Prehistory of France

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The prehistory of France ranges from the oldest traces of early human life to the onset of a broader written tradition . Therefore it differs from the history of France based on written sources in the nature of its source material. This also has consequences for your methodology, as well as for which questions can be asked sensibly. It is true that such a written tradition, brought in from outside, began before the end of the country's prehistory , and on the other hand, the science that deals primarily with this long phase is archeology, also with very much later times, but for France the time around 500 BC. Established as an approximate boundary between prehistory and history .

11.7 cm × 9 cm × 4.5 cm - 498.3 g, terrace 60 m, Saint-Clar-de-Rivière, Upper Garonne, Henri Breuil Collection

Paleolithic

Early Paleolithic

Until 1994 it was considered certain that people only lived in Europe above 500,000 BP. But with the discoveries at the Italian Ceprano (March 1994), which later turned out to be considerably younger, and the Spanish Atapuerca (July 1994), this limit was shifted by two to three centuries. For some time, the Chilhac III ( Haute-Loire ) choppers or rubble devices , discovered in 1974 and dated to almost two million years old, were considered to be the oldest human traces in Europe, but their processing is contested by humans.

On the other hand, the finds from Lézignan-la-Cèbe in the Hérault department , which can be dated to an age of around 1.57 million years, are considered certain . This corresponds roughly to the age of the finds at Pirro Nord in Apulia, Italy (see prehistory of Italy ). It seems as if these early humans came to Europe with a more favorable climate for their hunting and gathering spectrum.

Another climatic improvement for the prey animals of early humans, now mostly classified as Homo heidelbergensis , began with the revolution of the middle Pleistocene 1.2 to 0.6 million years ago. In the cave of Vallonnet near Roquebrune-Cap-Martin in the Alpes-Maritimes department , artifacts indicate the presence of people who had immigrated from Africa on previously unexplained routes. Their traces were also found in the Somme valley .

Skull of the Man by Tautavel (Arago XXI)

In the cave of Arago in the southern Corbières near the village of Tautavel , 20 km northwest of Perpignan , 450,000-year-old remains of Homo heidelbergensis were found , including the skull named Arago XXI , who became known as the human of Tautavel . In France this is the oldest find of Homo heidelbergensis . 500,000 to 450,000 years ago a humid, mild climate and deciduous forest prevailed , between 450,000 and 400,000 years before our time the area was probably quite open. The main food was meat from Equus mosbachensis , a robust horse, then Tahre ( Hemitragus bonali ) and the occasional steppe wisent ( Bison priscus ).

Ursus deningeri, Arago

Another immigration from Asia could have taken place around 400,000 years ago. Since the seasons were very distinctive, seasonal hikes can be expected.

Middle Paleolithic

Orgnac 3 in the Rhone Valley, not far from the Ardeche Gorge, with its more than 50,000 stone artifacts and 5,000 animal remains, provides evidence in layer 3 of changes in the fauna around 300,000 years ago. During this time, small representatives of the wolf and spotted hyena , bear species such as the collar bear , the brown bear and Ursus deningeri, as well as the red fox , cave lion , marten , red deer , Dama clactoniana, a species of deer that was replaced by the fallow deer in the last warm period , and finally the steppe bison to the caprine counting Tahre (Hemitragus Bonali), Mosbach horse (Equus mosbachensis) and steppe Rhino . In the subsequent cold phase, the forests on the Ardèche plateau declined and the number of rodents increased. In addition, the fauna, such as wild boar , deer , the presence or absence of reindeer , indicate that the differences between the north and the south have increased significantly. Although the south itself was not directly affected by the largest glaciation, this region also cooled down considerably. Obviously the development of the Levallois technique can be read in situ, so that it was probably not entered from outside (level 4a – 4b).

The first dwellings arose at least 230,000 years ago, as has been shown by finds near Nice ( Terra Amata ). Their initial dating of 380,000 years has been contradicted. The everyday use of fire finally established itself at this time at the latest. The cave Le Vallonnet , located between Monaco and Menton , and Ménez-Dregan 1, 450,000 years old, are considered the earliest sites in France . There were fire-blown stones as well as charring and corresponding bones. Cave nr 1 of Mas des Cave and Baume Bonne are around 50,000 years younger, and Terra Amata is much younger. The stone circles in the cave of Bruniquel indicate the use of fire over a long period of time and a still poorly deciphered skill for abstract thinking . There, over 400 stalagmites were broken off according to plan and erected in a circle, the formation of which could be dated back to 176,000 years.

Archaeological site in the cliffs of Artenac, Saint-Mary , Charente department

Around 200,000 to 35,000 years ago, Neanderthals lived all over France . The Grotte du Lazaret near Nice and Bau de l'Aubesier , which are often counted among the early Neanderthals, are among the oldest sites in France . The “classic” period of the Neanderthals is the time that began 115,000 years ago (Artenac, La Ferrassie , Le Moustier , La Quina and La Chapelle-aux-Saints , all in southwest France). Southern France, Spain and Italy are considered to be the core regions of the classic Neanderthal man; 47–48 sites are found there (as of 2008).

Neanderthals left numerous tools behind at Eyzies and Moustier in the Dordogne , including scrapers , hand axes , needles and chisels. They lived from hunting bison , aurochs , horses and reindeer. Based on the hunted prey and, above all, flint processed into tools , the origin of which can be proven, it could be shown that the tail areas in the southeast of the Massif Central and in the Rhone Valley were of considerable size.

Skull of the Neanderthal man from La Ferrassie

In the Abri of La Ferrassie in the Dordogne, they left the oldest burial traces in pits 1.4 by 1 m, traces of sacrifice were also found, such as objects made of flint . The industries discovered at the base of the Abri became the type locality for the Mussérien des Ferrassie type, a facies of the Middle Paleolithic, which is characterized by relatively thin levallois flakes , numerous scrapers and points, rare serrated blades and the absence of hand axes. The corpses of a 40 to 45 year old man and a 25 to 35 year old woman were found in these areas of the Moustérie, lying head to head in east-west oriented trenches at the west end. In addition, a perhaps ten-year-old child as well as a fetus and a perhaps two-week-old newborn were also buried in trenches. Another toddler, around seven months old, was found under a burial mound. In the right part of the abyss, six large depressions were found, one of which contained the remains of a three-year-old child. This child's skull was severed and deposited under a stone slab with indentations, possibly indicating a human sacrifice . Finally there was another two-year-old toddler.

In 1979 a burial site was found at Roche à Pierrot near Saint-Césaire with pearls made from mussels as an addition. Otherwise, burials were found under rocky outcrops in La Chapelle-aux-Saints , Le Moustier and Le Régourdou . Doubts about some interpretations arose using the example of the Neanderthal child from the Roc de Marsal .

