DENTAL AND LOCOMOTOR PATHOLOGY OF GAME RU MINANTS IN THE GROTTE DE LAVACHE (UPPER PALEOLITHIC, ARIEGE, FRANCE)

The <<Grotte de la Vache>> (Late Glacial, Ariege, France) gave 139753 animal osteological remains, of which 81358 from Ruminants [in order o f numerical importance : Pyrenean ibex (Capra pyrenaica), Reindeer (Ra ngifei tarandus), Pyrenean chamois (Rupicapra pyrenaica), Red deer (Ce rvus elaphus) and Roe deer (Capreolus capreolus)]. 120 rests of ibex, reindeer and red deer are injured (6 dental et 114 bony lesions). The game showed a traumatic or overloading locomotor pathology due to the environment (hard and irregular soils) and to the weight of animals (P yrenean ibex, red deer, reindeer) : fracture, osteoarthritis, arthrosi s, chronical ossifying periarthritis, periostitis and tenosynovitis, d eforming chronical arthritis. Articular diseases of the limbs obey to a double gradient, caudo-cranial (68% of lesions in the thoracic limb, 32% in the pelvic limb), and proximodistal (16% above carpus or tarsu s, 84% in digits) : this corresponds to present clinics in domestic an imals. The predatory strategy of the paleolithic hunters is not well k nown : they selected victims according to their needs and means and di d not neglect easy preys which became occasionally available by some l ocomotor troubles.