The Lady of Villers-Carbonnel (Somme) was unearthed in 2010. Statuette modeled from a clay slab, it is datable to - 4000 and belongs to the Chasséen culture • INRAP There are hardly any subjects on the Neolithic that have not been turned upside down in recent decades on a world scale, where many unknowns existed, but also on a European scale, which was believed to be rather well studied. In France, preventive archaeology, upstream of development work, has played a major role. It has led to the discovery of traces that we would not necessarily have known – or could – find otherwise. It made it possible to deliver occupation surfaces that were unprecedented in their size and nature, and in this way offered important windows of analysis. The view of the Neolithic has therefore changed thanks to a synergy of research, combining several types of excavations and studies. The development of laboratory methods and specialties was also decisive. Thus, housing has been a field in which knowledge has increased both in number and in content. Until the 1980s, the habitats of a few cultures predominated:those of the Banded, some enclosures from the Middle Neolithic to the IV e millennium BC. J.-C., habitats of the final Neolithic in the south of France (Fontbouisse, etc.), and lacustrines from the middle Neolithic on the edges of the remarkably well preserved alpine lakes. Today, research highlights the importance of regional diversification processes from the end of the Early Neolithic and fills gaps such as the habitat of the Final Neolithic of northern France, very incomplete, or that of the Bell Beaker in the III e millennium BC. J.-C., which until then was approached almost exclusively by funerary furniture. Geomorphology (the study of reliefs and their formation) then ensured a better understanding of the archaeological contexts and environments of these extinct populations. New pathologies In these living spaces, studies on animal (archaeozoology) and plant (palynology, carpology, etc.) species, as well as agricultural practices or details of food consumption are enriched almost daily with new results. Paleogenetic studies, focusing on DNA, have made it possible to specify hypotheses of migrations, possible filiations or health status of populations, both animal and human, and the Near Eastern origin of Neolithization has been definitively decided. . The data was delivered by the excavations of the dumps associated with the habitats, but also by certain pits or ditches of the large enclosures rich in bone remains. DNA studies have made it possible to clarify hypotheses of migrations, possible filiations or health status of populations, and the Near Eastern origin of Neolithization has been definitively determined. Researchers also track the interactions between humans and the species they seek to dominate, the appearance of pathologies or diseases linked to these new lifestyles, changes in the environment and the consequences of this anthropization, this growing and uninterrupted influence of man on his environment until today. The discoveries of very varied tombs have also opened up new perspectives for research on funerary rituals. Increasing attention is paid to the most tenuous clues in the context of so-called "taphonomic" studies (generally everything that happens between the deposit and the discovery), which underlines a great variety from the early Neolithic, both for the treatment of the body only for the funerary deposits, the space and the eventual monument. The complexity of managing Late Neolithic collective burials (IV e and III e millennia BC. J.-C.) is better and better perceived. The appearance of war Studies of traces on bones in certain contexts have also prompted us to rethink the question of the violence of a Neolithic era that we readily imagined only 30 years ago as a golden age, an ideal time of peace and harmony. 'equality. A generation of researchers later, it is on the contrary as a world at the gates of war – the real one – that we now conceive of this period. Clashes may have taken place between certain settlers and local populations, or among migrants for a seizure of power in the newly created territories. Moreover, we are convinced that it was during the Neolithic that the foundations of growing social inequality were laid, which became very visible from the Bronze Age (- 2200 to - 800 approximately), and from a masculine domination which finds its origins in a patriarchal system typical of the first agricultural populations of the whole world. Megalithism thus apprehended becomes rather the expression of a position of control of certain individuals within society rather than that of a large communitarian movement. We are convinced that it was during the Neolithic period that the foundations of growing social inequality were laid, which became very visible from the Bronze Age. Research on dating has benefited from cross-dynamics leading