Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française 2025

Brisons la hache et enterrons-la !

Autopsie et réflexions autour du dépôt d'une grande lame polie en fibrolite à Kerarmerrien (Plouzané, Finistère)

Yvan Pailler, Stéphan Hinguant, Manon Mabo, Arnaud Agranier, Vincent Bernard, Emmanuelle Collado, Rozenn Colleter, Laurence David, Olivier Poncin, Alison Sheridan, Christophe Bontemps

Résumé :

Dans le cadre d'un diagnostic archéologique réalisé à Kerarmerrien, sur la commune de Plouzané (Finistère), a été mise au jour une remarquable lame polie en fibrolite, brisée en deux. Découverts à environ 0,40 m de profondeur sous la surface actuelle, les deux fragments n'ont pas été affectés par les labours modernes et se trouvaient à quelques centimètres l'un de l'autre. Ils se raccordent parfaitement, sans aucun manque, et forment une grande lame polie en forme de goutte d'eau. Une extension du décapage autour de la découverte et la fouille fine de la zone ont permis de confirmer que la pièce est totalement isolée et ne provient pas du comblement d'une quelconque structure. Le tranchant, bien que légèrement émoussé, mais sans trace de réaffûtage, laisse à penser que nous sommes face à un objet peu ou non utilisé. De même, la lame présente un polissage luisant sur toute sa surface hormis l'extrémité du talon qui conserve encore quelques petites plages brutes. Enfin, si la cassure présente un aspect frais, la patine qui affecte les surfaces atteste son ancienneté. Si nous ne pouvions pas exclure a priori la cassure accidentelle de la lame lors de son utilisation, il semble plus pertinent de nous orienter vers une autre interprétation, celle du bris puis du dépôt de l'objet, envisagés comme des gestes intentionnels. L'analyse typo-technologique, la pétrographie et les comparaisons régionales et inter-nationales sont sollicitées pour tenter d'identifier un scénario. Considérant la position topographique singulière du lieu de la découverte, sur une ligne de partage des eaux et très proche des sources de l'Ildut, la lame polie de Kerarmerrien pourrait en effet témoigner d'une pratique rituelle au Néolithique, celle du dépôt d'un objet socialement valorisé fait aux puissances surnaturelles.

Mots-clés : grande lame polie, imitation du type Durrington, fibrolite, pétro-archéologie, technologie lithique, Néoli-thique ancien/moyen, dépôt isolé, bris de la hache, acte sacrificatoire, Bretagne.

Abstract:

During exploratory excavation of an area of 23 ha at the north-west tip of Brittany, at Kerarmerrien in Plouzané commune, two fragments of a large polished axehead were found in undisturbed ground around 40 cm below the surface. In such a large stripped area, it is remarkable that no arrangement or concentration of Neolithic material was found; this shows that the object had been deposited on its own. The only other evidence for the presence of Neolithic people consisted of several hearths with heat-damaged stones in the surrounding area; these are most likely to date to the Early or Middle Neolithic, to judge from the latest radiocarbon dates. The deposition of this axehead was situated close to the sources of the coastal river Ildut, in a large marshy depression where there is no evidence for a permanent presence of people during the Neolithic. The technical analysis of the axehead shows that it was deliberately broken in two before being buried, and the act of breakage involved a particularly strong transverse blow. The two fragments, which conjoin perfectly with one another, were laid down side by side and head-to-tail, showing a clear intention to position them. The axehead, of an exceptional size (almost 23 cm long), must have taken hundreds of hours to manu-facture, involving hammering, sawing and polishing. Macroscopically, the raw material is a massive fibrolite, green-ish-yellow with brown patches; its interdigitated fibrous structure is typical of that seen at the outcrops at Plouguin. The results of geochemical analyses (by XRF and Raman spectrometry), compared with those of several raw material samples collected through prospecting, confirm that this is a sillimanite with muscovite, identical to that of the Plouguin outcrops, and more specifically to those at Lanrivanan, in the same commune, just 19 km to the north of the axehead findspot as the crow flies. The axehead, obtained through sawing (as is shown by the asymmetry of its cross-section), is in the form of a teardrop, reminiscent of the Durrington type of axehead made from Alpine rock. The Durrington type, like the Heilles type with which the axehead also shares formal similarities, had a fairly long currency, appearing during the Early Neolithic and disappearing during the Middle Neolithic 2. There is evidence for Neolithic activity during this period in bas Léon, with the number of B-VSG finds multiplying, while the Middle Neolithic evidence (in the form of passage tombs, arrangements of standing stones, settlements and fish weirs) reveals a certain patterning in the spatial organisation of activities.

