Vincent Ard

Numerous studies have been made on salt production in the European Iron Age, especially through broken lowfired clay artefacts known as "briquetage". The vessels used in stoves are called salt moulds or salt containers. They serve both as crystallizer and mould for the salt obtained from concentrated brine. For the origin of salt production, archaeological evidences in Europe indicate that salt exploitation was intensified from the 5th millennium BC by using salt moulds in ceramic material. In this paper, we will present two studies conducted on "chaîne opératoire" of salt moulds making from two production sites, one in NorthEastern Bulgaria (Solnitstata, Provadia, c. 4700-4450 BCE), the other in West-Central France causewayed enclosures (c. 3400-2900 BCE). In both cases, the contexts in which these salt exploitations arose testify to an increase in social tensions. By focusing on the technical choices adopted in the manufacture and the use of these particular pots, we will see that for a same function several technical solutions are possible. However, we will attempt to define a general framework of technical choices and patterns observed in these pots which are often fragmented and rarely identified as salt moulds on archaeological sites except on production sites. This pottery is also excellent evidence for the development of specialised salt extraction throughout Europe since the late prehistoric period.

The earliest monumentality in Western Europe is associated with megalithic structures, but where did the builders of these monuments live? Here, the authors focus on west-central France, one of the earliest centres of megalithic building in Atlantic Europe, commencing in the mid fifth millennium BC. They report on an enclosure at Le Peu (Charente), dated to the Middle Neolithic (c. 4400 BC), and defined by a ditch with two ‘crab claw’ entrances and a double timber palisade flanked by two timber structures—possibly defensive bastions. Inside, timber buildings—currently the earliest known in the region—were possibly home to the builders of the nearby Tusson long mounds.

Découverte en 2011 par prospection aérienne, l'enceinte à double fossés interrompus du « Peu » à Charmé couvre une surface d'environ sept à huit hectares. Ses fossés, orientés NO/SE, barrent la partie ouest d'un promontoire calcaire, encadré par un marais humide au Néolithique. Le tracé des structures fossoyées et des aménagements internes de l'enceinte a été cartographié finement au cours de plusieurs campagnes de prospections géophysiques entre 2013 et 2016. Cette contribution présente les données obtenues au cours des trois premières campagnes de fouilles programmées, entre 2014 et 2016. Elles ont permis de documenter le comblement des structures fossoyées, de caractériser pour la première fois dans cette région et pour cette période des bâtiments sur poteaux plantés à l'intérieur d'une enceinte et d'identifier des niveaux conservés près des anciennes berges du marais. L'excellente conservation des structures et leur originalité confèrent d'ores et déjà à ce site un caractère exceptionnel pour la région. Le mobilier tout comme les datations radiométriques placent l'occupation au milieu du V e millénaire avant notre ère (début du Néolithique moyen). Particulièrement méconnue dans le Centre-Ouest, cette période constitue également le moment d'édification des premiers mégalithes, autre forme de monumentalité étudiée dans le cadre d'un projet collectif de recherche auquel s'intègre la fouille de Charmé. Mots-clés Centre-Ouest, enceinte, Néolithique moyen, bâtiment, monumentalisme Abstract Discovered in 2011 by aerial survey, the causewayed enclosure of "Le Peu" at Charmé covers an area of about seven to eight hectares. Its two ditches, oriented NW/SE, bar the western part of a limestone promontory, framed by a wet marsh in the Neolithic. The layout of the underground structures and the features preserved inside the enclosure were finely mapped during several geophysical prospecting campaigns between 2013 and 2016. This contribution presents the results obtained during the first three planned excavation campaigns, between 2014 and 2016. They made it possible to document the filling of ditches and pits, to characterize for the first time in this region and for this period four buildings known by preserved postholes and to identify neolithic levels preserved near the former banks of the marsh. The excellent conservation of the structures and their originality already confer on this site an exceptional character for the region. Artefacts, as well as radiometric dating, place the occupation in the middle of the 5th millennium BC (early Middle Neolithic). Especially unknown in the Central-Western France, this period is also the time of construction of the first megaliths, another form of monumentality studied within the framework of a collective research project which integrates the excavation of Charmé.

