Glacial Fluctuations and Exploitation of Copper Resources in High Mountain During the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age in the French Alps (2500-1500 BC)

Abstract

International audienceDuring the late Neolithic – at the limit of the 4th and 3rd millennia BC – copper exploitation is growing in the southern of France (Fig. 1). On the southern edge of Massif Central southern edge of and the Pyrenees, the mining district and metallurgical processes develop extractive metallurgy of low-productivity metal. The diffusion of production is then transferred to local networks. The development of this metallurgy first contribution is mainly to areas of small and medium mountains. This model, which could be called "Neolithic system" is completed in the second half of the 3rd millennium, between the 25th and 24th century BC (Fig. 2), with the abandonment of mining operations, a modification of the terms of metal consumption and supply networks