The Kerarmerrien find spurred us to re-examine the deposits of axeheads that had been made in Brittany, comparing them with deposits of axeheads made from Alpine rocks that have recently been the subject of synthesis and thorough documentation by JADE project (directed by Pierre Pétrequin). Our attention was drawn to an old find (1970), of a complete axe with its haft, brought to the surface through shallow dredging in the Trieux estuary (Côtes-d'Armor), next to a bog. This is known only from a brief mention in a publication. While the haft could not be conserved, photographs taken shortly after its discovery allow us to make out its shape and size, and to draw a parallel with axes known in the Pfyn culture (Switzerland) dating to the first third of the 4th millennium; in these, the head was slotted directly into the haft and the upper end of the haft curves backwards slightly. The large axehead that was found in its haft at Trieux had a perfectly sharp blade and was made from a chrome-rich muscovite with sillimanite -- the chrome explaining the very green patches visible on the surface -- which points towards the outcrops of Plouguin, in north-west Finistère, as the origin. Rather than imagining a simple loss of this tool as someone crossed a small coastal river, it seems to us more likely that we are dealing with a case of deliberate deposition, connected with the water.

Several other findspots in Armorica and elsewhere suggest a deliberate choice of location for axehead deposition (the commonest being on high ground, or close to water, or at a rocky outcrop or beside a standing stone), generally at some distance from settlements or tombs. While the location of the findspot was important, it seems that the manner in which the axeheads were deposited similarly played a key role. Here, the observations made in situ at Plouzané, Carentoir and Lannion offer new insights on the complex question of depositional practices. To this we can add instances where axeheads have been associated with objects that do not seem special but which appear to us, with our prehistorians' eyes, to relate to the everyday. But, finally, what do we know of the biographies of these polished axeheads outside of their place of discovery; of their chaîne opératoire; and, in certain cases, of the outcrops from which their raw material had been extracted?

Keywords: large polished axehead, teardrop shape, fibrolite, petro-archaeology, lithic technology, Early/Middle Neolithic, isolated deposition, breakage of an axehead, sacrificial act, Brittany.

Mise en évidence de Schlitzgruben du Néolithique moyen sur le site des Jardins de Clopée Z3 de Giberville (Calvados)

Emmanuel Ghesquière, David Flotté, David Giazzon, Salomé Granai, Guillaume Jamet, Carole Vissac

Résumé :

La fouille d’une grosse occupation du Bronze ancien du site des Jardins de Clopée Z3 à Giberville, en 2020, a été l’occasion d’intervenir sur un nombre important de fosses en fente/Schlitzgruben qui font l’objet d’une présentation dans cet article.

Ces fosses longues, profondes et étroites se retrouvent sur tout le territoire national mais de façon beaucoup plus impor-tante dans la moitié nord de la France. Leur fonction ne fait pratiquement plus débat et il semble désormais acquis qu’elle soit celle de fosses de chasse utilisées pour le piégeage des grands mammifères. Elles apparaissent au début du Mésolithique récent, en remplacement des fosses cylindriques ou tronconiques ; leur présence s’accentue durant le Néolithique. Ces fosses témoigneraient ainsi de la persistance parfois importante de la pratique cynégétique parmi les populations agricoles.

Dans un premier temps, l’article s’attachera à discuter certaines problématiques concernant ces fosses. Dans un second temps, la description du site permettra de mettre en avant les différentes composantes de ces structures, de leur répar-tition en vastes systèmes organisés à leur morphologie propre. Les datations restent assez lacunaires sur ces fosses, tributaires des charbons piégés à la base de leur remplissage. Elles semblent ici confirmées par l’analyse malacologique, qui précise également leur implantation dans ou en bordure d’un secteur boisé. L’article conclura sur l’évolution de ces fosses sur le site durant le Néolithique moyen (4600-3400 cal BC) et leur inscription au cœur d’un paysage partielle-ment anthropisé.

