Living in South of France around 4000 BC - CNRS - Centre national de la recherche scientifique Accéder directement au contenu
Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2018

Living in South of France around 4000 BC

Résumé

In southern France, for the Chassey culture, our knowledge of land use dynamics was until then mainly restricted to cave occupations, massive enclosures and, in alluvial plains only, large open-air sites without any compelling trace of habitat. For this period, the only known buildings were then unconvincing and scattered on the territory. A recently excavated site in Vernègues (60 km north-west from Marseille) renews our knowledge with the discovery of a village composed of about fifteen buildings. These constructions demonstrate high-level architectural skills and reflect the advanced consideration given to their implantation during the two centuries of occupation of the site. Moreover, the analysis of the architectures reveals two main types of buildings: a dozen of standardized constructions seems to refer to domestic use and some impressive "special buildings" may evoke more collective purposes. The living floors are not preserved, but the activities conducted on the site may be approached by the archaeological material found in dug-in features: postholes, pits, wells and in an area where heated-stone hearths are concentrated. The different kinds of remains (ceramic, flint and obsidian industries, grinding tools…) reveal several spatialized activity areas. Charcoal analysis gives clues about the management of the natural resources around the site. In particular, their examination reveals a selection of the fuel used in the heated-stone hearths, with a respect for this choice over time. During the Chassey period, the Vernègues site is integrated in a large-scale distribution network as evidenced by the discovery of numerous obsidian artefacts and of a copper awl. These objects refer respectively to Sardinian and Italian origins. The organization of this village could result from this integration in a supra-regional network of influences and cultural interactions. It is indeed tempting to make comparisons between Vernègues and villages of contemporary cultures from Central Europe
Fichier non déposé

Dates et versions

hal-02046411 , version 1 (22-02-2019)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-02046411 , version 1

Citer

Clément Moreau, Claire Delhon, Vanessa Lea, Sylvain Foucras. Living in South of France around 4000 BC. Building Bridges., Building Structures, Activity Areas and Site Layouts of Neolithic Settlement Areas, 23rd Annual meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists, Aug 2017, Maastricht, Netherlands. ⟨hal-02046411⟩
103 Consultations
0 Téléchargements

Partager

Gmail Facebook X LinkedIn More