The last culture associated with the Neanderthals is the Châtelperronien (38,000 to 33,000 BP), which can only be found in France and northern Spain. It is found mainly in the southwest, in the department of Charente , Dordogne , Lot and Vienne and the western Pyrenees region and in the region of Loire and Seine . In southern France it is referred to as Périgordien I, sometimes also as Périgordien ancien or Périgordien inférieur . It lies in an interstadial of the Würm Ice Age - a climatically somewhat milder, but very unstable period of time. The Châtelperron tool industry is characterized by the new development of the Châtelperron tips (or knives) with a curved, blunt back.

The disappearance of the Neanderthals could be related to the small size of the groups, which is believed to have contributed to the slowdown in technological development. The question of whether Neanderthals and Homo sapiens , who verifiably first appeared outside of Africa 93,000 years ago at Jebel Qafzeh , lived next to each other for a long time, and whether there were cultural adaptations, has been debated for a long time.

Upper Paleolithic

Solutréen, Musée des antiquités nationales in Saint-Germain-en-Laye
Handprints in the cave of Gargas southeast of Aventignan in the Hautes-Pyrénées department in the Occitanie region on the border with Spain

From 33,000 BC The first traces of Cro-Magnon humans can be found in the 2nd century BC, possibly displacing the Neanderthals. They made spears and spatulas, burins and decorated smooth wood. The most important sites are Pincevent , the Lascaux cave with its 150 paintings and 1500 rock carvings, then the Cosquer caves , Gargas and Chauvet . It was named after the Abri of Cro-Magnon.

The 3.65 cm high head of Venus de Brassempouy
The Venus of Laussel

The Aurignacien was followed in Central Europe by the Gravettian (31,000 to 25,000 BC), which in France roughly corresponds to the Périgordien IV . The cave painting was extremely widespread and of high quality, and a variety of small art and jewelry objects were created. The oldest gravettia find Sire à Mirefleurs (Puy-de-Dôme) was dated between 31,305 and 27,300 BP . Since Aurignacian cultures still existed at this time and no sites with a common industry could be proven, an advance of Gravettian groups from the east is discussed, displacing the Aurignacian groups. In Aquitaine , Gravettia only prevailed later, namely in the middle Gravettia (middle Périgordia), which could confirm this thesis. The Gravettien in Aquitaine was replaced by the Solutréen at around 20,000 BP .

Female statuettes, also known as Venus figurines , are characteristic of the younger section of Gravettia . The figurines are made of mammoth ivory (e.g. Venus von Brassempouy ), but also of clay. Other Venus figures are carved out of a rock wall as half-reliefs, such as Venus von Laussel . The younger Gravettia in France is also known as Noallien, after the Noailles burin made of flint, which was particularly widespread in the younger Gravettia (also Périgordien supérieur) from southwest France to Italy, and which was named after a cave near Noailles in the Corrèze department .

In the south, Badegoulia is used to describe the period from around 22,000 to 20,000 BP, ie the phase of maximum expansion of the glaciers, the middle of which is set between 23,000 and 19,000 BP. Recently it was possible to make a kind of territories of different social groups probable within an ecological niche. The expansion of the glaciers may have made human life impossible in the north of what is now France, because a tundra landscape spread out there. The oldest finds in north-east France are around 18,000 years old, 2000 years later people can be found in Belgium again, around 13,000 to 11,000 BC. In England ( Creswell Crags ), which at that time still belonged to the mainland. They probably go back to a temporary reclamation of areas hostile to human life; these people must have come from the south of France and Spain, where people must have withdrawn from the cold. Italy does not appear to play a role in the recovery.

In the south, where the most important refuge for the later repopulation of Western Europe was on both sides of the Pyrenees, it could be shown that at the time of the greatest expansion of the glaciers, most of the people lived on the south side of the Pyrenees.

The site of La Madeleine in the Dordogne, which was inhabited by reindeer hunters and harpoon fishermen 17,000 years ago, gave the Magdalenian its name. At first it was assumed that it arose locally from the Solutréen, but it probably goes back to immigration from regions of Eastern Europe (Epi-Gravettia).

The Magdalenian also includes the cave of Niaux , an extensive cave system in the Ariège Pyrenees . Numerous paintings were created there 13,500 to 12,500 years ago, which are attributed to the Franco-Cantabrian cave art . On the opposite side of the valley is the La Vache grotto , which researchers believe was at least temporarily the residence of the people who created the works of art in the Niaux cave.

During this time, whale bones first appeared in France, namely in Isturitz (Pyrénées-Atlantiques). During the Magdalenian (17,000 to 12,000 BP), the southwestern groups managed to migrate east and north, regaining abandoned areas because of the unfavorable climate. In the process, different societies emerged both in the old settlement area and in the regained areas, which were characterized by different degrees of hierarchization, provided that symbolic objects and jewelry can be understood as indicators.

Mesolithic

The last Magdalenian cultures are the Sauveterrien in the southwest and the Tardenoisien in the northeast. They are assigned to the Mesolithic , which has been less explored in France than in neighboring countries, if one disregards the stone industries. The Mesolithic in France still has the nimbus of a mere transitional period, especially since its remains are mostly unspectacular. Around 1870, it was even assumed that the country was completely depopulated during the Ice Age and only reclaimed in the Neolithic (hiatus theory). The Tardenoisie in the Paris Basin was viewed as a preliminary stage of the Neolithic. With a clear delay compared to other countries, research on Mesolithic questions did not begin in France until the 1930s.

Two women buried in shell piles on the Breton island of Téviec (around 4625 BC). The two 25 and 35-year-old women had died a violent death, as shown by skull injuries and arrow marks. They were half buried in the ground and covered with antlers. Flint and boar bones were found among grave goods, as well as shells that were strung into necklaces and bracelets. Some have engraved lines. The grave was discovered in 1938 and restored in 2010.

The excavations on the Breton islands of Téviec and Hœdic contributed to this. More excavations followed, which helped to interpret the growing complexity of society and its artifacts. Triangular microliths, which served as projectile tips, were characteristic. This gave rise to the idea of ​​a Sauveterrien and a subsequent Tardenoisie. Between 1945 and 1970 numerous excavations followed in the Paris basin and in the Dordogne in the southwest. Nevertheless, the era was still considered a regression time, a time when people struggled extremely hard to live on scarce resources. Jean-Georges Rozoy, who had been excavating since the 1960s, succeeded in reassessing it, which culminated in his 1978 publication Les derniers chasseurs (The Last Hunters). He was able to show that it was precisely the microliths that were signs of spectacular innovations, such as composite tools and the use of bows and arrows. But even Rozoy saw the Mesolithic as a continuation and enhancement of the Paleolithic, which is why he preferred the term Epipalaeolithic, as it is more common in the Mediterranean. His successors often saw the epoch as a kind of pre-Neolithic, in any case repeatedly relativized their independence.