Cet article n’a pas pour vocation de synthétiser l’ensemble des problématiques et des données concernant les Schlitzgruben au niveau national ni même régional, mais plutôt d’offrir de la visibilité sur un site précis, qui livre plu-sieurs systèmes de fosses en fente, décapés dans leur intégralité.

Mots-clés : Schlitzgruben, fosses de chasse, Néolithique moyen, système de fosses, datations radiocarbone, malacologie.

Abstract:

Several surveys and excavation operations were carried out on around a hundred hectares on the plateau between the municipalities of Giberville and Colombelles, in an openfield landscape dedicated to intensive cereal agri-culture. This geographical area is located on the outskirts of the city of Caen, in Normandy. Many occupations have been excavated on this site: a Roman villa, five Gallic farms and a set of small Early Bronze Age enclosures with asso-ciated funerary structures. In one of the largest excavation windows, several distinct systems of slit pits/Schlitzgruben were highlighted. These pits have the particularity of having a very elongated ovoid plan, a significant depth and very slightly flared sides. Two of these systems are recorded in the form of arched lines and another in the form of clusters, in addition to a few scattered pits. Schlitzgruben, from German literally designating a slit pit, is a structure with a length 2 to 5 times greater than its width. Its transverse profile is narrow and more or less deep, depending on the type (V, Y, I profile). Its longitudinal profile is either a regular deep bowl or a W-shaped one, with a less hollow central reserve. Its use as a hunting trap is generally adopted.

Added to this is a possible incomplete line highlighted in another diagnostic window and in the stripping process. Following the excavation of all the pits and due to the lack of material, the chrono-cultural attribution is based on a few radiocarbon dates of charcoal discovered at the base of their filling. Despite doubts about some of these dates, the inscription of these systems over the entire duration of the Middle Neolithic seems to be confirmed by the malacologi-cal study. A micromorphological study, linked to one of the Schlitzgruben, did not provide any traces of specific devel-opments. Furthermore, a concentration of large windfalls over an area of 1600 m2 in the excavation window would indicate the presence of a dense grove on the edge of the Schlitzgruben systems. The few dates carried out suggest

Keywords: eco-cultural niche modelling, prehistory, Gravettian, Rayssian, culture/environment relationships, rapid climate change.

Nogent-sur-Seine (Aube), site du Cardinal II : des fosses pré- et protohistoriques comme témoins de l’évolution des sols et des paysages au cours de l’Holocène

Céline Godard, Adrien Gonnet, Kai Fechner avec la collaboration de Salomé Granai et Sylvie Coubray

Résumé :

La mise au jour d’une série de fosses profondes datées du Mésolithique ancien et moyen, ainsi que du Néolithique et de l’âge du Bronze ancien à Nogent-sur-Seine (Aube, Grand Est) a permis d’appréhender ces structures comme des archives sédimentaires des sols anciens, aujourd’hui disparus. À travers une approche transdisciplinaire combinant les méthodes des géosciences et de l’archéologie environnementale, ces structures laissent entrevoir l’évolution des sols et de l’environnement intra-site, et permettent de replacer les différentes occupations dans leurs contextes paysagers. Cette approche a mis en évidence des traits pédologiques spécifiques pour les structures du Mésolithique, notamment des taux importants de carbonates secondaires mesurés par calcimétrie, associés à des comblements humi-fères issus d’un sol forestier particulièrement développé au Préboréal et au Boréal. La confrontation des mesures calcimétriques réalisées sur le comblement des fosses avec les âges mesurés par datation absolue révèle une bonne corrélation entre âge des structures et degré de carbonatation secondaire, et la décarbonatation progressive des sols. L’évolution pédologique transforme les dépôts lœssiques du terrain naturel encaissant à partir du Mésolithique moyen avec la mise en place d’un luvisol et d’un horizon argilique (horizon Bt). Cette évolution pédologique, à corréler avec l’optimum climatique de l’Holocène, affecte la partie supérieure des comblements des fosses mésolithiques les mieux conservées. Cette stabilité est renforcée par un milieu boisé où plusieurs essences se mêlent (perduration du pin, bouleau, puis chênaie mixte) comme l’illustrent les écofacts et les indicateurs malacologiques. Cet horizon Bt est également observé à l’échelle macro- et microscopique sous une forme remaniée dans le remplissage des structures du Néolithique ancien et moyen. Enfin, la seconde moitié de l’Holocène, à partir de l’âge du Bronze, est caractérisée par un milieu semi-ouvert, en partie anthropisé, où les premières phases d’érosion se mettent en place progressivement avant une déstabilisation généralisée des sols au Subatlantique, à la faveur d’un milieu majoritairement ouvert et anthropisé.

