17-2024, tome 121, 4, p 645-655 - Binder D., Boulestin B., Rivollat M., Haak W., Deguilloux M.-F. (2024) – Précisions sur la position chronologique et l’apparentement culturel de la tombe néolithique de Germignac, « le Bois-du-Bourg »(Charente-Maritime)

Précisions sur la position chronologique
et l'apparentement culturel de la tombe néolithique
de Germignac, « le Bois-du-Bourg » (Charente-Maritime)

Didier Binder, Bruno Boulestin, Maïté Rivollat, Wolfgang Haak, Marie-France Deguilloux

Résumé : Les auteurs présentent et discutent les résultats d'une nouvelle datation des restes humains découverts en 1980 à Germignac, « le Bois-du-Bourg », réalisée dans le cadre d'une analyse paléogénétique qui s'est malheureusement révélée infructueuse. La révision de l'inventaire des restes osseux et dentaires indique qu'il s'agit d'une sépulture individuelle et non d'une sépulture double comme cela avait été précédemment proposé. La date obtenue situe les premiers témoignages de la diffusion du Néolithique dans le centre-ouest de la France dans le courant du premier quart du Ve millénaire AEC. Les ornements de pierre et de test ne présentent aucune similitude avec les productions méridionales contemporaines et orientent en revanche vers le complexe culturel du Blicquy/Villeneuve-Saint-Germain/Augy-Sainte-Pallaye (BVSG). Ces données appellent à une reconsidération des hypothèses envisageant une articulation du premier néolithique du Centre-Ouest avec les groupes méridionaux de tradition impresso-cardiale.

Mots-clés : radiocarbone, SMA, anneaux en pierre, parure en test, Rubané, Blicquy/Villeneuve-Saint-Germain/Augy-Sainte-Pallaye, Cardial final, Épicardial, transferts.

Abstract: The authors present and discuss the results of a new radiocarbon date of the human remains discovered in 1980 at Germignac, "le Bois-du-Bourg". This site has provided important data for the study of the Neolithization of the Atlantic façade of Europe in particular due to its location which is quite far from the territories colonized by the farmers of the Impresso-Cardial and Western Linear Pottery (LBK) during the 6th millennium BCE. The nature of the rich Germignac ornaments, most likely associated with human remains, has also helped to nourish the issues of attaching the "Néolithique Ancien Centre-Atlantique" (NACA) to either of the major Neolithic diffusion currents and of their possible interactions. These ornaments have already been extensively described and commented on: they associate a couple of ring-discs of exceptional dimensions, made from allochthonous metamorphic rock, with an impressive series of standardized discoid beads made of shell tests, carved out using the hollow drill technique.

Revision of the inventory of bone remains indicates that they do not belong to a twin burial as previously proposed, but to a single adult individual, perhaps quite young and of undetermined sex.

A first radiocarbon measurement by Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) carried out in 2001, obtained from a batch of human bone shafts, yielded a rather large standard deviation. The new AMS date from a tooth presented here is more accurate and was commissioned in conjunction with palaeogenetic analyses that were unfortunately unsuccessful. Both radiocarbon analyses meet similar quality criteria. As all the human bones collected at Germignac, "le Bois-du-Bourg" belong to the same individual, the two available radiocarbon measurements were merged using the Combined probability function implemented in OxCal, and calibrated with IntCal20 using the ChronoModel v.2 software. The obtained date falls within the first quarter of the 5th millennium, between 4986 and 4784 BCE (HPD 95%). This makes it the earliest evidence of a clearly dated Neolithic site in the Centre-Ouest, in a cultural environment that most probably refers to the Blicquy/Villeneuve-Saint-Germain/Augy-Sainte-Pallaye complex (BVSG), since the stone and shell ornaments bear no resemblance to contemporary southern production, but instead point to the LBK sphere.

The indication that technical paradigms from the LBK tradition could have spread to Aquitaine should lead us to reconsider the potential evidence of southern influences in this region. Ceramic decorative techniques and syntaxes (e.g., rocker impressions, T-composition, ...) are largely shared by southern and northern cultural groups, which had established cultural interactions as early as the last quarter of the 6th millennium, and thus before the establishment of the BVSG. As a result, while southern influences can be detected in the decoration of ceramics from central-western France, it remains particularly difficult to distinguish between direct influences from Occitania or the Iberian Peninsula and reinterpretations by post-LBK groups of northern origin previously connected to the Cardial/Epicardial throughout the Rhône valley. These difficulties could be partly reduced by technological analysis of early ceramic production in Western France, given the fundamental differences in pottery forming methods that have been observed, to date, between the LBK and Impresso-Cardial domains.

Keywords: radiocarbon, AMS, stone rings, shell ornaments, LBK, Blicquy/Villeneuve-Saint-Germain/Augy-Sainte-Pallaye, Late Cardial, Epicardial, transfers.