Local Developments in a Border Land, a Survey of the Neolithic at the Lower Rhine

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De midden-neolithische vondstgroep van Het Vormer bij Wijchen en het cultuurpatroon rond de zuidelijke Noordzee circa 3000 v Chr

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Burins du Chasséen méridional

The lithic industries of the end of the fifth and beginning of the fourth millennium B.C. in south of France and Catalogne (Chasseen, Montbolo, Molinot, Sepulcros de Fosa cultures) rely for the most part on the importation of blades, and bladelet cores knapped by pressure after thermal treatment, on bedoulien flint from Vaucluse. The study of the distribution and function of a burin sample of these lithic industries highlights several facts concerning these tools: • most of them are used by the lateral edges to scrape plants, however there exists a certain functional variation; • the transformation of supports into burins frequently corresponds to the recycling of a previously used tool; the burin blow technique derives from the lithic style of tool handling; • burins are used concurrently with other “equivalent-burins” derived from other techniques used for the same function; • these techniques (burin shaping, plants scraping,) are not shared by all the users of the lithic industries imported from western Provence. This demonstrates selective choices in the cultural borrowings and transfers between the groups linked by their usage of the same lithic production centres.Les industries lithiques de la fin du ve millénaire et du début du ive millénaire dans le Midi de la France et en Catalogne (Chasséen, Montbolo, Molinot, Sepulcros de Fosa) reposent en grande partie sur des importations de lames et de nucléus à lamelles débités par pression après traitement thermique, en silex bédoulien d'origine vauclusienne. L'étude de la répartition et de la fonction d'un échantillon de burins de ces industries lithiques met en évidence plusieurs faits concernant ces outils : • la majorité d'entre eux sont utilisés par les dièdres latéraux pour racler certains végétaux, mais il existe cependant une certaine variabilité fonctionnelle ; • la transformation des supports en burins constitue fréquemment un recyclage d'un outil déjà utilisé ; la technique du coup de burin relève en cela d'une modalité de gestion des outillages lithiques ; • les burins sont utilisés concurremment à des “équivalents – burins” relevant d'autres modalités techniques, pour les mêmes fonctions ; • ces techniques (façonnage des burins, raclage de certains végétaux) ne sont pas partagées par tous les utilisateurs des industries lithiques importées de Provence occidentale, ce qui témoigne de choix ou de filtres dans les emprunts et transferts culturels entre les groupes liés par le recours aux mêmes centres de production lithique

Zur Vegetationsdynamik im mediterranen Südfrankreich. Internationaler Forschungsstand und erste Skizze zur Vegetationsdynamik im Raum Nîmes (Frankreich/Dept. Gard)

Vegetation dynamics in Mediterranean France. The international state of the art in research and a preliminary sketch of the vegetation dynamics in the Nîmes region (Dept. Gard, France) The climax-concept of a sclerophyllous oak forest, with Quercus ilex as dominant species in the Mediterranean area, is more and more brought into doubt within international ecosystem research. But those results have not found a substantial reception in German vegetation geography. In German manuals the zonal vegetation of the Mediterranean region is still defined as sclerophyllous oak forest with Quercus ilex, in accordance with B R A U N - B L A N Q U E T (1936). More recent research, such as that published by R O M A N E a. T E R R A D A S (1992), has not gained much attention in Germany. R O M A N E a. T E R R A D A S explain the dominance of Quercus ilex as a consequence of human impacts during the Neolithic period. For the Bas-Languedoc the authors have found similar results from analysis of the literature and from their own investigations. Those investigations are based on L. T R A B A U D \u27 S model, which is internationally recognized, but which is largely unknown in Germany. For those reasons L. T R A B A U D \u27 S model is briefly described (Fig. 1). In the two following models, the authors try to describe the principal processes in the dynamics of the vegetation and cultural landscape of the Nîmes region. During the Neolithic period, the image of the landscape was substantially changed by human impacts. Those processes were probably reinforced during the Chasséen, and their consequences mainly affected the character of the landscape until the Industrial Revolution. During the Chasséen, the fertile and moist lands had been transformed into arable land, dislodging Quercus pubescens. In the remaining areas, which were episodically or periodically used for hunting, ranging and exploiting fuelwoods, Quercus ilex was pushed into a dominant position. This process is also related to the large ecological performances of Quercus ilex. The rural exodus, one of the consequences of industrialization, was mainly reinforced by the melioration of the coastal plains for the returning colonists from the former French Algeria and by the consequences of coastal mass tourism at the seaside. This reinforced exodus not only attained the peripheral mountains, but also reached other large areas; and this reinforced rural exodus provided large areas of partly inhabited bush land. Thefirst results of this "large natural succession experiment" are often in contradiction to classical climax theories. Following the climax theory, those areas should have been recolonised by Quercus ilex. For the Nîmes region, the authors found examples for the remarkable population dynamics of Quercus pubescens on deeper substrata and the impressive competition force of Pinus pinea on Pleistocene gravels in the Costières. Finally, the results of the vegetation dynamics are discussed by reference to the occurrence of fire ecology and compared with the objection raised by H E M P E L (1990) concerning the evolution of the cultural landscape in Greece. The authors also explain their prospective research aims in Mediterranean France, including fire ecology, old field successions, and problems of fuelwood exploitation and their role in the historic evolution of vegetation dynamics

