Architectures en pierre : les systèmes d’entrées des enceintes néolithiques de l’ouest de la France (Ve-IIIe mill. av. J.-C.)

Abstract

International audienceIn Western France, enclosure entrance systems dated to the Neolithic (V-III millennium BC) are known for their complexity, which has been observed ever since the first extensive archaeological research on the topic at the end of the 20th century. This was confirmed almost a century later through aerial prospections, and by the extensive excavations of preventive archaeology. Until recently however, there were few examples that allowed us to illustrate the attention brought to the arrangement of these circulation zones through the study of preserved surfaces or vestiges in elevation. Circulation spaces, stone paths, raised stelas, or deposits all become accessible for analysis. The diversity of these monumental entrances and stone elevations (raised stone blocks, dry walls, etc.) of barred spurs completes the wooden elements known to have been preserved in humid conditions as far as trenched enclosures are concerned. The whole study sheds new light on what was previously only hinted at by negative structures, without being in opposition to those, and gives us new information on the building site of these constructions