Connue pour être l'une des aires géographiques les plus riches d'Europe de l'Ouest en enceintes fossoyées, le Centre-Ouest de la France fait l'objet de recherches archéologiques sur cette question depuis plus de 50 ans. Plusieurs zones d'ombre subsistent toutefois sur la compréhension de ces enceintes, en particulier sur leur émergence, leur fonction et leur fonctionnement. Dans le cadre de recherches programmées engagées en 2008 dans le nord de la Charente, nous avons tenté de détecter les structures internes aux enceintes, de préciser les dynamiques de comblement des fossés et de rechercher les plus anciennes enceintes susceptibles d'être contemporaines des premiers mégalithes. Grâce à une collaboration inédite dans la région entre archéologues, géophysiciens et géoarchéologues, des avancées significatives ont pu être réalisées. Elles concernent l'émergence des enceintes dès le milieu du 5 e millénaire, la caractérisation des structures creusées à l'intérieur des enceintes et les évolutions des architectures entre le milieu du 5 e et la fin du 4 e millénaire. La découverte d'aménagements en terre massive, de sols d'occupation néolithiques et de quatre bâtiments sur poteaux plantés dans l'enceinte du Peu à Charmé est exceptionnelle pour le Centre-Ouest. L'apparition des enceintes dès le milieu du 5 e millénaire au sud de la Loire est un fait nouveau qui permet d'attester la contemporanéité de l'émergence des deux formes de monumentalités, enceintes fossoyées du monde des vivants et architectures monumentales funéraires du monde des morts. Mots-clés : enceintes fossoyées, Centre-Ouest de la France, architecture de terre, géophysique, bâtiment ABSTRACT The central-western region of France is one of the regions with the most causewayed enclosures in Western Europe and archaeological research has now been carried out on this topic for more than 50 years. However, several grey areas persist, regarding in particular our understanding of the emergence, function and functioning of these enclosures. As part of programmed research initiated in north Charente in 2008, we focused on detecting the internal enclosure structures, defining ditch fill dynamics and identifying the oldest enclosures likely to be contemporaneous with the first megaliths. This project made significant advances as a result of unprecedented collaboration in the region between archaeologists, geophysicians and geoarchaeologists. New data were obtained on the emergence of the enclosures during the middle of the 5 th millennium, the characterization of the structures inside the enclosures and architectural developments between the middle of the 5 th and the end of the 4 th millennia. The discovery of massive earthen structures, Neolithic floor levels and four buildings on posts in the Peu enclosure at Charmé is exceptional in the central-western region. We brought to light the contemporaneity of causewayed enclosures during the middle of the 5 th millennium; representing the world of the living, and monumental funerary architecture, symbolizing the world of the dead, south of the Loire.

Clement N., Favrel Q., Rousseau L., Ard V., Blanchet S., Donnart K., Fromont N., Lemaire A., Manceau L., Marcigny C., Marticonera P., Nicolas T., Paillier Y. et Ripoche J., 2019 – The introduction of the Bell Beaker culture in Atlantic France : an overwiew of settlements, in. A. Gibson ed., Bell Beaker Settlement of Europe, The Bell Beaker phenomenon fron a domestic perspective, Prehistoric Society Research Paper, 9, Oxbow book, p. 329-352.

The British Neolithic transition, occurring around 4000 BC, at least one millennium after the continental part of Northwest Europe, is still subject to important debate these days. Various studies suggest that the Neolithic start involved farming immigrants from various parts of the Continent. However, ceramics of the Early Neolithic of Britain became increasingly distinct from their Continental roots, particularly in the Southwest and Southeast of England. We recently completed two important projects, one on Early Neolithic British and Irish pottery and the other on Peterborough Ware, integrating a new way of considering these early productions through a technological approach and the observation of various steps of the chaîne opératoire. This paper is the opportunity to present preliminary results which shed a new light on the evolution of pottery wares during the fourth millennium BC in Southern Britain. It specifically highlights strong connections between Early Neolithic and Middle Neolithic pottery, in terms of style, but above in terms of manufacturing techniques.

