14-2024, tome 121, 3, p.543-569 - Grégor Marchand, Claire Manen - Un retard à l'allumage ? Lémergence des économies agricoles en France atlantique entre Loire et Pyrénées

Un retard à l'allumage ?

L'émergence des économies agricoles en France atlantique entre Loire et Pyrénées

Grégor Marchand, Claire Manen

Résumé : L'émergence du mode de vie agropastoral en Europe est associée à différents courants culturels dont les expressions sont régulièrement remodelées au gré de facteurs environnementaux, sociaux, démographiques... Mosaïque dans le temps et l'espace, ce processus prend ses racines au Proche-Orient durant le 10e millénaire avant notre ère pour aboutir, quelques millénaires plus tard, sur la façade atlantique de l'Europe. En France, les régions comprises entre le fleuve Loire au nord et les montagnes des Pyrénées au sud ont connu, à la fin du 6e millénaire et dans la première moitié du 5e millénaire avant notre ère, la convergence des deux principaux courants de néolithisation européens se surimposant aux substrats mésolithiques autochtones. Cette vaste région constitue ainsi un domaine de recherche privilégié pour illustrer la variété et la complexité des scénarios de néolithisation européenne. Cependant, les sources documentaires de cet espace restent lacunaires, souvent sujettes à discussion et sont parfois mobilisées dans les synthèses à large échelle sans en discuter la fiabilité. Cet article a pour objectif de proposer une révision globale des acquis dans une perspective critique et de publier un certain nombre de nouvelles fouilles réalisées sous la pression d'aménagements ou de l'érosion marine. Il incite à réinterroger les scénarios de néolithisation et à reconsidérer le degré des influences méditerranéennes et danubiennes dans la construction de ce premier Néolithique. Il invite également à aborder l'hypothèse d'une néolithisation tardive de la France atlantique, peut-être seulement dans le second quart du 5e millénaire avant notre ère, laissant très rapidement place à l'émergence des différentes formes d'architectures monumentales qui caractérisent la région.

Mots-clés : France atlantique, Aquitaine, Pays de la Loire, Néolithisation, Second Mésolithique, Néolithique ancien.

Abstract: The emergence of the farming way of life in Europe is associated with various cultural trends, the expressions of which are regularly reshaped according to environmental, social and demographic factors, etc. Mosaic in time and space, this process had its roots in the Near East during the 10th millennium BC and ended a few millennia later on Atlantic Europe. In France, the regions between the Loire River in the north and the Pyrenees mountains in the south saw the convergence of the two mains European Neolithization waves at the end of the 6th and first half of the 5th millennium BC, superimposed on the indigenous hunters-gatherers substrate. This vast region is therefore an ideal research area for illustrating the diversity and complexity of European Neolithization scenarios.

However, documentary sources from this area remain incomplete, often subject to discussion, and are sometimes used in large-scale syntheses without discussing their reliability. The aim of this article is to propose an overall review of what we know from a critical perspective, and to publish several new data. The recent renewal of the archaeological archive is due to new excavations carried out under the pressure of development or marine erosion.

While the process of Neolithisation cannot be understood without analysing the interactions between the last hunter-gatherers and the first farmers, it has to be said that for the region covered in this article, there are no new data or in-depth studies that could add to the overviews already published elsewhere.

A detailed analysis of the sedimentary and archaeological contexts of various Early Neolithic sites considered to be reference sites has led us to rule out some of them. Le Grouin du Cou (La Tranche-sur-Mer, Vendée) presents remains discovered outside any sedimentary context and the dating was carried out on charcoal and has a too great standard deviation. La Lède du Gurp (Grayan-et-l'Hôpital, Gironde) is emblematic because it has led to the definition of the "Cardial Atlantique". This site had been excavated between 1982 and 1993 and presents a long stratigraphy from 9th to 1st millennium BC. Faced with the inescapable destruction of the last archaeological levels of the Lède du Gurp by coastal erosion, a last excavation was conducted in 2014. Unfortunately, no archaeological layers linked to the Neolithic transition have been identified. This operation has been associated with a revision of all the data available (fieldwork archives, radiocarbon data, ceramic and lithic remains). And it now seems clear that the Lède du Gurp cannot help to characterize the transition between the last hunter-gatherers and the first farmers, due to the lack of sedimentary records for much of the 6th millennium BC, nor can it helps to characterize the Early Neolithic of the Atlantic, given the scarcity of remains, the extent of mixing and the uncertainty of absolute chronology. Finally, Le Bétey (Andernos-les-Bains, Gironde) has provided a huge amount of lithic industry but discovered by surface prospections. This site gave his name to an arrowhead, "the Betey arrowhead", well known in northern Iberia in Neolithic context. But without any sedimentary, archaeological and chronological contexts it can't be used to improve our understanding of the neolithisation process.

Thus, few sites resist to the "taphonomic filter" and permit to reconsider the topic of the neolithisation between Loire and Pyrenees: among them we can name Les Ouchettes (Plassay, Charente-Maritime), Port-Punay (Châtelaillon-Plage, Charente-Maritime), La Grande Sablière (Buxerolles, Vienne). It should be noted that if these sites has been carefully excavated, taphonomic problems (low dilatation of sedimentary horizons and/or major erosive processes) remain.

On the basis of a review of all this old and new data, we discuss a few points that should constitute important themes for future research on the Neolithization between Loire and Pyrenees. First of all, it was given too much weight to the use of shells to decorate ceramics to link the Atlantic groups to the Mediterranean area and to ensure an "ancient" chronology. Indeed, the focus on this type of decoration has probably led to underestimate potential affinities with the danubian area. Our discussions are still confined to a few decorative markers when, in order to make progress in the analysis, we need to propose a global approach combining the reconstruction of the shaping and decoration chaine-opératoire and the overall characterisation of morpho-stylistic characteristics. Whatever the case, it is important to reconsider the degree of Mediterranean and Danubian influences in the construction of this first Neolithic between Loire and Pyrenees. Next, in the current state of data, it is no longer possible to use the radiocarbon data from Le Grouin du Cou and La Lède du Gurp to place the development of the Neolithic in the second half of the 6th millennium BC. Therefore, very few arguments can be used to date the emergence of the Neolithic community before 4800 cal. BC. Of course, a large-scale field program has yet to be launched to offer robust data to solve this question. But these audited data open the door to the hypothesis of a "late"Neolithization, perhaps only in the second quarter of the fifth millennium BC, which very quickly gave way to the emergence of the various forms of monumental architecture that characterize the region. Lastly, it should be emphasised that this geographic area is undoubtedly one of interaction, polarisation and syncretism that is difficult to decipher in archaeological documentation unless certain paradigms are called into question and an appropriate working method is put in place, based on a critical prioritisation of the quality of available data and their renewal.

Keywords: Atlantic France, Aquitaine, Pays de la Loire, Neolithisation, Second Mesolithic, Early Neolithic.