The Neolithic at the Lower Rhine, its structure in chronological and geographical respect

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L’occupation préhistorique du plateau de Gergovie (Puy-de-Dôme). Caractérisation des industries lithiques néolithiques

Les plus anciennes traces d’une occupation continue du plateau de Gergovie remontent au Néolithique moyen. Les vestiges lithiques proviennent de ramassages ou des fouilles de secteurs antiques. Les différentes composantes techno-typologiques identifiées documentent deux périodes du Néolithique : le Chasséen récent et le Néolithique final. Le Chasséen se caractérise principalement par la production de lamelles débitées par pression, aux dépens de silex tertiaires locaux ou importés depuis le Berry et la vallée du Rhône. Les outils sont représentés par des pointes de flèches et des outils domestiques (grattoirs, burins, lames et lamelles retouchées, haches polies). Ils indiquent la présence d’habitats et d’activités diversifiées sur le plateau. L’occupation semble moins intense durant le Néolithique final. Les vestiges sont moins abondants et sont surtout représentés par des pointes de flèches.The oldest traces of a continued occupation on the plateau of Gergovie date back to the Middle Neolithic period. The lithic finds come from casual collection points or from the excavations concentrated on more recent archaeological periods. The different techno-typological components identified document two periods from the Neolithic: the Chasseen recent and the Late Neolithic. The Chasseen is mainly characterized by the production of flakes debited by pressure, in tertiary flint, either local or imported from the Berry and the Rhone valley. The tools are represented by arrowheads and domestic tools (scrapers, burins, blades and retouched flakes, polished hand-axes). They indicate the presence of settlements and diversified activities on the plateau. The occupation seems less intense during the Late Neolithic, the stone objects are less abundant and are mainly represented by arrowheads

Life and death of the longhouse: Daily life during and after the early Neolithic in the river valleys of the Paris Basin.

This thesis discusses the social and architectural changes from the early Neolithic (just before 5000 cal BC; the RRBP: Rubane Recent du Bassin parisien and the VSG: Villeneuve-Saint-Germain cultures) to the middle Neolithic (4700 cal BC; the Cerny and Michelsberg/Chasseen cultures) in the Paris Basin, France. Commencing with a characterisation of daily life, the thesis considers the dwelling perspective, which underpins the theoretical approach taken here, and then debates different approaches to the study of houses found in anthropology and archaeology. It is concluded that daily life in the early Neolithic of the Paris Basin can be illuminated through consideration of different practices of inhabitation, and how materials and tasks provided particular constructions of time. Thus an approach to archaeology and prehistoric architectures that envisions social life as creative, tactical and performative is advocated. The longhouse is considered as a suite of practices that provided daily life with a particular temporality and it is argued that this temporality was increasingly challenged throughout the VSG period. The archaeological data is discussed in two case studies. The first is based around the early and middle Neolithic settlements in the Aisne and Oise valleys and the second, those sites at the Seine-Yonne confluence. This facilitates discussion of local experiences of settlement, landscape and deposition, demonstrating that different conceptions of community relations, architecture, animals and social scale existed, leading to the creation of different post-RRBP and VSG architectures in the two areas, including the Passy-style monuments. This challenges the rather static views of LBK social structure that have been prevalent in current literature. The death of the longhouse is characterised as a change in the scale of community and conceptions of temporality experienced in the middle Neolithic, inspired by the desire to explore difference in social relations in a more immediate setting than the longhouse provided. Three appendices contain a site gazetteer and a discussion of the architectural and burial data from the Paris Basin