Territoires et stratégies d’implantation des sites des premiers agriculteurs-éleveurs néolithiques d’Europe occidentale. L’exemple du Rubané de la vallée de l’Aisne (France)
Résumé
Since the 1970s the Aisne River valley in Picardy has produced remains of the first farming communities in northern France. The sites are longhouse settlements dating to the Linear Pottery culture (early Neolithic, c. 5100-5000 BCE). Since the early days of research in the valley, site locational strategies and possible forms of territorial organisation have been important issues. Site location was shown to be related to the specific topographic and geological context and two levels of territorial integration were proposed. With the help of developments in GIS, we analyse the representativity of the available data, before testing and refining earlier hypotheses. Some clear differences emerge between the eastern and western sectors of the valley, concerning the immediate surroundings of the settlements, as well as site distribution and possible territorial organisation. These results show that while the whole of the valley was occupied from the start of the sequence, there were also local adaptations or particularities.