The post-glacial phase, around 9700 cal BC. Beginning in BC, it is divided into several phases on the basis of pollen analyzes that reflect the flora. The warmer and more humid climate allowed a north and west migration of plants and animals, albeit with strong regional differences. The first phase, known as the preboreal , lasted until around 8000 BC. In this phase it was still quite cold, but more humid, birch and juniper spread, later hazel bush and oak were added. After that, in the boreal , hazel and pine became predominant, temperatures rose and dense forests emerged. With the Atlantic from 6900 BC BC (also 7100-5500 BC) rainfall and temperatures reached a maximum. In the forests, the density of which also reached a peak, the oak now dominated. These changes required people to be highly adaptable and they evidently changed the way they looked at their world. After all, albeit long controversial, this late phase is now accepted from the first half of the 7th millennium. When the final phase will follow is still being discussed. The trapezoids of the previous phase disappeared, small and occasionally large blades appear (again).

Within France, a distinction is made between the two main areas, north and south (“provinces”), each of which has a number of facies. In Preboreal and Boreal, large quantities of blades, which are characteristic of the Paleolithic, were only made where flint was available in large quantities, as in Rouffignac in the Dordogne. The small chips (microliths) were obtained in a geometric shape and with soft tools (antlers, bones, soft stones) by means of indirect blows from the core ( Montbani in the Paris basin, Montclus in the south), blades were also brought into the desired shape by blows . Isosceles triangles were initially predominant, but in the second phase they gave way to unequal-sided shapes with a more pointed blade. Other tool materials appear more frequently, such as antlers and bones, as well as corresponding processing tools, but also awls and stone polishers. Jewelry made of bones, teeth, shells and stone now appear more frequently in graves. Among the mussels, Dentalia and Columbella rustica were preferred in the south , while in the north a wider range of mussels, some of which are far away, can be found. Human teeth were also processed, as shown in the Fieux Cave (Lot) and at the Abri des Cabones in the Jura .

The earliest industries of the Sauveterrien in the southwest are concentrated between Aquitaine and Provence as well as Vaucluse . The sites are located along larger rivers and at a low altitude above sea level. This early Mesolithic phase is followed by the Montclusien , which also used higher areas, which also applies to northern Italy, but also to the Massif Central. The grave finds from the island of Téviec belong to this culture. The distinctive stone tool is a microlith carved on all three sides, the Montclus triangle, which extended into the Paris basin and Brittany, and through the Rhone Valley into the northern Alps. The Montadien originated on the coast of Provence .

The end of the Mesolithic is also divided into several phases, the most important of which are Gildasia , according to the Saint-Gildas site in Loire-Atlantique, and Retzien . During this phase the arrowheads changed several times. The situation is less clear due to the lack of finds in eastern France. Finds like those in Mannlefelsen in Alsace or Ruffey-sur-Seille not far from the Swiss border are rare. At the latter site, the finds range from the Preboreal to the end of the Mesolithic.

With La Hoguette we reach the transition phase to the Neolithic in the middle of the 6th millennium. It is possible that the pottery was made by Mesolithic groups inspired by the Mediterranean Neolithic. The fact that the Mesolithic also domesticated animals was shown at the site of Cuzoul de Gramat (Lot), in the Montandon Cave (Doubs) or in Le Petit Marais ( Somme ), where there were signs of domesticated dogs that may have been used for hunting much earlier , maybe already in the Paleolithic. It is also noticeable that in addition to deer, bears (including traces of tragic hunting accidents) and aurochs, many more smaller animals were hunted, such as birds. There was also seasonal fishing. With the growth of the temperate forests, nuts and mushrooms, rhizomes and roots also played an increasing role. There was also evidence of storage (Abcurador).

The hut-like structures often reveal areas such as sleeping, stone-working or food preparation, but in Ruffey-sur-Seille they are concentrated around a stove. In Sonchamp III in the Paris Basin, the hut has an area of ​​12 m². Corresponding structures were also found in Mannlefelsen in Alsace. There were also remains of a stone dam, which was apparently supposed to keep the water of a stream away. Some artifacts indicate tent-like structures and palisades.

Neolithic

Spread of the cardial or imprint culture
Polished diorite ax, discovered near Reims , 25 × 5.2 × 3.3 cm, Museum of Toulouse, Alexis Damour collection
Distribution areas of the megaliths in Europe
The rows of stones at Palaggiu in Corsica - also known as Campu dei Morti (cemetery)
Period of Corsican megaliths
Dugout canoe discovered in 1974 near Bourg-Charente in the Poitou-Charentes region ; 3500 to 3000 BC BC, today in the Musée d'Arts et d'Histoire de Cognac

Cardial or imprint culture (from 5700/5500 BC)

The cardial or imprint culture is named after its typical ceramic decorations using cockles. The terms summarize a number of related cultures that began in the 7th millennium BC. From Dalmatia over the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea to today's France, Iberia, and North Africa. This migration is now also attested by radiocarbon dates, e.g. B. On the other hand, genetic studies not only show that the plants and animals that the new settlers brought with them also came from the eastern Mediterranean, but also that this spread mostly took place at the expense of the previously existing populations.

The Neolithization started v 5700-5500. In south-east France with the culture of La Hoguette . From there it spread to the north and reached the Rhine and its tributaries as far as the Lippe about 300 years before the band pottery . The proportion of pet bones in the finds of the La Hoguette culture is considerably greater than in the band ceramists further east. Now food was self-produced, that is, grain was grown and stored, and cattle were raised, but hunting and fishing were still very important. It has ceramic manufactured, also a core feature of the Neolithization. The groups settled down in the first villages and the first burial mounds, tumuli , cairns , dolmens and menhirs emerged. Menhirs were found mainly in Brittany , sometimes on large areas, such as in Carnac (4 km², 2935 menhirs) or on the Pic de Saint-Barthélemy near Luzenac in the Ariège department .

The cardial culture in the narrower sense (up to 5000 BC) is followed by the epicardial (up to 4800 BC). The culture is divided into different groups in France and Belgium. In northern France, especially from the Paris Basin to the east, one speaks of the Villeneuve-Saint-Germain group , in Belgium of the Blicquien . The latter culture is dated between 5100 and 4700 BC. Dated. Further to the east there is the band ceramic culture , called "Rubané" in French. Long houses with wooden posts dominated here as there. Jewelry was made from slate.

On the Atlantic side originated around 4600 BC. BC, i.e. in the middle Neolithic, the Cerny group with already megalithic elements (proto-megalithic), e.g. B. at Passy in the Yonne department in Burgundy, where ceremonial areas or enclosures were found that were separated by palisades and ditches (see Enclosures of the Passy type ). The houses were heavily influenced by the Danube region, as was the ceramics. The Cerny group is generally paralleled with the Rössen culture group, which is widespread in Germany .

