07-2024, tome 121, 2, p.243-305 - Panloups É., Bonnaire E., Cadart J., Fechner K., Lecher É., Monchablon C., Onfray M., Paulmier T., Salavert A. (2024) – Architectures domestiques et activités économiques au Néolithique final : l’habitat de Rebreuve-Ranch

Architectures domestiques ???et activités économiques au Néolithique final 

L???habitat de Rebreuve-Ranchicourt (Pas-de-Calais)

Élisabeth Panloups, Emmanuelle Bonnaire, Justine Cadart, Kai Fechner, ???Élodie Lecher, Cécile Monchablon, Marylise Onfray, Thibaud Paulmier, Aurélie Salavert

Résumé : Nouvelle découverte d'habitat structuré dans la sphère d'influence du complexe culturel de Deûle-Escaut, le site de Rebreuve-Ranchicourt a livré les vestiges de trois bâtiments diachroniques, dont une partie de la chronologie a pu être retracée. La grande particularité de cette occupation est la découverte d'un mobilier riche et varié qui a permis d'engager une réflexion sur la spatialisation des activités au sein et autour de la maison. Cet habitat vient également compléter les informations pour la chronologie interne du Néolithique final. Ainsi le site de Rebreuve-Ranchicourt semble pouvoir se placer dans une étape moyenne du Néolithique final, tel qu'il est actuellement défini, notamment par l'absence d'éléments campaniformes. Ces résultats se heurtent toutefois à des dates chronométriques plus tardives, concordant avec une étape terminale de la fin du Néolithique. D'autres questions, d'ordre géographique, se posent sur l'homogénéité culturelle du Deûle-Escaut. A l'échelle du Nord-Pas-de-Calais, les sites livrant un ou plusieurs plans de bâtiment apparaissent groupés sur deux zones distinctes. Les principaux habitats Deûle-Escaut sont regroupés, comme leur nom l'indique, le long des vallées de la Deûle et de l'Escaut, incluant les vallées secondaires de la Scarpe et de la Sensée. Les sites situés au nord des vallées de la Lys de l'Aa marquent une seconde concentration d'habitats située à environ 40 km au nord-est des sites les plus proches de la vallée de Deûle. La découverte de Rebreuve-Ranchicourt occupe une position géographique un peu particulière, à mi-chemin de ces deux pôles. La comparaison de l'ensemble de ces habitats, localisés sur un très large périmètre, laisse entrevoir des différences au niveau de la culture matérielle, comme les décors céramiques ou la part des matériaux siliceux exogènes, questionnant sur les sphères d'influences et les contacts entre les communautés de la fin du Néolithique.

Mots-clés : France du Nord, Néolithique final, chronologie, habitat, bâtiment, micromorphologie, céramique, lithique, macrolithique, carpologie, anthracologie, phosphore.

Abstract: At the scale of Nord-Pas-de-Calais, the main habitats of Deûle-Escaut are grouped together, as their name suggests, along the valleys of the Deûle and the Scheldt, including the secondary valleys of the Scarpe and the Sensée. This sector includes more than a dozen sites. To the north of the Lys basin and at the junction with that of the Aa, three other sites mark a second concentration of habitats located about 40 km northeast of the Deûle valley sites.

The discovery of Rebreuve-Ranchicourt occupies a somewhat particular geographical position, halfway between these two poles. This occupation includes three diachronic buildings, to which two pits can potentially be attached. The multidisciplinary approach put in place has made it possible to address several aspects of this occupation, from the construction of the buildings to their abandonment, focusing on the domestic, agricultural, and craft activities that took place inside and around the dwellings.

The two large buildings of Rebreuve-Ranchicourt find elements of easy morphometric comparison in the Deûle-Escaut cultural sphere, with a certain homogeneity in the length of the buildings, generally between 17 and 26 meters long. Building 1000, of smaller size, is rarer.

One of the major interests of the Rebreuve-Ranchicourt habitat site is its building 200. The construction methods are unusual, with oversized foundations that remain difficult to interpret. A reconstruction phase of part of the building could be considered, but has not been highlighted through the various stratigraphic and micromorphological studies. Similarly, a simple abandonment of the building does not explain the impressive quantities of discovered artifacts and in such good condition. In fact, this material data is rare in dwellings. Generally, it is not the foundation structures that yield artifacts, but the pits and occupation levels associated with the houses. For us, the field data and studies conducted on the site converge towards the highlighting of a complete destruction of the building, probably accompanied by a recovery of timber. The homogeneity of the archaeological material and the absence of alterations testify to conditions of rapid burial compatible with a deliberate leveling action. One plausible explanation for this leveling may be related to the erection of a new building nearby, building 700.

Thanks to the destruction of this building, many traces of the daily life of its occupants have been preserved over several millennia. While the entire lithic corpus fits perfectly into the known acquisition, management, and production patterns of flint tools for the Deûle-Escaut cultural group, the scarcity of finished products in exogenous materials raises questions about its integration into networks of circulation of highly valued objects. The discovery of a Bartonian flint blade during the nearby excavation of Houdain could indicate an insertion of these populations into networks of object circulation that may be broader than suggested by the assemblage from the buildings. The general composition of the series and the macrolithic tooling is comparable to the productions of sites in the Deûle-Escaut group with building plans. Quantitatively, it is a small series, characterized by fragmentation and significant recovery of supports. The types of tools are also in line with the regional Late Neolithic assemblages: hammerstones, burins, and intermediate pieces. While the cup-shaped grinding stone does not stand out in the Late Neolithic productions, this tool is less frequently encountered than rimmed grinding stones. It raises questions about the possible significance of this morphological difference: functional, chronological, or other. The ceramic assemblage finds its best comparisons with sites located further north in the Lys valley, with the same decorative registers of smooth or digitate cords placed under the rim or in rupture of the body. These decorations exist in the Deûle valley corpus, but in a more discreet manner. The absence of short-necked and high-keeled vessels at Rebreuve-Ranchicourt, and generally in the sites of the Lys valley, constitutes another notable difference with the eastern Deûle-Escaut occupations. The presence of decorated ceramics and the absence of bell-beaker pottery sherds invite placing this corpus in the middle phase of the Deûle-Escaut cultural complex.

Thus, the cross-referencing of the furniture studies agrees to integrate the Rebreuve-Ranchicourt site within the Deûle-Escaut cultural complex. The sites located north of the Lys valley find comparative parallels sometimes more relevant with the Rebreuve-Ranchicourt occupation than the sites located to the east. Furniture studies have also focused on the spatialization of activities carried out inside and outside of this dwelling, with debatable results. Projecting a functional determination near the place of discovery of the movable remains is tempting, but the exploitation of the results obtained lacks convincing parallels for the interior of dwellings. Furthermore, it remains difficult to clearly attribute the furniture to the occupation of the building itself. Finally, the characterization of actions laden with meaning, such as breaking a complete millstone and placing it in a former post hole, remains difficult to grasp and could only be interpreted from a functional point of view.

This habitat also complements the information for the internal chronology of the Late Neolithic. Thus, the Rebreuve-Ranchicourt site seems to be able to be placed in a middle stage of the Late Neolithic, as it is currently defined, notably by the absence of bell-beaker elements. However, these results are confronted with later chronometric dates, coinciding with a terminal stage of the Late Neolithic.

Keywords: Northern France, Late Neolithic, chronology, habitation/dwelling site, building, micromorphology, ceramics, lithics, macrolithics, carpology, anthracology, phosphorus.