Life at the Time of the Megalith Builders: the Neolithic Houses of le Peu at Charmé (Charente)
Vivre au temps des bâtisseurs de mégalithes : les maisons néolithiques du Peu, à Charmé (Charente)
Résumé
The emergence of megalithism on the Atlantic seaboard is one of the key facts of the Middle Neolithic. This funerary monumentalism was long dissociated from that of the living world, represented in particular by the large causewayed enclosures, supposedly more recent, for which the evidence of internal occupation was almost unknown. The results obtained within the framework of successive collective research projects and the ANR MONUMEN programme (2018-2022) show that these two forms of architectural monumentality appeared concomitantly in the Charente basin, particularly in the middle of the 5th millennium BC.
Excavated between 2014 and 2022, the enclosure of le Peu at Charmé is one of the rare sites from this period to have revealed traces of four buildings within the space surrounded by a ditch and two palisades. This paper presents the results of an interdisciplinary and multi-scale approach undertaken from the detection of the structures to their restitution in three dimensions.
The exhaustive magnetic prospection of the enclosure allowed the detection of magnetic anomalies such as post holes at the top of the promontory which evoked traces of quadrangular buildings. The excavation campaigns confirmed this hypothesis and uncovered an additional building. Buildings 1 to 3 are very similar in plan and architecture. They are characterised by a quadrangular plan with an east-west orientation, a surface area of between 65 and 120 m², load-bearing posts on the sides only and a central post in the eastern gable that is slightly protruding from the wall, unlike the western gable where it is retracted. The calibrated dates of the four buildings refer to the same chronological period, between 4500 and 4350 cal. BC, making it possible to strongly consider their contemporaneity. Although the architectural remains correspond to post-holes, the presence of charcoal and burnt building earth in the filling of some of them provides additional data. The anthracological study of the charcoal indicates the almost exclusive presence of oak, and the presence of sapwood on a certain number of charcoal samples suggests the exploitation of trees over 20 years old. The study of the remains of burnt building earth attests to a wall built in cob.
Based on all the data acquired, a proposal for a 3D restitution was made by Archéovision Production. On the basis of all the available documentation, it was decided to first carry out a simple model. The framework of these restored buildings consists of a system of four porticos. For the small post holes identified inside building 1, a slightly elevated platform is proposed. The question of the roof is obviously the most complex, due to the lack of data on the missing elevations. The excavation in 2022 of two buildings located outside the enclosure will provide new data to evaluate these first models and hypotheses.
L’émergence du mégalithisme sur la façade atlantique constitue l’un des faits marquants du Néolithique moyen. Ce monumentalisme funéraire a longtemps été dissocié de celui du monde des vivants, représenté notamment par les grandes enceintes à fossés interrompus, supposées plus récentes, pour lesquelles les indices d’occupation à l’intérieur étaient quasi inconnus. Les résultats obtenus dans le cadre de projets collectifs de recherche successifs et du programme ANR Monumen (2018-2022) montrent que ces deux formes de monumentalité architecturale apparaissent de manière concomitante dans le bassin de la Charente, notamment au milieu du Ve millénaire avant notre ère.
Fouillée entre 2014 et 2022, l’enceinte du Peu, à Charmé (Charente), attribuée au Néolithique moyen, constitue l’un des rares sites de cette période ayant livré les traces de quatre bâtiments sur poteaux à l’intérieur d’un espace ceinturé par un fossé et deux palissades, documentant ainsi les premiers habitats néolithiques de la région. Cet article présente les résultats d’une démarche interdisciplinaire et multi-échelle engagée depuis la détection des structures jusqu’à leur restitution en trois dimensions, s’appuyant sur les données géophysiques, archéologiques, géoarchéologiques, bioarchéologiques et architecturales.
Mots clés
restitution 3D
Neolithic
buildings on planted posts
cob
geophysical surveys
techno-morphological analysis
anthracology
3D restitution
Causewayed enclosure
enceinte Néolithique Charente bâtiment sur poteaux plantés torchis géophysique analyse technomorphologique anthracologie restitution 3D Causewayed enclosure Neolithic Charente buildings on planted posts cob geophysical surveys techno-morphological analysis anthracology 3D restitution
enceinte
Néolithique
Charente
bâtiment sur poteaux plantés
torchis
géophysique
analyse technomorphologique
anthracologie
Origine | Accord explicite pour ce dépôt |
---|