Post-impresso cultures (from 4300/4200 BC)

The initially quite homogeneous imprint ceramics dissolved into post-impresso cultures, which later included the Chassey-Lagozza-Cortaillod culture , which can be detected on both sides of the Rhone . The groups of finds in southern France, northern Italy and southern and western Switzerland, which were initially interpreted as independent cultures, were given their own names, but today they are seen as belonging together. They belong to the middle Neolithic.

In France, the Chasséen (around 4200-3500 BC) extends from the Channel coast to the Mediterranean. The culture was named after the Chassey-le-Camp site in the Saône-et-Loire department . It appears that it is fed more from Mediterranean sources than the eastern groups, which are attributed to Danubian sources. Tillage provided the lion's share of the food, which included apples , emmer , einkorn , acorns , barley , hazelnuts , lentils , beans, and plums ; livestock farming is also documented. The ceramics have simple shapes, mostly bulbous cups with bent shoulders or bag-shaped bowls, hanging and storage vessels with a rounded base and no standing surfaces. Ornaments are rare, but they increase towards the end of the Chasséen. Fine lattice, dot or line-filled bands, X-rows and zigzag stripes predominate, but there are also waves and arcs as well as white and red incrustations. In addition, there are multiple perforated strips with pan flute or cartridge belt eyelets. Stone implements with a blade character now appeared in large numbers, cross-edged, leaf-shaped, rhombic and, in the most recent phase, stemmed wing arrow tips, knives and drills, pointed axes with oval cross-sections, disc axes and chisels. Individual stool burials took place in pits, but also in caves, sometimes in megaliths. Trepanations were relatively common. The villages, fortified with trenches and palisades, and occasionally with more complicated structures, were mostly on plateaus and were considerably larger than in early Neolithic France. In the south, the houses were built on stone foundations. However, people also lived in caves and in isolated huts. Anthropomorphic menhirs were set up in the open landscape, but affiliation with the Chasséen is not guaranteed. There were also figurines made of clay, mostly depicting women.

In Burgundy there are artefacts of a group that showed elements of the Chasséen, but also of the Cortaillod and the Michelsberg culture . The first megalithic monumental buildings were built in the west .

The second culture of this era occurring in France - the third is found in the Swiss area between Lake Geneva and Lake Zurich - is the Lagozza Group . It stretches from Languedoc through Provence and Liguria and further south to the Bari area . The monochrome, undecorated and mostly black ceramic was only occasionally made from red polished, fine-toned material. In addition to pointed axes, there were also microliths such as trapezoids and triangular cross cutters , as well as rhombic and triangular arrowheads, some of which were stalked, on stone tools . Combs, pendants and occasionally harpoons were made from bones . Loom weights and spindle whorls were made of clay.

Around 3500 to 3000 BC New groups emerged like those of Ferrières , then Fontbaisse in the middle, Artenac in the central west, Horgen in the east, Seine-Oise-Marne (3500 to 2500 BC) in the Paris basin and in the north. The latter culture extended in the east to Belgium and western Germany. The half-buried houses with a central ridge on posts and wattle walls were rectangular and measured about 3 by 6 meters. But there were also large houses with heavy roof beams. The graves are collective dead places in the large buildings as well as in the artificial or natural caves. Where soft rock allowed this, as on the Marne , spacious hypogea with rich additions such as hatchets or figurines were created. Steles can be found in Provence as well as in Languedoc and Aveyron . They often depict human faces - with eyebrows, eyes and clothing elements such as belts or ribbons (as in Puyvert in the Vaucluse, Pousthoumy in the Aveyron and Bouisset in the Hérault). In the later Neolithic these figurative representations grew into considerably larger menhirs.

Bell Beaker Culture (2900 to 2200 BC)

In the end of the Neolithic, the bell beaker culture (French: culture campaniforme, 2900 to 2200 BC) covered southern and western France, but also areas in Brittany and the east. This culture extended between the Vistula and Sicily as well as North Africa, to the Elbe and to Spain. The people lived in 15 to 20 m long houses. There could have been 8 to 10 people in each house, perhaps 30 to 50 in the small villages. Apparently there was regular long-distance trade, for example in copper or salt. The funeral rites were now very regionalized, the dead were buried individually in earth graves or in stone boxes. In France, subsequent burials in megalithic complexes and burials in caves were common, occasionally megalithic traditions were adopted and multiple burials were used . Men were buried with their heads turned south and extremities to the right, women with their heads turned north and extremities to the left. So in both cases we looked to the east. Based on the grave goods - mostly bell beakers, daggers made of copper, arm protection plates and arrowheads made of flint, which are found in the graves of outstanding men - an increasing hierarchization of society under the leadership of a warrior group can be ascertained.

Bronze Age (1850-800 BC)

The Avanton gold cone , discovered in 1844 north of Poitiers. Its function is unclear, there has been speculation about a head covering or a donation vessel, which is probably out of the question due to the thin material; It is also possible to crown a cult stake or use it as a hat for a statue, height: 55 cm, weight: 321 g, middle to late Bronze Age
Copper leg guards, Veuxhaulles-sur-Aube, 1250 BC BC, Musée des Antiquitées Nationales de Saint Germain en Laye
The pirogue from Lake Chalain in the French Jura, 1904. The boat is 9.35 m long and was discovered in 1904. It was dendrochronologically to the year 959 BC. And is now in the Musée archéologique de Lons-le-Saunier.

In France, until the 1960s, people refused to accept the tripartite periodization in Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages, which was common in the rest of Europe. It was important to tie one's own prehistory to the history of the Mediterranean, so that archeology became a part of art history. The préhistoire, on the other hand, was a natural science and led a marginal existence in academic life. In the 1880s, Gabriel de Mortillet , who is considered the founder of prehistoric research in France, proposed a protohistoire that should bridge the gap that had arisen. But the rest of Europe refused, and research into the three epochs also lagged behind in France.

According to Jean-Jacques Hatt (1961), the bronze age for eastern France is divided into the bronze ancien or early bronze age or moyen and finale , i.e. the middle and late bronze ages. A bronze récent is seen as the fourth phase before the Late Bronze Age , but this sometimes also includes the last phase. There were copper deposits, which were necessary for the extraction of bronze, in two places, namely in the Vosges in the north-east and at Cabrières in the Hérault department in the south. Although there is tin in Brittany, there is no evidence of Bronze Age mining, so that there may have been a complete dependence on long-distance trade. The early Bronze Age is characterized by burials, the middle by burial mounds or tumuli, and the late by the cremation of the dead.

Early Bronze Age (2200/1850–1650 BC)

In Western Europe, Neolithic traditions continued to shape culture well into the Bronze Age. Starting from the Aunjetitz culture spread from 2500 BC. The bronze processing in Central Europe. However, the bronze working technique is still little developed, the objects in the first two centuries small and rare.