Mots-clés : Fosses profondes, Champagne, Mésolithique, Néolithique, âge des métaux, pédologie, géoarchéologie, carbonates secondaires, paléoenvironnement.

Abstract:

The discovery of several deep pits dating from the Early and Middle Mesolithic as well as the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age in Nogent-sur-Seine (Aube, Grand Est, France) has made it possible to consider these structures as sedimentary archives of ancient soils, now disappeared. Indeed, since the recognition of these mesolithic pits and their inventory in Champagne at the beginning of the 2010s, these remains have been regularly unearthed on a regional scale. However, the rarity of archaeological material in their filling (a rarity that is also noted in the Neolithic and later “V-Y-W” shaped pits) makes it difficult to establish a consensus around their functional approach. However, beyond the question of their function, it is necessary to consider these diachronic buried structures as real sedimentary traps allowing us to understand the past environment and the evolution of soils (in the pedological sense).

Indeed, these ancient soils are largely eroded nowadays and their study through the archives that constitute these structures has a real paleoenvironmental interest. By working on the evolution of pedogenesis, as well as on the major phases of erosion and truncation of soils, it is possible to better understand the state of conservation of the remains as well as the periods of more or less intense erosion that marked the Holocene. Conversely, in order to understand the dynamics of filling an archaeological structure and its post-filling evolution (given the interrelation between the surrounding soil and the filling), it is essential to understand the morpho- and pedosedimentary evolution of the natural sequences of a site.

This issue was at the heart of the scientific prescription issued for the operation, which explicitly stipulated the contin-uous use of geoarchaeology and paleoenvironment methods. One of these methods was based on the study of recurring pedofeatures by period. Indeed, certain specific features, such as primary or secondary carbonation, are commonly observed on a regional scale in the filling of ancient pits but had never been quantified until now. However, since soil evolution is closely linked to landscape evolution, certain periods may appear more favorable to the establishment of certain pedofeatures (secondary carbonation, decarbonation). Their study and the associated landscape reconstructions make it possible to deduce the impact of natural and anthropogenic forcing in their formation.

A transdisciplinary approach was therefore implemented as part of this operation, combining methods from geo-sciences (geomorphology, pedology, micromorphology), archaeology (identification and description of fill and sur-rounding soil dynamics, radiocarbon and OSL dating) and paleoenvironments (malacology, anthracology, carpology). This approach highlighted specific pedological features for the Mesolithic structures, including significant levels of secondary carbonates measured by calcimetry. Located in a wooded environment, the Early and Middle Mesolithic structures also recorded a thick reworked humus horizon in the fill and testify to a well-developed soil during the Preboreal / Boreal, without illuviation having yet been established.

From the Middle Mesolithic, the pedological evolution transforms the loess deposits of the surrounding natural ter-rain and establishes a Luvisol and an argillic horizon (Bt horizon). This evolution, to be correlated with the climatic optimum of the Holocene, affects the upper part of the fillings of the Mesolithic pits when they are well preserved. This stability is reinforced by the wooded environment comprising diversified species (persistence of pine, birch, then mixed oak forest). The Bt horizon is also observed at the macro- and microscopic scale in a reworked form in the filling of the structures of the Early and Middle Neolithic.

Finally, the second half of the Holocene, from the Bronze Age, is characterized by a semi-open environment, partly anthropized, where erosion tends to become progressively more present before a marked destabilization of the soils in the Subatlantic, thanks to a predominantly open and anthropized environment.

This pedological transformation is corroborated by the calcimetric measurements. By quantifying in an absolute way these secondary carbonation processes within the structures and in the surrounding soil, we note a strong correlation between the degree of carbonation and the chronological period. This correlation thus underlines the impact of natural processes (climatic forcing and vegetation cover) in these secondary precipitations. The environment appears strongly decarbonated for the most recent periods of the Holocene, with the formation of the Bt horizon, which is also observed in the surrounding soil of anthropogenic structures after the Middle Mesolithic.

