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We present and model new radiocarbon data for the Neolithic marshes of Marais de Saint-Gond Marne in France. We then provide the first radiocarbon-based synthesis of human activity in this region. The earliest flint mine pits dug in France were dated to between 7518 and 7356 cal BC (95% probability) in the Mesolithic period. A Neolithic sequence of activity has been reconstructed in detail for the mine and hypogeums in the Vert-la-Gravelle “La Crayere” site. Using summed probability distribution frequencies with new radiocarbon results from flint mines, hypogeum-burials and settlements, we show the peak of regional population is consistent with the advent of the hypogeum construction during the Neolithique recent/Neolithique final between 3650 and 2900 cal BC (95% probability).

A conserved painting removed from a Neolithic collective grave in Marne, France, provided an opportunity for radiocarbon dating to place Les Ronces Hypogeum 21 (Villevenard) into the chronology of that region. Chemical analysis with direct analysis in real time (DART) mass spectrometry, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) of samples from the painting revealed the presence of two kinds of wax (beeswax and paraffin or microcrystalline wax) that likely were added during the conservation, a drying oil like linseed oil, as well as markers of pine resin that may arise from turpentine or colophony. A new pretreatment protocol of chloroform followed by pH 8 phosphate buffer was developed, which yielded sufficient material for plasma-chemical oxidation and AMS radiocarbon dating. The radiocarbon dates place the image from Hypogeum 21 at the more recent end of the chronology that spans from the sixth to the third millennia cal BC for the Neolithic in France.

International audience

International audience; From the earliest Neolithic in the Near East to the last Chalcolithic cultures in Western Europe, certain flint tools have been used as sickles to harvest cereals. Such harvesting tools can be identified through use-wear analyses, because cutting herbaceous plants produces specific wear-traces on the working edge of flint blades. The aim of this work is to explore harvesting-driven microwear variability and, more particularly, intensity of use as a governing factor. To achieve this objective, an experiment was designed consisting in the production of flint replicas to be used as harvesting tools, in various controlled conditions. A simple, cost-effective method of quantifying wear-traces by meas uring polish extent is developed, requiring only classical use-wear observation equipment. Polish extent shows monotonic correlation with the amount of work, expressed either in terms of time or as the quantity of cereals harvested. Polish extent measurement is therefore proposed as a reliable and powerful descriptor of use intensity.Peer reviewe

Many authors have considered pottery manufacturing constraints and sociocultural elements as factors in change in past civilizations over time. The main issue of this research is to better understand the reasons for changes, or choices, in pottery raw materials. The very precise and detailed stratigraphy and cultural succession of occupations is based on dendrochronological data from the lake-dwelling sites of Chalain (Jura, France). Petrographic, palaeontological and chemical analyses were used to determine the nature and origins of the raw materials used by the Neolithic potters. Stratigraphy and dendrochronological data were used to reconstruct in detail the evolution dynamics of fabric changes. Several raw material sources were identified for many of the pottery groups. Each of them was sampled for qualitative experimental tests of pottery forming. The experimental results show a high variability between the sediments tested. This variability was quantitatively estimated by XRF, XRD, the Rietveld method, calcium carbonate quantification and laser grain-size analyses of matrices, indirect measures of plasticity. These analytical results allow a better understanding of the differences observed in the experimental tests. On the basis of these experimental and analytical results, changing parameters such as pottery manufacturing constraints, mineralogical characteristics of raw materials and sociocultural factors are considered. In conclusion, all the social and technical parameters, in each archaeological context, must be taken into account for a better understanding of the changes occurring throughout the chronological sequence.