A site of the final Mesolithic in the mid-west of France: L'Essart in Poitiers (Vienne)

The excavation of L'Essart (Poitiers) makes it possible for the first time in the west of France to understand a very particular habitat, along a river and very much marked by the firing activities. The substrate of the site assigns the shape of a dome surrounded to the east by the Clain River,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Anthropologie (Paris) 2007-03, Vol.111 (1), p.10-38
Main Authors: Marchand, G, Michel, S, Sellami, F, Bertin, F, Blanchet, F, Crowch, A, Dumarcay, G, Fouere, P, Quesnel, L, Tsobgou-Ahoupe, R
Format: Article
Language:fre
Subjects:
Archaeology
Excavations
Fire
France
Mesolithic
Prehistoric technology
Rivers
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Summary:The excavation of L'Essart (Poitiers) makes it possible for the first time in the west of France to understand a very particular habitat, along a river and very much marked by the firing activities. The substrate of the site assigns the shape of a dome surrounded to the east by the Clain River, to the west by a channel. Abundant vestiges allotted to the recent Neolithic lay in the lower half of a layer of brown silts. Immediately subjacent, a level of ten centimetres, located at the top of orange silts, contained burnt stones structures: 39 hearths (circular area posed flat approximately one meter of diameter) and 14 dismantled hearths. It is dated from the final Mesolithic by the extremely abundant lithic material discovered in the layer. Lithic industry is carried out in a preferential way on bajocians flints available on the slope (62%) and oxfordians flints (8%) known to approximately two kilometres. The principal characters of this industry are a frontal exploitation of core, a production of prismatic blades, many notches of Montbani type on the blades, asymmetrical trapezoids with concave truncations (of which Trapezoids of Payre), right-angled trapezoids with concave truncations, scalene triangles with flat retouches and arrows of Montclus. The analogies with Retzian (Vendee and Loire-Atlantique) are certainly numerous, but it is rather about a relationship in a vaster unit that remains to define. The non anecdotic presence of the arrows of Montclus involves the discussion on the question of the zones of contacts between Neolithic and Mesolithic of the second half of the VIth millenium BC. All rights reserved, Elsevier
ISSN:0003-5521
DOI:10.1016/j.anthro.2006.12.015