These conclusions on the evolution of soils remain of course dependent on the particular lithostratigraphy of the site, corresponding to Pleistocene loess deposits, pedogenized in the Holocene. They are also limited, at this stage, to a par-ticular topographical and climatic setting, on the higher slopes of the dry valleys just south of this part of the Seine val-ley. Such approaches have to be carried out in different geomorphological contexts (plateaus, foothills, valley bottoms) and in different sequences (alluvium, colluvium, chalk) in order to ensure the representativeness of this morpho- and pedosedimentary evolution pattern. In addition, this first approach should be supplemented by a precise determination of the type of secondary carbonates according to a well-defined typology. However, the regular implementation of this trans-disciplinary approach and the continuation of the study of ancient pits according to this prism could make it possible to build and feed a corpus of comparison on a regional or even extra-regional scale, based on quantified data, in order to better understand the process of pedogenesis at work in and outside archaeological structures.

Keywords: deep pits, Champagne, Mesolithic, Neolithic, metal âges, pedology, geoarchaeology, secondary carbonates, palaeo-environment.

Femmes, rituels, réseaux

Ethnographie malgache et archéologie génétique

Boris Lelong

Résumé :

L’analyse génétique permet à l’archéologie d’identifier des relations de parenté biologique entre individus. Il est ainsi relativement facile de repérer une organisation résidentielle patrilocale. Les chercheurs tendent par ailleurs à compléter cette désignation par l’attribution d’une filiation patrilinéaire. Une approche génétique du concept de patrilinéarité semble ici se heurter à la définition sociologique du terme. L’objet du présent article est de rappeler que la patrilocalité peut être le fait de systèmes de filiation autres que la patrilinéarité, et de proposer une description analytique de celui qui en diffère le plus : la bilatéralité. Un terrain ethnographique contemporain dans les Hautes-Terres de Madagascar mettra en lumière les particularités de l’organisation sociale et spatiale du modèle patrilocal-bilatéral. Les villages, unités fixes structurées par un principe de résidence patrilocale, sont reliés par les flux continus qu’engendrent les mariages contractés par les jeunes gens. Ce réseau est entretenu et consolidé par des rassemblements rituels qui, de la naissance à la mort en passant par le mariage et les grandes fêtes de familles, s’articulent tous autour de la participation, symboliquement valorisée, des multiples communautés villageoises matrimonialement associées au hameau organisateur. Structurée matériellement autour des fils et politiquement autour des filles, la société locale place ainsi les femmes dans le rôle crucial de connectrices du tissu social. La description de ce système de parenté, très répandu avec diverses variantes de par le monde, pourra contribuer au travail d’identification des structures anciennes par l’archéologie contemporaine.

Mots-clés :  archéologie, génétique, anthropologie, parenté, filiation, patrilocalité, patrilinéarité, bilatéralité, Madagas-car, Betsileo.

Abstract:

Genetic analysis enables archaeologists to identify biological kinship relationships between individuals. It is thus relatively easy to identify a patrilocal residential organization (men live in their birth village, while women move to their husband’s). Researchers tend to complement this designation with the attribution of a patrilineal descent structure. However, patrilocality and patrilinearity are two different principles, and the former does not necessarily lead to the latter. Here, a genetic approach to the concept of patrilineality seems to clash with the sociological defini-tion of the term. As understood by anthropologists, patrilineality is a way of organizing social relationships that builds political groups through male kinship, while minimizing the role and functions of female kinship. What geneticists call patrilineality often is the genetic proximity of men buried in the same burial site: this configuration makes it possible to establish a patrilineal pedigree, a formulation that has the merit of clarity since it clearly refers to the reconstitution of a biological family tree, thus avoiding the confusion with patrilineality as a way of organizing society. But discovering a patrilineal pedigree in a funeral site indicates patrilocality (in most cases) but not necessarily patrilineality. Ethnology shows that patrilocality and patrilineality should not be confused, and that the latter should not be inferred from the former. While most systems identified as patrilineal are also patrilocal, the opposite is not true.

