des liens sociaux. Si notre objectif est d'identifier les mouvements des préhistoriques au fil des saisons, nous les étudions essentiellement à travers un lieu fixe qu'ils ont occupé à un moment T. Il apparaît que l'on peut schématiser cette appropriation de l'espace par des cercles emboîtés. Au cœur se trouve l'habitation, concrétisation de l'unité sociale. Autour le campement cumule espaces privés des habitations et espaces collectifs. Au-delà s'étend l'espace exploité à partir du campement. Enfin vient le territoire parcouru au fil des saisons pour s'approvisionner ou échanger.L'interaction étroite entre sociétés humaines et environnement que l'homme exploite pour survivre oblige à une souplesse de l'organisation sociale. De nombreux critères affichent tant le statut de chaque individu que celui de chaque cellule sociale. La répartition des tâches genrée concerne autant l'acquisition de nourriture que le bon déroulement de la vie quotidienne.Pour survivre et, notamment, pour bien évaluer la relation temps/environnement à exploiter, un vaste registre de connaissances est nécessaire. Chaque famille, unité socio-économique de base, peut trouver ou fabriquer la totalité des objets nécessaires à sa vie. S'il y a une polyvalence technique des individus, une répartition des compétences s'exprime dès l'apprentissage qui inscrit très probablement ceux-ci dans un genre. Enfin, des pratiques rituelles leur permettent de penser exercer une sorte de contrôle sur leur devenir.Il s'agit bien pour nous d'un nomadisme au Paléolithique supérieur. Mais, parce que nous connaissons des haltes de courte et de longue durée, nous ne saurions dire si la norme était un nomadisme strict ou un quasi-nomadisme. Le site de Pincevent (Seine-et-Marne), permet d'illustrer cette approche du nomadisme préhistorique : il offre à la fois des occupations d'automne de courte durée et une occupation d'hiver de longue durée.