Placard is a major Upper Palaeolithic site in France, known from as early as the middle of the nineteenth century. Paradoxically, owing to the antiquity of the poorly-documented early excavations, dozens of thousands of remains that were uncovered then are either unpublished to this day, or have only been the subjects of limited and often obsolete studies. This is the case in particular for the human remains, for which, until recently, the cultural attribution was moreover still under debate. Dating makes it clear they belong to various periods, yet most of them form a homogeneous group remarkable by traces of a specific treatment. Thanks to radiocarbon dating and to data from further excavations carried out some thirty years ago, this group can be dated from the Badegoulian period. Les restes humains badegouliens de la Grotte du Placard presents a detailed study of the Badegoulian human remains. On the basis of quantification and bone modification analyses, they describe and identify the treatments of the dead. Whereas the general treatment pertains to the practice of cannibalism, more specific ones, focused on the head, can be explained by the crafting of trophies. On the whole, these treatments can be interpreted in a consistent manner by one or several episodes of armed conflicts, begging the question of the possible existence of warfare during the Upper Palaeolithic. Thus, despite the antiquity of the discovery, the Badegoulian human bones from le Placard still constitute a unique assemblage that contributes greatly to our knowledge of the behaviours of hunter-gatherer populations in European prehistory.

What is the status of the human remains from the Level 2 of the Abri Pataud? This is the question that a multidisciplinary team has tried to answer with a threefold approach: new excavations, detailed review of the collections and detailed historiographical analysis of the former excavations (HL Movius). The Level 2 of the Abri Pataud, which is a reference site for the French Upper Palaeolithic, is dated to -22 000 years. It is attributed to the final Gravettian. This book, through the contributions of 18 authors, presents the results gathered during the first five years of excavation and study (2005-2009) placing it in a the broader context of the final Gravettian in France. It brings new elements of interpretation concerning the human occupation and examines the original burial behavior observed in the Level 2.

Papers on skull interpretations and related archaeological issues from a roundtable event organized by La Musee National de Prehistoire, Les Eyzies-de-Tayac (Dordogne, France), in October 2010. Contents : 1) Decapitation/decollation : une distinction justifiee ? (Bruno Boulestin et Dominique Henry-Gambier); 2) Tetes coupees, tetes-trophees. L'exemple de l'ile de Paques (Nicolas Cauwe); 3) Pourquoi couper des tetes ? (Alain Testart); 4) Quelques reflexions a propos des coupes craniennes prehistoriques (Bruno Boulestin); 5) Tetes coupees : donnees archeo-anthropologiques et lignee neandertalienne (Celimene Mussini et Bruno Maureille); 6) Les pratiques autour de la tete en Europe au Paleolithique superieur (Dominique Henry-Gambier et Aurelie Faucheux); 7) Ofnet et les depots de tetes dans le Mesolithique du sud-ouest de l'Allemagne (Christian Jeunesse); 8) Le crane mesolithique de l'abri du Mannlefelsen I a Oberlarg (Haut-Rhin) : etude des modifications osseuses (Bruno Boulestin et Dominique Henry-Gambier); 9) Apercu des pratiques autour de la tete du Neolithique au premier age du fer (Bruno Boulestin); 10) A propos des cranes decouverts dans les fosses d'enceinte de la culture de Michelsberg (Christian Jeunesse); 11) Du prix et des usages de la tete. Les donnees historiques sur la prise du crane en Gaule (Jean-Louis Brunaux); 12) Pratique des tetes coupees chez les Gaulois : les donnees archeologiques (Elisabeth Rousseau); 13) Acquisition, preparation et autres traitements de la tete chez les Gaulois : aspects anthropobiologiques (Bruno Boulestin et Henri Duday). French text.