It seems that the dependence on the few mines of tin and copper needed to make bronze has resulted in the accumulation of social wealth, power and influence. If one can deduce this from the grave goods, society became much more hierarchical and warlike. This is indicated by the emphasis on warfare in culture, but also by the emergence of numerous hilltop castles - albeit mostly in the Iron Age.

While numerous cultural groups coexisted in the beginning of the Bronze Age, the space tended to become more and more homogeneous, which increased in the Middle and Late Bronze Ages. Nevertheless, different groups can be identified.

Middle Bronze Age (1650-1275 BC)

Western and Northern France are included in the Atlantic Province, which also includes Atlantic Iberia and the British Isles. A distinction is made between the groups of Tréboul between Brittany and the Netherlands, followed by the groups of Rosnoën and Saint-Brieuc-des-Iffs in the late Bronze Age. The groupe médocain and that of Saint-Denis-de-Pile, around 1050 BC, can be found around the Gironde estuary. In the late Bronze Age. Eastern influences can be seen here in jewelry and weapons.

In Corsica was created around 1600 BC. The Torre culture , which has similarities to the nuragic culture of the southern neighboring island of Sardinia . However, the torri (towers) were considerably smaller than the Sardinian structures. Nevertheless, the torre culture, which is particularly evident in the south of Corsica, is assigned to the nuragic culture, which replaced the megalithic culture there . Only in the south-west of Corsica, near Filitosa , can you find the statue menhirs of the megalithic and the towers of the “Torreaner”.

Late Bronze Age (1275-800 BC)

Spread of Hallstatt (yellow) and Latène (green) cultures with the residential areas of Celtic tribes, which, however, also refer to later states
Western and Eastern Hallstatt culture
Model of a burial mound from the Hallstatt period, Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg

According to Paul Reinecke , the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age are divided into four periods, which are designated Hallstatt A to D. Accordingly, Hallstatt A (1200–1000 BC) and B (1000–800) belong to the Bronze Age urn field culture , Hallstatt C (800–650) and D (650–450 BC) to the Iron Age Hallstatt culture. The eponymous extensive burial ground with over a thousand graves was discovered in 1846 above Lake Hallstatt in Austria. The Westhallstattkreis comprised northeast France, southern Germany, the Middle Rhine region, Bohemia and Upper Austria. If important personalities were buried there with sword (Hallstatt C) or dagger (Hallstatt D), a battle ax was chosen in the east. In the 8th century BC The long-distance trading system for copper and tin lost its importance due to the increasing dominance of iron. The iron trade favored the emergence of a new upper class, which had contacts as far as the Mediterranean. They were referred to as “princely seats”, which are found mainly in southwest Germany, Switzerland and eastern France.

Vix Crater , detail. Such a crater was used to mix wine and water.

A more comprehensive picture is now emerging in the context of the “early centralization and urbanization processes”. At Mont Lassois on the upper reaches of the Seine there was a 42 hectare Hallstatt and Late Latène Age necropolis . It includes the Princely Tomb of Vix and the sanctuary of Les Herbues.

The Latène period followed the Hallstatt period , which is also divided into four periods.

When it comes to western Atlantic France, the Late Bronze Age falls into Bronze final I - it is made between 1275 and 1140/1100 BC. Set (earlier 1200–1000) -, final II between 1140/1100 and 1000/950 (earlier 1000–900) and final III around 950 to 800 (earlier 900–700 BC). Around the mouth of the Gironde follows from about 1050 to 900 BC. The group of Saint-Denis-de-Pile, which joins the Vénat group, which is characteristic of south and south-west France. While the metal goods continued to develop similarly to those in the Atlantic Province, ceramics were heavily influenced by eastern France. The Plainseau group characterizes north-west France and Belgium.

The fact that the Mediterranean was a consumer of metals while the Atlantic Europe played a central role as a producer ensured that not only trade was stimulated, but also linguistic exchange between 1300 and 800 BC. Was intensified strongly. A relatively uniform culture emerged, which was probably connected by a lingua franca, from which - one thought - the Celtic emerged. The large production centers and the regions of consumption were spatially connected by intermediaries such as the Keltiberer or the bearers of the Hallstatt culture. It is possible that there was a linguistic Celticization of the local elites, an interpretation that could well explain the spreads previously interpreted as migrations of peoples. The Latène culture, too, which had its main focus on important rivers, may have been “Celticized” in this way, perhaps also because of religious impulses that were reflected in the material culture.

Iron Age, Hallstatt Culture, La Tène Age

The late Hallstatt culture went on from around 800/750 BC. Between Eastern France and Austria with its neighboring countries emerged from late Bronze Age urn field cultures. Their area was differentiated in 1959 by Georg Kossack into an East and West Hallstatt district, the West Hallstatt district extending from eastern France to Central Austria. Fortified hillside settlements dominated in the Westhallstatt district, surrounded by smaller hamlet-like settlements. In the west there were richly equipped chariot graves , while the warriors in the east were buried with their armor, helmet and breastplate. The late Hallstatt culture (650 to 475 BC) shows richly furnished ceremonial or princely graves that were found in Burgundy ( Vix ). Often there are now Greek and Etruscan goods, especially luxury goods. Close trade relations with the Greek Massilia influenced the population along the Rhône and Saône .

dare

The subsequent Latène period (from 480 BC - 1st century BC) is characterized by strong Mediterranean influences. It was named after the Swiss site La Tène on Lake Neuchâtel , which was discovered in 1857 . Since 2003 excavations have taken place there again.

Around 300 BC The Belgen pushed into the interior of Gaul, where the Sanctuaire de Ribemont-sur-Ancre was built, where a battle with perhaps 1000 dead had probably taken place against the Armoriker .

Gaul after Caesar's conquest

In the 2nd century BC The Arverni were predominant, while the Romans advanced in the south . At this time, Italian amphorae were already displacing Greek amphorae in the Marseilles trade, which repeatedly called on Rome to support it against Gallic opponents. Languedoc and Provence were the first Gallic regions to become Roman and were combined to form the province of Gallia Narbonensis . With the defeat of the Arverni and the Allobroger against Rome and the alliance of the Haedu in 118 BC. The first expansion step was completed. After the defeat of the Arverni, Haeduer and Sequaner competed for supremacy.

58 BC At the request of the Haedu, allied with Rome , Julius Caesar intervened in the conflicts. 52 BC The fight of the Gauls intensified under the leadership of Vercingetorix and the Arverni against Caesar, whereby, following Velleius Paterculus , 400,000 people were killed, according to Plutarch even a million.

