Caractérisation de l’industrie lithique de la fin du Néolithique, dans le bassin de la Seine (de la deuxième moitié du IVe millénaire à la fin du IIIe millénaire av. J.-C.)
Authors: Renard Caroline 
Published: January 2021

This article, based on a PhD (Renard, 2010), represents the first characterization of the lithic industry from the end of the Neolithic in the Seine River Basin (between 3500 and 2100 BC). This research takes place a little more than ninety years after the first mention of the «Seine-Oise-Marne » (Bosch-Gimpera et Serra-Ràfols, 1926), a culture that was until recently integrated to the recent Neolithic in the North Center region of France. Starting in the 2000s, and following from several earlier works (Bailloud, 1974 ; Blanchet, 1984 ; Blanchet et Lambot, 1985 ; Briard et Mohen, 1983 ; Brunet, 1986 ; Burnez-Lanotte, 1987 ; Martial, 1995, among others), the research led by the PCR «The IIIrd millennium BC in the North Center of France : definitions and interactions of cultural groups » (Salanova and Cottiaux dir. 2014) tried to solve research questions connected to the spatial and chronological division of the recent Neolithic and the final Neolithic in the Seine River Basin. Several works were made, improving and enriching every time the knowledge of this period : syntheses on the recent Neolithic (Augereau et al., 2007 ; Cottiaux and Salanova dir., 2014), on the chronological divisions (Salanova et al., 2011), studies on ceramic (Brunet et al., 2008), university research on the industry on hard animal materials (Maingaud, 2003a, 2003b, 2004), on jewelry (Polloni, 2007, 2008), on funeral practices (Sohn, 2006, 2008) and finally on the lithic industry. Then, new research focused on a sector of our present area of study (Langry-François, 2002, 2004) or on the Seine River Basin generally but only on specific aspects of the tool-kit (arrowheads : Renard, 2003, 2004) or on the materials of three sites only (Renard, 2002). This article aims at characterizing the lithic tool-kit of the Late Neolithic period (between 3500 and 2100 BC) in the Seine basin, by distinguish the lithic industry from the recent Neolithic from the one of the final Neolithic. More generally, the objective is to clarify the definition of cultural groups, their location and chronology through the study of lithic artefacts in domestic and burial contexts. The body of research includes fifty-six sites, either studied directly (n = 17) or through publications (n = 39), mainly distributed between the Seine downstream, the Oise, Marne and Aisne valleys and the Seine-Yonne-Vanne crossroads. The characterization of the lithic industry is made of different stages, the first of which involves the macroscopic determination of raw materials, enabling a discussion on procurement strategies. During this study, knapping techniques have been identified, as well as production objectives and the retouched blanks have been analyzed in order to establish the usual tool-kit. There are also specific contextual characteristics (tools overrepresented in burial or in habitat) and geographical specificities (tool-types absent from an area, for example). It thus appears that, for the recent and final Neolithic, the procurement is generally made near the settlements. During the recent and final Neolithic, two aspects of the procurement trend for imported non-local raw materials are the same : the direction of circulation of secondary and tertiary flint artefacts and the shape in which these pieces circulate. The final Neolithic, however, has a distinctive feature : the diffusion of artefacts made on green stone (jadeite, fibrolite, dolerite) and upper Turonian flint from the Grand-Pressigny region. The flake production, common throughout the end of the Neolithic period, is achieved through direct percussion with a hard stone hammer. The final Neolithic distinguishes itself by a higher frequency of multipolar debitage and by a particular geographical distribution of these debitages (on the coastline of the Channel). Sites that have delivered this type of cores are located north and northeast of our study area. In other instances, the reduction sequence represents a random exploitation of the volume of the core, where the negative of each new flake is used as a striking platform for the subsequent removal. The other input of this thesis concerns bladelet production. Other than irregular bladelets that can be unintentionally produced during the blade debitage, several aspects indicate the presence of a bladelet production, marginal but real. Even if in the present state of research it is delicate to determine the purpose of these bladelets, it seems that an occasional production exists, which it would be interesting to characterize more precisely. The blade production during the recent Neolithic period has some notable features in terms of percussion techniques used (indirect percussion and direct soft hammer percussion). It also has distinctive features in terms of geographical distribution of these techniques and on the status of blade artefacts in burial context. While blade cores come from habitats, blades deposited in sepulchral contexts present several peculiarities : their quantity is sometimes greater than the quantity of flakes and they are of larger dimensions than in domestic context. Moreover, several indications suggest that there likely is a slowdown in domestic production of blades during the final Neolithic. The percussion techniques used during this period for blade production are varied and it is difficult to demonstrate a trend. Finally, beyond the composition of the tool-kit, the final Neolithic is characterized by more diverse

tool types.

The comparative study of several regions of the Seine basin highlights temporal and spatial variability and questions the validity of regional facies (Augereau et al., 2007). The existence of a «Marne facies » , proposed following a series of syntheses on funeral practices, hard animal materials and adornments, is once more validated by the lithic industry. The circulation of raw materials and finished tools, and the legacies, borrowings and rejections of specific features are demonstrated ; the ceramic material of the recent Neolithic, do not make it possible to highlight these phenomena.