Searching for reds and yellows at a Magdalenian open-air site: continuities and discontinuities at Pincevent (France) levels IV20 and IV0

Colouring materials, serving versatile functions, are common in Upper Palaeolithic sites. At Pincevent, Level IV0, these materials were used both to produce pigment powders and to manufacture a unique type of artefact: perforated discs. This specific production likely influenced the strategies for acquiring colouring materials. A comparison of provenance studies from levels IV0 and IV20 at Pincevent, dating to the Late Magdalenian (15–14 ka cal BP) and separated by less than a century, reveals complex strategies of acquisition, selection, and use, reflecting both local adaptation and long-distance exchange networks. The comprehensive petrological approach adopted here enables precise provenance identification and offers a framework for broader investigations of resource acquisition across both time and space. It demonstrates a dual procurement system combining locally sourced ferruginous sandstones from Ypresian formations with non-local raw materials—such as oolitic hematites, ferruginised crinoidal limestones, and massive hematites—transported over distances exceeding 200 km either north-west towards Normandy or south-east towards the Saone-Rhône valleys. Moreover, the selection of colouring materials appears to have been guided less by geographic proximity than by mechanical and textural properties of the rock types. This pattern indicates a deliberate and informed approach to resource management that varied through time depending on the use of the colouring materials, rather than opportunistic acquisitions.