Mathé V., Ard V., Camus A., Bréjeon B. et Leroux V.-E. (2016) - Apport de la prospection géophysique à l'étude d'un site mégalithique : l'exemple du tumulus de la Motte de la Jacquille (Fontenille, Charente). In: J. Cauliez, I. Sénépart, l. Jallot, P.-A. d. Labriffe, C. Gilabert, X. Gutherz, A. Hasler et V. Ard (dir.) - "De la tombe au territoire". Actes des 11e Rencontres Méridionales de Préhistoire récente, Montpellier (Hérault) - 25/27 septembre 2014, Toulouse, AEP, p. 423-431.

The barrow of the Motte of Jacquille located in Fontenille (Charente) was the subject in 2013 of a geophysical survey both to obtain information about its conservation and to detect eventual peripheral structures. This study allowed to recover its original dimensions by a noninvasive method and locate previously unknown elements on a topographic survey in 3D. Near the cairn, five pits of a few square meters, and two larger excavations, have been spotted a few meters from the monument. Investigations have also affected the surrounding environment of the barrow. Five Excavation of one of these pits in 2014 revealed that it was stone-pit, probably those used to extract the stones of the cairn. The study of the filling also revealed the digging in excavated materials of a ditch which blocked promontory.

Ard V., Blin A., Camus A., Mathé V., Mens E., Papon J., Polloni A. et Poncet D. (2016) - Architecture et fonctionnement d’une tombe mégalithique de type angoumoisin : le dolmen de la Petite Pérotte (Fontenille, Charente). In: J. Cauliez, I. Sénépart, l. Jallot, P.-A. d. Labriffe, C. Gilabert, X. Gutherz, A. Hasler et V. Ard (dir.) - "De la tombe au territoire". Actes des 11e Rencontres Méridionales de Préhistoire récente, Montpellier (Hérault) - 25/27 septembre 2014, Toulouse, AEP, p. 25-37.
Taking the opportunity of a development project of the Neolithic heritage in the Ruffécois area (Charente) and as part of a Collective Research Program (PCR) on the analysis of Neolithic occupations in this sector, one of the richest in megalithic monuments in West-Central France, an important archaeological excavation of the dolmen of La Petite Pérotte at Fontenille (Charente) was initiated in 2012 and completed in 2013, prior to its restoration. Described since the nineteenth century, this dolmen of Angoumoisin type had surprisingly never been subject of extensive research. The new research was primarily intended to characterize the complex architecture of this passage grave and draw up the chronology of funeral deposits. The identification of two burial chambers, including one with original configuration for the west of France, is a major achievement, as the discovery of rich deposits that demonstrate use since the Middle Neolithic to the Beaker period.

This paper describes an interdisciplinary study of the Neolithic causewayed enclosure of Bellevue (Chenommet, France). Geophysical investigations and archaeological excavations were used alternately in order to optimize the acquisition of accurate data at different spatial scales: mapping of major structures was obtained by magnetic prospection of the whole site, while excavation identified small features weakly expressed in the prospecting results. Measurements of magnetic susceptibility and total magnetic field anomalies were also recorded during the excavation in order to identify the source of the magnetic signal of the ditches. This mutual transdisciplinary contribution is also methodological: the geophysics reveals archaeological information invisible to the eye of the archaeologist and, in turn, the excavation allows refinement of the interpretation of the geophysical data by identifying the sources of signal variations. This article presents the results of the first comprehensive magnetic mapping of a Neolithic causewayed enclosure in the west of France.

In 2012, an excavation conducted by the Inrap archaeological operator explored a Neolithic enclosure at Avrillé (Vendée, France), in an area of more than 1 ha. This enclosure is formed by an open ditch and a palisade, closes a space of approximately 4 ha. Inside this causewayed enclosure by, many post holes were found. They delimit a series of 11 to 17 buildings. Their plans bounded by 6 or 8 posts, are rectangular, slightly trapezoidal or naviforme and mainly oriented NNE - SSW. Their dimensions are 8.6 to 15 m long and 3.1 to 8 m wide and their surfaces are between 27 to 60 m². The proximity or the overlap between some buildings shows that they are not all contemporaries. Ceramic contains elements of the Artenac and Groh-Collé groups. Radiocarbon dates are centered on the beginning of the IIIe millennium before BC. These data renew the understanding of the final Neolithic cultures in a zone of contact between the Western-Central France and the Brittany.