The aim of this article is to recall that patrilocality can be the result of descent structures other than patrilinearity, and to offer an analytical description of the one that differs most from it: bilaterality. While patrilineal systems minimize the maternal branch to organize themselves around the paternal branch, bilateral systems combine the two in an undifferentiated way. In fact, maternal and paternal branches have the same a priori importance, and the child receives its social identity from both parents, thus belonging to both family units. As a result, each conjugal cell is the center of its own kinship network, formed by the association of the paternal and maternal branches, and this virtual grouping exists only through the nuclear cell that is its nexus. Bilateral kinship is based on the formation and maintenance of networks in which each marriage opens up a new connection. These networks are concretely embodied in a multitude of shared actions: visits, mutual aid and, above all, participation in common rituals. 

A contemporary ethnographic field study among the Betsileo of Madagascar highlights the particularities of the social and spatial organization of the patrilocal-bilateral model. Villages, fixed units structured by a principle of patrilocal residence, are linked by the continuous flows generated by the marriages contracted by young people. This network is maintained and consolidated by ritual gatherings which, from birth to death, including weddings and major family celebrations, all revolve around the symbolically valued participation of the multiple village communities matrimonially associated with the organizing hamlet. As Georges Balandier asserts, collective rites reveal the “profound dynamisms” of the society that practices them. What Betsileo ritual gatherings make visible, in a powerful emotional climate, sad or festive depending on the circumstances, is the geographical and social network of the organizing village, of which the women – those born there and those who have come to give birth  – are the living connections. Structured materially around sons and politically around daughters, local society thus places women in the crucial role of connectors of the social fabric. What ritual gatherings bring together is the bilateral kinship of patrilocal villages.

A genetic study of the individuals buried in the village would reveal a homogeneity of males and a diversity of females: a patrilineal pedigree would emerge. Observation of the actual social organization indicates that this genetic “patrilinearity” should in no way be confused with a patrilineal social organization: contemporary Betsileo society shows unambiguously that it is structured on a bilateral model, which shapes a very specific social morphology that differs radically from the patrilineal model.

In a patrilineal system, the wife is typically assimilated into the husband's family, and links with her natal family are then restricted. In the most extreme cases, patrilineality isolate women socially from their natal group, and patrilocality isolates them geographically, mechanically aggravating their social fragility. Conversely, bilateral kinship, because it attributes equal importance to the paternal and maternal kin, is based on both members of the couple. The husband is associated with his wife's family, and the main aim is to build a continuous relationship between the two families, a relationship in which the wives are the main operators. This distinction between patrilineal patrilocality and bilateral patrilocality can be applied to the interpretation of archaeological finds.

There is more than just a nuance between these two models, as the difference in terms of social morphology can be considerable: a patrilocal archaeological site can just as easily bear witness to a patrilineal landscape of mutually hostile communities with a degraded status of women, as can be observed in some parts of Papua-New Guinea, as to a bilateral universe of interconnected villages mediated by women, as in the case of the Betsileo of Madagascar. The Betsileo example underlines the importance of avoiding confusion between patrilocality and patrilineality as well as the need to take into account the existence and the characteristics of bilateral kinship, a model which is widespread throughout the world, past and present, in a diversity of variants: this understanding may help contemporary archaeologists to better identify ancient social structures.

Keywords: Archaeology, genetics, anthropology, kinship, descent, patrilocality, patrilineality, bilaterality, Madagascar, Betsileo.

La Société préhistorique française a décidé de proposer en accès libre le premier fascicule de son bulletin trimestriel à toutes et tous.

Les articles sont entièrement disponibles au format PDF.

La Société préhistorique française a décidé de proposer en accès libre le premier fascicule de son bulletin trimestriel à toutes et tous.

Les articles sont entièrement disponibles au format PDF.

La Société préhistorique française a décidé de proposer en accès libre le premier fascicule de son bulletin trimestriel à toutes et tous.

Les articles sont entièrement disponibles au format PDF.

La Société préhistorique française a décidé de proposer en accès libre le premier fascicule de son bulletin trimestriel à toutes et tous.

Les articles sont entièrement disponibles au format PDF.

La Société préhistorique française a décidé de proposer en accès libre le premier fascicule de son bulletin trimestriel à toutes et tous.

Les articles sont entièrement disponibles au format PDF.