Taphonomie des restes aviaires de l'Igue du Gral (Lot). Considérations méthodologiques et paléoenvironnementales

Bird bones taphonomy at Igue du Gral (Lot). Methodological and palaeoenvironmental considérations.- Igue du Gral excavations have yielded thousands of bird remains that are the subject of this paper. The avifaunal spectrum is largely dominated by the Alpine chough, Pyrrhocorax graculus, and shows a low taxonomic diversity. A multi-criteria taphonomic study is carried out to understand the causes of their presence in this natural trap. In feedback, this study allows to question the relevance of the methods used. The abundance of chough bones belonging to immature individuals, the absence of traces of predation, the high fragmentation on dry bone, suggest that Igue du Gral has served for a long time as a breeding place for this cave-dwelling bird. Many chicks would have died in the site before fledging. The presence of this small corvid in Quercy, alongside with ptarmigan and reindeer, indicates the existence, during the sediment deposition, of an open landscape and a climate more rigorous than currently. In the state of archaeozoological data, chough does not appear as a resource for prehistoric hunter-collectors who frequented the region at this time.