Celts

The oldest mention of the Celts (keltoi) can be found in Hecataios of Miletus , who located them north of Marseilles , where they also saw Caesar settle as far as the Seine and Marne , and said that they would call themselves Celts. Herodotus, on the other hand, located it in the headwaters of the Danube , although there may be a mix-up or an idiosyncratic world concept. He saw them above behind the Rock of Gibraltar, in what is now Portugal, and at the Pyrenees . Pytheas of Massalia assigned Brittany to the land of the Celts (Keltiké). Due to the location of Herodotus, Central Europe was already equated with the core area of ​​the Celtic culture in the early 18th century, which spread from there towards the Iberian Peninsula, to Italy and across the Balkans to Anatolia.

History of science

In the 19th century, concepts of technical and social progress were knowledge-guiding models of emerging archeology. Therefore, the emphasis was on breaks and changes that could be read off from artifacts, and which were ultimately based on evolutionary concepts. These changes have often been associated with migrations of peoples . Fields of study such as knowledge, religion, art, and customs were assigned to individual cultures, which in turn were often assigned to ethnic groups. In France, Gabriel de Mortillet dominated, if only because of his position as director of the Musée des Antiquités Nationales in Saint-Germain-en-Laye and as a professor at the École d'Anthropologie de Paris, who tried to define periods using key fossils , which he in turn tried to define grouped into industries . On the basis of biological laws that he assumed to be universal and thus also for human tools, his theory that every industry has a fixed place in an unchangeable sequence and that, above all, did not permit any temporal or spatial overlap, tolerated no exception. Therefore, the Acheuléen was followed by the Moustérien , this Solutréen and finally the Magdalenian . He classified the Neolithic as Robenhausien . The emerging stratigraphic method and relative chronology seemed to support these assumptions. Although the Belgian Edouard Dupont and others suggested that different peoples could have lived in different regions at the same time, this simple scheme did not only prevail in France. At the same time, there was an enormous preponderance of the Paleolithic in France, while in Great Britain the Neolithic and the Bronze and Iron Ages were strongly emphasized.

After the First World War , resistance to the idea that certain types of tools could be clearly assigned to a certain culture or a certain function, or even to a certain people, increased. Instead, the idea of ​​parallel lithic industries that were no longer tied to a fixed temporal sequence prevailed. Spatial movements of ethnic groups were associated with these industries. For example, the Aurignacia was associated with the invasion of Cro-Magnon people . The stratigraphy of the Neolithic was only given a firmer basis by the 1946 reports by the Italian archaeologist Brea on the excavation of Arene Candide . Nevertheless, French Neolithic research lagged, as the dominance of the Paleolithic meant that tools were examined above all, while in other countries the study of the Neolithic period focused on ceramics . Against this background, the successes of our foreign colleagues, including those in French investigations, were perceived as "very humiliating".

With the radiocarbon method , the relative chronology was undermined from the 1950s onwards. The Neolithic was extended back several millennia. Finally, the connection of later prehistoric cultures to ethnic groups, which could be grasped in the written sources, came under criticism. The procedural archeology gave the cultures back some of their complexity and made a strict distinction between material legacy and the cultural world that could possibly be opened up from it. Under these more systemic aspects, the cultures found became dynamic systems themselves. A single identifier was no longer a sufficient attribute for a group. Strongly influenced by ethnological work, this procedural archeology was followed by Great Britain's post- procedural archeology , which gave material culture itself an active role and paid little attention to cultural concepts above the found level.

French archeology developed quite differently. Here were André Leroi-Gourhan and François Bordes dominant. Leroi-Gourhan is still effective today, even beyond France, while Bordes' typological approach was much less effective. He and his wife developed a rigorous quantitative approach and lists of tools that were characteristic of a particular culture. These tool groups were an expression of their culture and less, as critics assumed, an expression of ecological adaptation. The ethnologist and archeologist Leroi-Gourhan dealt intensively with the relationship between man and technology. He introduced the term chaîne opératoire , but particularly stood out because of his more precise archaeological excavation technique , which has largely prevailed.

In the 1950s, many of the older concepts of archeology were abandoned and the concept of culture was mainly applied to the long-neglected Neolithic. At the same time there was a stronger focus on the analysis of ceramics. Cultures continued to retain their analytical potential, particularly in spatial distribution, but concepts of migration or diffusion were largely turned away. Investigating cultures no longer meant pursuing cultural history, but using it as an object of empirical investigation and classification.

literature

Paleo- and Mesolithic

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  • Frédéric Surmely, Sandrine Costamagno, Maureen Hays, Philippe Alix, Jean-François Pasty: Le Gravettien et le Protomagdalénien en Auvergne , in: Paleo 20 (2008) 305–330 full text .
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Neolithic

  • Olivier Lemercier: La Périodisation du Campaniforme dans le Midi. Jean Guilaine avait raison , in: J. Gasco, X. Gutherz, P.-A. de Labriffe (ed.): Temps et Espaces culturels du 6 ° au 2 ° millénaire en France dIVe session, Nîmes, 28–29 October 2000 , UMR 154, Lattes 2003, 151–160 PDF .
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Copper and Bronze Ages

  • Thibault Lachenal: Relations transalpines à l'âge du Bronze: état des données pour la Provence. In: Archéologies transfrontalières. Alpes du Sud, Côte d'Azur, Piémont et Ligurie. Bilan et perspectives de research. (= Bulletin du Musée d'anthropologie préhistorique de Monaco. Supplement 1). Editions du Musée d'anthropologie préhistorique de Monaco, Monaco 2008. pp. 81–93. PDF .
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History of science

  • Jacques Jaubert: Les sociétés du paléolithique moyen en France: principaux acquis de ces dix dernières années. In: Zephyrus. Revista de prehistoria y arqueología 53–54 (2000–2001) 153–175.
  • Anne Lehoërff: Les paradoxes de la Protohistoire française , in: Annales HSS 64, 5 (2009) 1107–1133 full text .