Dupont C., Ard V., Cuenca Solana D., Gruet Y., Hamon G., Laporte L., Sicard S., Soler L., 2014- La place des coquillages marins dans les enceintes néolithiques de l’Ouest de la France : bilan quantitatif et notion de territoire. In R. Joussaume, Large J.-M., Corson S., Le Meur N., Tortuyaux J.-P. (eds.) « Enceintes néolithiques entre Seine et Gironde. ». Mémoire XLVIII. , Chauvigny : Ed. Association des Publications Chauvinoise – A.P.C. ISBN: 979-10-90534-08-7, 293- 305.

Résumé/Abstract

Cet article se propose de faire le bilan des études réalisées sur les invertébrés marins découverts dans les enceintes néolithiques de l’Ouest de la France. Bien que les coquillages y soient découverts régulièrement, ils n’ont pas toujours été étudiés. Leurs quantités et leurs diversités spécifiques ont évolué en même temps que les disciplines de l’archéozoologie. Il n’existe cependant pas de relation linéaire entre la finesse de la maille de tamisage utilisée et les valeurs quantitatives associées aux coquillages. Cette absence de relation directe est liée à un autre facteur qui se dessine nettement au sein des enceintes néolithiques, celui de la diversité des activités auxquelles ont participé ces coquilles et coquillages. Selon que l’homme ait cherché la matière première qu’est la coquille ou la chair de l’animal, les modes d’approvisionnement ont pu varier.
Les coquilles archéologiques ont participé à la fois à l’alimentation des populations néolithiques et à des activités de production par leur utilisation en tant qu’outils. La sphère culturelle est aussi abordée par le biais de parures. Les mollusques marins placent l’Homme au centre de nos réflexions. Elles nous donnent accès aux environnements exploités par ces populations néolithiques et à leurs déplacements et leur relation à la mer.

Summary

This paper is a synthesis of studies made on marine invertebrates discovered in Neolithic enclosures in the West of France. In spite of the fact that shells are regularly discovered in such structures, they have not always been studied. Their quantities and their specific diversities evolved together with the disciplines of the archaeozoology. However, there is no linear relation between the size of sieving meshes and the quantities of shells. This absence of direct relation is linked to another factor, which is clearly outlined within the Neolithic enclosures: the diversity of activities in which participated these shells and shellfishes. Whether the man looked for raw material that is the shell or the flesh of the animal, the modes of supply were able to vary.
The archaeological shells contributed at the same time to the food of Neolithic populations, and to activities of production by their use as tools, but also in the cultural sphere by means of ornaments. The marine mollusks make the Man the center of our reflections. The latter give us access to the exploited environments by these Neolithic populations, and to their movements and to their relationship with the sea.

ARD V., BOUCHET E., BRÉHARD S., DONNART K., FOUÉRÉ P., PAPON J. (2012) - Une enceinte à fossés interrompus de la culture Matignons sur le haut cours de la Charente : Bellevue à Chenommet (Charente). Objectifs, stratégie et premiers résultats des campagnes 2008 à 2010. In: T. Perrin, I. Sénépart, J. Cauliez, E. Thirault et S. Bonnardin (dir.) - Dynamique et rythmes évolutifs des sociétés de la préhistoire récente. Actualités de la recherche, Actes des 9e Rencontres Méridionales de Préhistoire Récente, Saint-Georges-de-Didonne (17), 8-9 octobre 2010, Toulouse, AEP, p. 117-134.

