Productions using hard animal materials (bone, antler, ivory, tooth, shell, etc.) provide fragile but valuable clues about cultural behaviors and human/environment interactions in the Upper Paleolithic. They reflect not only subsistence practices but also technical choices, cultural norms, and exchange networks of past nomadic populations. In addition to other data from material culture and archaeozoology, they contribute to a better understanding of ecocultural adaptations by documenting various strategies for adapting to and exploiting ecosystems during the Upper Pleniglacial.

Despite the inherent biases in studying artifacts made from organic materials and the interpretive challenges this entails, this presentation will discuss the perspectives offered by the study of productions in hard animal materials (including figurines) for their integration into ecocultural niche modeling during the Gravettian (32-24 ka cal BP). Specifically, it will test hypotheses on:

• The ecological flexibility or specialization of Gravettian groups through the analysis of choices made in the exploitation of natural resources (local vs non-local) and the methods of their acquisition (hunting, gathering). This information could enrich our interpretive scenarios on territorial exploitation strategies.
• The underlying factors in the evolution of cultural practices (equipment, know-how) across time and space. For example, why do we observe differentiated responses in equipment or know-how depending on the regions or periods of the Gravettian?
• Cultural interactions between different human groups by tracing continuities in technical and symbolic bone traditions. Models based on these data could provide a finer understanding of the diffusion of certain cultural traits or technical innovations and their role in the distribution of ecocultural niches. They would also shed light on social networks and interactions between groups, which are crucial for understanding the dissemination of cultural traditions in diverse environments.

These questions will be addressed theoretically and illustrated by case studies from various Gravettian contexts in Europe (France, Central Europe, Russia).