Champ de Bataille (L'Étoile)

The irregularly oval Champ de Bataille mine near L'Étoile , southeast of Abbeville , located in the Somme department in France , is ascribed to the Cerny culture or the Rössen culture, which Roger Agache discovered in aerial photographs in 1971 .

The 270 × 200 m measuring, approximately five hectare large mine ( French enceinte à fossé interrompu ) dominates the valley of the Somme and lies slightly below a ridge oriented to the south. It is bordered by a circle of irregularly lined up pits (with deviations in depth and width), which optically form a ditch and are accompanied inside by a wall and a wooden palisade, the course of which is partially recognizable in the aerial photographs. Access was via seven or eight entrances about ten meters wide. The multiple interruptions are characteristic of the Neolithic mine works of the Michelsberg culture in Germany and eastern France and the causewayed camps of the Windmill Hill culture in England.

The slightly curved pits that follow the oval, evidently formed successively, are about 3.5 m wide and a little more than 1.0 m deep. They appear to have been purposely filled with chalk . On its floor, in a layer of ash, there were many flint relics of the Campignia type , with tools sometimes completely blown up by fire: axes , knives, scrapers and plenty of sandstone millstones , accompanied by broken cattle and sheep bones. The few, poorly preserved pieces appear to be of the Chasséen type.

Soundings at the northwest entrance showed that parallel to the filled outer trench there is another 45 cm deep and 40 to 60 cm wide trench, which can also be seen in some aerial photographs. It was probably used as the basis for a palisade . The large pits in the rear seem to be traced back to Roman times.

About one kilometer east, on the hill above L'Étoile, was the Gallic oppidum Camp de César .

literature

• Bruno Bréart: Le site neolithique du Champ de Bataille à L'Etoile (Somme): une enceinte à fossé interrompu . In: Revue archéologique de Picardie , No. 1-2, 1984, pp. 293-310. doi: 10.3406 / pica.1984.1423

Web links

• Le camp néolithique de L'Etoile (French)

Coordinates: 50 ° 1 ′ 38.5 ″  N , 2 ° 0 ′ 46.9 ″  E