The Neolithic period constitutes a major economic and social upheaval in the history of prehistoric human societies, and was accompanied by a new relationship between man and his environment. The landscape was modified and shaped by the Neolithic farmers, who invented new architectural expressions such as megaliths. Generally considered as the main form of Neolithic monumentality in Atlantic Europe, the megalith phenomenon, with its multiple expressions (tumulus, dolmens, stelae including some engraved ones), must today be put back into perspective by comparing it to other forms of monumentality. These can belong to the world of the dead or the world of the living: Passy-type funerary enclosures, causewayed enclosures, or Antran-type long houses. All these architectures reflect profound social changes, remarkable innovation capacities, and constant and renewed adaptation to the mineral and vegetal environment. The ambition of the MONUMEN project is to confront these monumental architectures, for the first time in France, to better understand the emerging conditions and the development of this phenomenon between the middle of the 5th and the end of the 3rd millennium BC. The area of study – the land between Loire, the Massif Central, and the Pyrenees – constitutes an excellent laboratory, unique at the European scale, thanks to the proliferation and diversity of monumental sites, whilst being paradoxically relatively unknown and under-researched.
Through the comparative analysis of these sites, MONUMEN wishes to tackle the socio-economical, cognitive, and symbolic universe of these preliterate societies through four principal objectives: 1) documenting these architectures within technical and cultural traditions characterized in time and space; 2) evaluating the impact of these sites in the context of the construction of territories and environmental changes; 3) tackling the question of the rise of social competition through the amplitude of architectural projects and the study of socially valuable artefacts ; 4) proposing alternative models regarding the emerging conditions of these sites and the status of their builders and users.
In order to apprehend these sites as Neolithic societies may have experienced them, the MONUMEN project proposes a paradigm shift in the scale of observation of monumental sites. It will pursue a three-dimensional analysis of these sites, and re-integrate them within a landscape perspective by relying on thorough knowledge of geomorphological and environmental contexts. In order to do so, multiple tools (3D, GIS, geophysics, LIDAR, satellite and aerial multispectral imagery, core sampling…) will be used to contribute to a renewal of both our knowledge of the subject and of investigation methods, what is innovative for this period in France. Thanks to a multidisciplinary approach uniting a team of archaeologists and geomaticians (TRACES) to a team of geophysicists and geomorphologists (LIENSs), this systematic approach will focus on 9 defined project windows, complementing each other through the documentation already available, and invested within the framework of ongoing collective research and excavation projects. These have already validated the capacity of each research partner to collaborate to the project and to obtain innovative results. On the basis of a reflexion on sampling protocols, an ambitious radiocarbon dating project (over 150 samples) is included in MONUMEN, aiming at revisiting the chronological framework for the period studied.
Finally, MONUMEN will play a crucial role in the conservation of the Neolithic heritage through the 3D archiving of the sites from this period and the valorisation of the oldest European monumental constructions. This project offers an opportunity for French research to appear as a key player in the study of these sites and to rival our European neighbours in the domain of archaeology-applied geophysics.

New Scientific Research. In Western Europe, the Final Neolithic represents a key stage between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age. The period is furthermore characterised by a gradual transition from a large number of regionally distributed cultural groups to the complex Bell Beaker culture whose geographical expansion encompassed the whole of Europe and North Africa prior to the early Bronze Age. Whilst on a European scale the Bell Beaker phenomenon is profoundly marked by the changes in material culture, in particular in the ceramic culture, at the regional level very diverse reactions can be observed (importation, acculturation, rejection). The aim of this four-year project (2017-2021) is to assess the economic and social functioning of Neolithic and Bronze Age communities in the Upper Rhone valley by shedding light on the relationship between the Petit-Chasseur cemetery and the settlements in the surrounding region through the study of ceramics. For this purpose, 15 settlements will be studied. The necropolis of the Petit-Chasseur in Sion is of particular interest as it contains several occupations from the Final Neolithic to the early Bronze Age and is representative of the long-term perspective.

The introduction of the full time Neolithic life was in many areas accompanied by major communal construction works such as megalithic monuments and causewayed enclosures.

The first causewayed enclosure to be discovered within the area of the Nordic Funnel Beaker culture was found at the Danish site of Sarup in SW Funen. Here to structures were found dated to 3400 and 3200 BC, corresponding to the times when, respectively, dolmens and passage graves were built in
Denmark.

Detailed and factual studies of the fill layers in the system-ditches, and in the ditches for the wooden palisades/fences, reveal that the primary use of the two sites extended over a very short period, perhaps only a few days or weeks!

The actual processes associated with building and using the enclosures must have constituted an important element in forging the communality that was necessary for a successful transition to a Neolithic way of life as sedentary farmers.

The full text to the article can be published in January 2020.
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