Web links

See also

Remarks

  1. ↑ This section is based on Giorgio Manzi: Before the Emergence of Homo sapiens: Overview on the Early-to-Middle Pleistocene Fossil Record (with a Proposal about Homo heidelbergensis at the subspecific level) , In: International Journal of Evolutionary Biology (2011) PDF .
  2. ↑ Ceprano was tentatively attributed to Homo antecessor , but it had to be recognized that the finds were only about 400,000 years old. They were tentatively assigned to a late Homo erectus , then a Homo heidelbergensis / Homo rhodesiensis .
  3. ^ Christian Guth: Découverte dans le Villafranchien d'Auvergne de galets aménagés , in: Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Sciences , 1974, pp. 1071-1072.
  4. ↑ Pierre-Jean Texier: Chilhac III: un gisement paléontologique villafranchien soliflué? , in: Bulletin de la Société Préhistorique Française 82, 3 (1985) 68-70 and Jean-Paul Raynal, Lionel Magoga: Quand la Nature mystifie le préhistorien. Géofacts et téphrofacts dans le Massif central (France) , in: Revue d'Auvergne 114 (2000) 16–34, especially p. 30ff. PDF .
  5. ↑ Jean-Yves Crochet, Jean-Loup Welcomme, Jérôme Ivorra, Gilles Ruffet, Nicolas Boulbese, Ramon Capdevila, Julien Claude, Cyril Firmat, Grégoire Métais, Jacques Michaux, Martin Pickford: Une nouvelle faune de vertébrés continentaux, associée à des artefacts dans le Pléistocène inférieur de l'Hérault (Sud de la France), vers 1.57 Ma / A new vertebrate fauna associated with lithic artefacts from the Early Pleistocene of the Hérault Valley (southern France) dated around 1.57 Ma , in: Comptes Rendus Palevol 8.8 (2009) 725-736 doi: 10.1016 / j.crpv.2009.06.004 .
  6. ↑ Marj A. Maslin, Andy J. Ridgwell: Mid-Pleistocene revolution and the 'eccentricity myth' , in: Martin J. Head, Philip Leonard Gibbard (eds.): Early-Middle Pleistocene Transition: The Land-Ocean Evidence , Geological Society of London Special Publications 247 (2005) pp. 19-34.
  7. ↑ MEMO - Le site de l'Histoire ( Memento of the original of April 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.memo.fr
  8. ↑ Musée de Tautavel , Tautavel 2000, p. 21 (German edition of the museum guide).
  9. ^ Marie-Hélène Moncel, Anne-Marie Moigne, Youssef Sam, Jean Combier: The Emergence of Neanderthal Technical Behavior: New Evidence from Orgnac 3 (Level 1, MIS 8), Southeastern France In: Current Anthropology Volume 52, 2011, pp. 37-75.
  10. ^ Marie-Hélène Moncel, Anne-Marie Moigne, Youssef Sam, Jean Combier: The Emergence of Neanderthal Technical Behavior: New Evidence from Orgnac 3 (Level 1, MIS 8), Southeastern France. In: Current Anthropology. Volume 52, No. 1, 2011.
  11. ↑ Musée de Paléontologie humaine de Terra Amata ( Memento of the original from August 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.musee-terra-amata.org
  12. ^ Paolo Villa: Terra Amata and the Middle Pleistocene archaeological record of southern France . University of California Press, Berkeley 1983.
  13. ^ Wil Roebroeksa, Paola Villa: On the earliest evidence for habitual use of fire in Europe. In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . Volume 108, 2011, pp. 5209-5214.
  14. ^ Diana Gómez de la Rúa, Fernando Diez Martín: La domesticación del fuego durante el Pleistoceno inferior y medio. Estado de la cuestión . In: VELEIA 26, 2009. pp. 189–216, here: p. 203. On p. 204 there is a table of the sites with traces of fire.
  15. ↑ Jacques Jaubert , Sophie Verheyden, Dominique Genty, Michel Soulier, Hai Cheng, Dominique Blamart, Christian Burlet, Hubert Camus, Serge Delaby, Damien Deldicque, R. Lawrence Edwards , Catherine Ferrier, François Lacrampe-Cuyaubère, François Lévêque, Frédéric Maksud, Pascal Mora, Xavier Muth, Édouard Régnier, Jean-Noël Rouzaud, Frédéric Santos: Early Neanderthal constructions deep in Bruniquel Cave in southwestern France. Nature 534.7605 (2016): 111. doi : 10.1038 / nature18291 .
  16. ↑ Jordi Serangeli1, Michael Bolus: Out of Europe - The dispersal of a successful European hominin form Out of Europe - The spread of a successful European human form . In: Quaternary. 55, 2008, pp. 83-98, here: p. 85.
  17. ↑ Jordi Serangeli1, Michael Bolus: Out of Europe - The dispersal of a successful European hominin form Out of Europe - The spread of a successful European human form . In: Quartär 55, 2008, pp. 83–98, here: p. 87.
  18. ^ Paul Fernandes, Jean-Paul Raynal, Marie-Hélène Moncel: Middle Palaeolithic raw material gathering territories and human mobility in the southern Massif Central, France: first results from a petro-archaeological study on flint . In: Journal of Archaeological Science. 35, No. 8, August 2008, pp. 2357-2370.
  19. ↑ Dennis M. Sandgathe, Harold L. Dibble , Paul Goldberg, Shannon P. McPherron: The Roc de Marsal Neandertal child: A reassessment of its status as a deliberate burial . In: Journal of Human Evolution. 61, No. 3, 2011, pp. 243-253, doi: 10.1016 / j.jhevol.2011.04.003 .
  20. ^ Shara E. Bailey, Timothy D. Weaver, Jean-Jacques Hublin : Who made the Aurignacian and other early Upper Paleolithic industries? In: Journal of Human Evolution. Volume 57, No. 1, 2009, pp. 11-26 doi: 10.1016 / j.jhevol.2009.02.003 .
  21. ↑ Denis Peyrony: Les industries "aurignaciennes" dans le bassin de la Vézére . In: Bulletin de la Société Préhistorique Française. XXX, 1933, pp. 543-559.
  22. ↑ J.-P. Bocquet-Appel, A. Tuffreau: Technological responses of Neanderthals to macroclimatic variations (240,000-40,000 BP). In: Human Biology. Volume 81, 2009, pp. 287-307.
  23. ↑ H. Valladas, JL Reyss, JL Joron, G. Valladas, O. Bar-Yosef , E. Vandermeersch: Thermoluminescence dating of Mousterian “Proto-Cro-Magnon” remains from Israel and the origin of modern man. In: Nature . Volume 331, 1988, pp. 614-616.
  24. ↑ Using the example of the Grotte des Fées : João Zilhão , Francesco d'Errico, Jean-Guillaume Bordes, Arnaud Lenoble, Jean-Pierre Texier, Jean-Philippe Rigaud: Grotte des Fées (Châtelperron): History of Research, Stratigraphy, Dating, and Archeology of the Châtelperronian Type-Site . In: PaleoAnthropology. 2008, pp. 1-42.
  25. ↑ J. Zilhão, F. D'Errico J.-G. Bordes, A. Lenoble, J.-P. Texier, J.-P. Rigaud: Analysis of Aurignacian interstratification at the Châtelperronian-type site and implications for the behavioral modernity of Neandertals. In: PNAS . Volume 103, No. 33, 2006, pp. 12643-12648 doi: 10.1073 / pnas.0605128103 .
