Restitution des aires culturelles au Néolithique final dans le sud-est de la France. Dynamiques de formation et d’évolution des styles céramiques
Authors: Cauliez Jessie 
Published: February 2017

In 2010, we published a historiographic review of the end of the Neolithic in southeastern France, and in particular, the chronocultural reference sequences and their limits. The main resulting observation was the difficulty of modeling intra-and extraregional interactions. We also discussed the significant constraints inherent in the construction of periodizations based on very disparate and unequal data. To diminish these numerous incertitudes, I propose in this article to define or redefine the different cultural components and their articulation in space and time in southeastern France. I will in particular attempt to model the origin, evolution and disappearance of cultural groups within a new framework based on one element : pottery. Twenty-six distinct assemblages, integrated within a large part of the chronological sequence of the Final Neolithic and originating from eighteen sites distributed over a sector extending from the eastern Languedoc to the Italian border and from the coastal margins to the borders of the Dauphiné region, were thus used to define eleven new typo-stylistic groups. This approach is based on large, reliable and well-documented collections adapted to statistical analyses in the form of assemblages, meaning that all of the ceramic artifacts of each assemblage analyzed were integrated from both a quantitative and qualitative point of view (multivariate analyses). These components, which are precisely positioned in a chronological framework composed of four main phases defined through the program of chronometric data revision, SMA 14C, were articulated with each other according to the polythetic models of D.-L. Clarke in order to enable a continuous reading and observation of changes and evolutions. The objective was to reveal relationships of affinity or antagonism, processes of influence or opposition, as well as rhythms and inertias, in order to identify the mechanisms of formation underlying these assemblages. Following this procedure, I propose a revised summary of the data and a new reading of the end of the Neolithic period. The diversity of ceramic productions and the microregional variations observed constitute a polymorphous sociocultural landscape. In this context, the different components reflect both strong territorial roots, shown by chronological and spatial continuities (common foundation, in situ evolution), and strong interactions with northern Italy to the east, Languedoc to the west and the Saône-Rhône axis to the north. Starting at 3400 BC and continuing until the Rhone-Provence Bell-Beaker culture extends over the whole of the French Mediterranean Midi region, the stylistic and technical composition of the ceramic elements reveals an image of southeastern France as a “ buffer zone”, or a sort of cultural interface. Departing significantly from the block cultures previously defined, such as the Fraischamp, Couronnian, Nord-Vaucluse and the Rhône-Ouvèze, this article raises questions concerning the reasons and consequences of such a panorama. Population movements, demography, exchange relations, or borrowing phenomena : what is the complex formula behind this intermixing (Guilaine, 2004) ? This analytical framework is discussed in the context of each significant phenomena characteristic of the end of the Neolithic and which could have played a role in the recomposition of the cultural landscape, in particular the appearance of metallurgy and the development of the Bell-Beaker culture.