Le site de la fin du Bronze final du Hexenberg à Leutenheim (Bas-Rhin) : études sur le paléoenvironnement rhénan et études archéologiques. Résultats préliminaires
Authors: Lasserre Marina , Vigreux Thomas , Basoge Florian , Logel Thierry , Putelat Olivier , Schneider Nathalie , Michler Matthieu , Jodry Florent , Boës Xavier 
Published: April 2016

The decade of excavations on the Hexenberg site led to a first archaeological synthesis. An important research problem concerns the relationship between the site, the floodplain (here, the North Ried) and the former course of the Rhine (now the Hexenberg is situated in the agricultural plain, at five kilometers from channelized river). To answer this issue, a study window was opened between Seltz and Drusenheim from the review of a LIDAR document, old maps, aerial photos and results from two recent operations in preventive archaeology to understand its relationships with its environment. A palaeochannel a hundred meters wide is still marked in the landscape and spends about five hundred meters down the Hexenberg hill. It seems to connect to the Rhine system and recent observations show a contemporary hydrological activity of the Hexenberg occupation. In addition, studies on metal objects rejected in ancient branches of the Rhine confirm this dating. The river has moved from west to east since the Protohistory. However, these data are fragile and this study marks the beginning of an extensive recognition and dating of Rhine paleobranches. The archaeological site, fortified by a palisade, is occupied during a relatively brief period, the late Bronze Age, with no prior occupation. The site was deserted, and although “ cleaned” during the Hallstatt C, and was briefly reoccupied by a small Gallo-Roman necropolis and a moat of the Early Middle Ages. The 4,000 m2 excavated revealed 197 structures and 100 stratigraphic units, making it a densely occupied site in comparison with the other known sites of the Rhine plain where the loess substrate, subjected to the agricultural erosion, are troncated to several tens of centimeters. The main strucutures are mainly shallow structures, similar to storage spaces. There are some silos (twenty cases) and, in e qual proportion, a serie of pits associated with undetermined bilobed skills. There is no pole building. The archaeological material consists of 900 kg of sherds within which 881 vases were isolated. In this group, we can find a wide variability of types especially for the open forms. The printed decorations on the high forms are varied. The decoration of red and polychrome paint is also present, but this corpus is very fragmented. Besides the pottery, we should report the presence of several fragments of clay crescents and ridge tiles, spindle whorls, cheese presses and loomweights. Metal artifacts, according to the habitat, differs by the presence of two main tools (burin and chisels). The study of lithic industry and petrographic determination attest the presence of a wide variety of raw materials, not yet certified in the Alsatian sites of this period (brecciated sandstone, basalt). The faunal spectrum indicates a preference for beef, wild animals and pork. These studies allow a better characterization of the Hexenberg site and its location, in relation with the course of the Rhine. This occupation appears as an original site in the Alsace plain during the final phase of the Bronze Age.