  26. ↑ Bernard Vandermeersch: Homme de Cro-Magnon , in: Dictionnaire de la Préhistoire, Presses universitaires de France , Paris, 1988.
  27. ↑ Pascal Foucher: La Grotte de Gargas. Un siècle de Décourvertes Édition spéciale du Centenaire . 2007, Communauté de Communes du Canton de Saint-Laurent-de-Neste, Saint-Laurent-de-Neste 2007, pp. 53-57 and Pascal Foucher, Cristina San Juan-Foucher: Du silex, de l'os et des coquillages : matières et espaces géographiques dans le Gravettien pyrénéen , Hyper Article en Ligne - Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société (PDF; 912 kB) 2008.
  28. ^ Abri Cro-Magnon , Pôle International de la Préhistoire.
  29. ↑ Cf. Jean-Philippe Rigaud: Les industries lithiques du Gravettien du nord de l'Aquitaine dans leur cadre chronologique , in: Paleo 20 (2008) 381–398.
  30. ^ Jean-Philippe Rigaud: Les industries lithiques du Gravettien du Nord de l'Aquitaine dans leur cadre chronologique , In: Paleo. Revue de archéologie préhistorique 20 (2008) 381–398.
  31. ↑ Joachim Hahn: Recognition and determination of stone and bone artifacts. Tübingen 1991, p. 232.
  32. ↑ William E. Banksa, Thierry Aubry, Francesco d'Errico, João Zilhão, Andrés Lira-Noriega, A. Townsend Peterson: Eco-cultural niches of the Badegoulian: Unraveling left between cultural adaptation and ecology during the Last Glacial Maximum in France. In: Journal of Anthropological Archeology. Volume 30, No. 3 (2011) pp. 359-374.
  33. ↑ Delphine Kuntz, Sandrine Costamagno: Relationships between reindeer and man in southwestern France during the Magdalenian , in: Quaternary International 238, 1-2 (June 1, 2011) 12-24.
  34. ↑ Jean-Marc Pétillon: First evidence of a whale bone industry in the western European Upper Paleolithic: Magdalenian artifacts from Isturitz (Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France) , in: Journal of Human Evolution 54 (2008) pp 720-726.
  35. ^ Rebecca H. Schwendler: Diversity in social organization across Magdalenian Western Europe approx. 17–12,000 BP , in: Quaternary International 272–273 (2012) pp. 166–175.
  36. ↑ For earlier cultures in the Massif Central cf. Raphaël Angevin: Magdalenian societies in the Massif Central (France): Paleohistorical perspectives on the long-term (16.5–11.5 ka BP) , in: Quaternary International , 272–273 (2012) pp. 166–175.
  37. ↑ Nicolas Valdeyron: The Mesolithic in France , in: GN Bailey (Ed.): Mesolithic Europe , Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2008, pp. 182–202, here: p. 198.
  38. ↑ Johannes Müller : The East Adriatic Early Neolithic. The Impresso-Culture and the Neolithization of the Adriatic Region , Berlin 1994.
  39. ^ João Zilhão: Radiocarbon evidence for maritime pioneer colonization at the origins of farming in west Mediterranean Europe. In: PNAS. Volume 98, No. 24 (2001) pp. 14180-14185.
  40. ↑ Marie-France Deguilloux, Ludovic Soler, Marie-Hélène Pemonge, Chris Scarre, Roger Joussaume, Luc Laporte: News from the West: Ancient DNA from a French megalithic burial chamber. In: Physical Anthropology. Volume 144, No. 1 (2011) pp. 108-118.
  41. ↑ Patricia Balaresque, Georgina R. Bowden, Susan M. Adams, Ho-Yee Leung, Turi E. King, Zoë H. Rosser, Jane Goodwin, Jean-Paul Moisan, Christelle Richard, Ann Millward, Andrew G. Demaine, Guido Barbujani , Carlo Previderè, Ian J. Wilson, Chris Tyler-Smith, Mark A. Jobling: A Predominantly Neolithic Origin for European Paternal Lineages , in: PLOS Biology 2010.
  42. ↑ Most European males 'descended from farmers' , BBC News , January 20, 2010.
  43. ↑ Almut Bick: The Stone Age , Theiss WissenKompakt, Stuttgart 2006.
  44. ↑ Marcel Otte: La protohistoire , De Boeck Supérieur 2008, pp. 109–144.
  45. ↑ J. Heim, A. Havazeur: Paysage paléobotanique the sites you RUBANE et du groupe de Blicquy à Vaux-et-Borset "Gibour" (Hesbaye, Belgique). Culture de blé nu et récolte de pommes en context blicquien , in: Bulletin de la Société Préhistorique Française 99.2 (2002) 289-305.
  46. ↑ This section is based on Marcel Otte: La protohistoire , De Boeck Supérieur 2008, pp. 125ff.
  47. ↑ Archaeological Lexicon. Golden hats and robes , Kulmbach Landscape Museum.
  48. ↑ Anne Lehoërff: Les paradoxes de la Protohistoire française , in Annales 64.5 (2009) 1107-1133.
  49. ↑ This section follows Mireille David-Elbiali: L'âge du Bronze , in: Marcel Otte (ed.): La protohistoire , 2nd edition, De Boeck Supérieur 2008, part 2, pp. 177-262.
  50. ↑ Early Centralization and Urbanization Processes , Priority Program 1171 of the German Research Foundation "Early Centralization and Urbanization Processes - On the Genesis and Development of 'Early Celtic Princes' Seats' and their Territorial Surroundings", research project expired in 2010.
  51. ^ Mont Lassois , DFG project.
  52. ↑ Barry Cunliffe: In the Fabulous Celtic Twilight , in: Larissa Bonfante (Ed.): The Barbarians of Ancient Europe. Realities and Interactions , Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2011, pp. 190–210, here: pp. 199–200.
  53. ↑ Gianna Reginelli, Judit Becze-Deàk, Patrick Gassmann: La Tène revisitée en 2003: Résultats préliminaires et perspectives , in: L'âge du Fer dans l'arc jurassien et ses marges. Dépôts, lieux sacrés et territorialité à l'âge du Fer. Actes du XXIVe colloque international de l'AFEAF Bienne 5-8 May 2005 , Vol. 2, pp. 373-389.
  54. ^ Pierre-Marie Guihard: Monnaies gauloises et circulation monétaire dans l'actuelle Normandie. Collection de la médiathèque municipale de Bayeux (Calvados) , Publications du CRAHM, Caen 2008, ISBN 978-2-902685-45-5 , p. 16.
  55. ↑ This section follows Marc Vander Linden, Benjamin W. Roberts: A Tale of Two Countries: Contrasting Archaeological Culture History in British and French Archeology , in: Benjamin W. Roberts, Marc Vander Linden (Eds.): Investigating Archaeological Cultures. Material Culture, Variability, and Transmission , Springer, New York 2001, pp. 23-40 PDF .
  56. ↑ "Fort humiliant pour nous" says Jean-Jacques Hatt: De l'Age du Bronze à la fin du 1er Age of Iron. Problèmes et perspectives de la protohistoire française , in: Bulletin de la Société Préhistorique Française 51 (1954) 101–110, here: p. 101.