to more numerous, more nuanced and more precise results. The methods used existed in part, but they have been perfected. Thus, a correction of radiocarbon dating and the introduction of so-called calibration tables ensured new dates for less well-known periods or places, such as the very beginnings of the Neolithic in Brittany, for example. These revisions have led archaeologists to qualify certain ancient patterns and to consider working on longer temporalities with less abrupt breaks, in particular for the beginning of the Neolithic. Göbekli Tepe (Turkey) Located in the south-east of present-day Turkey, the site of Göbekli Tepe is dated from - 9500 to - 8000 approximately. Excavated since 1995, it is characterized by a set of circular buildings 10 to 30 m in diameter. These dry stone elevations incorporate limestone stelae 3 to 5 m high, representing abstract motifs in relief and a bestiary of wild animals with strong symbolic value:lions, gazelles, wild boars, cattle, snakes, foxes, etc. Traces do not indicate ordinary domestic life in these places, which researchers interpret as one of the oldest known shrines. The site is abandoned after having been carefully covered, when the populations open a new page in their history. Ötzi, the ice mummy The man, born around - 3300 in the Alps, was discovered in 1991 in a glacier between Italy and Austria. His mummified body and equipment have been the focus of many studies. Provided with a bow and unfinished arrows, and a backpack made of bark, dressed in clothes made of various carefully worked skins and a coat of reeds, he suffered from various pathologies and presented with clogged lungs, which could be those of a metallurgist. The man also had the oldest known tattoos and had made a last meal of spelled, deer and ibex. His presence at an altitude of more than 3,000 m and his violent death by an arrow received in the back made Ötzi the involuntary hero of the European Neolithic. Achenheim (Alsace) The habitat, surrounded by an enclosure typical of the Middle Neolithic (- 4400 to - 4200), housed more than 300 silos to store foodstuffs. The n o 124, with a diameter of more than 2.50 m, contained the remains of six male individuals with the stigmata of various traumas. Along with these bones were also the remains of three adult arms and a child, also cut and fractured. This discovery testifies to a violence that is now dated between the end of the Ribbon and the beginning of the Middle Neolithic, including on other sites such as Bergheim (Alsace), Herxheim (Palatinate), Talheim (Baden-Württemberg) , and which we put in connection with the social and cultural recompositions of this period. Paris, Bercy site Between 1990 and 1996, the excavations that accompanied the development work on the Parisian quays of Bercy brought to light a Neolithic habitat on the banks of an old channel of the Seine, occupied from - 4200 to - 3000. remains attest to the life of farmers, breeders, gatherers and fishermen, and a variety of craftsmanship:ceramics, flint, animal bones, plant essences. The burial environment has allowed the unusual preservation of organic materials, including the piles of a pontoon and a palisade, but above all the more or less complete remains of a dozen dugout canoes (made from a single piece of wood ). Removed and then restored, they will be presented to the public again when the Musée Carnavalet reopens soon. Aubevoye (Eure) and Villers-Carbonnel (Somme) In 2003, the discovery of a very small object caused a stir:in Aubevoye (Eure), in a village in Rubané (around - 4800), a terracotta vase representing a bull was unearthed. It created a surprise, because the West had hardly delivered any figurative representations for this period, and even less of a bull, an animal which was also very present in the herd. In 2010, this time it was a "lady" unearthed in Villers-Carbonnel (Somme) and datable to - 4000 that made the news. These figurines, very present in the Middle East and in the Balkans, are rare in the West. Far from being decorative objects, they are small pieces of furniture belonging to a symbolic repertoire and ensuring the role of viaticums for the service of rituals. Cazan (Bouches-du-Rhone) About 6,000 years ago, a village stood in Cazan, in the commune of Vernègues, in the Bouches-du-Rhône. An excavation carried out in 2013 over nearly 11,000 square meters revealed about ten houses on planted posts, all oriented in the same direction for better protection against the winds. They were associated with two monumental buildings, whose function could be political or religious. All the classic clues of a village, agricultural and artisanal daily life are present there, as well as exceptional materials for their rarity (obsidian, metallurgy). The village of Cazan illustrates these new discoveries of habitats which are gradually filling in the gaps in the settlement and lifestyle of Neolithic populations.
