Matignons culture

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Matignons culture
Age : Middle Neolithic / End Neolithic
Absolutely : 3900 to 2800 BC Chr.

expansion
Central western France
Leitforms

Mine works, stone tools, ceramics with characteristic flat bottoms

The Matignons culture , French culture des Matignons or civilization des Matignons , is a cultural stage of the Middle / End Neolithic . It existed during the 4th millennium BC. In central western France . The culture is characterized above all by its fortified mines .

Etymology and history

Stone artifacts of the Matignons culture from Pont d'Husson in Pons

The name of the culture is derived from the two mines of Les Matignons , which were archaeologically investigated by Claude Burnez and Humphrey Case in 1960 near the hamlet of Les Matignons, part of the municipality of Juillac-le-Coq ( Charente department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region ) were. The two authors were able to show that the eastern mine work I was older than the mine work II and could be assigned to a different cultural level - the Matignons culture. The younger mine II was built by the Peu Richard culture and overlaps mine I. The excavations at that time brought more than 10,000 ceramic shards and around 9,000 stone artifacts to light.

Geographical distribution

Starting from the type locality south of Cognac , the Matignons culture found its main development in the Cognaçais and the Saintonge . To the north it extended into the Marais Poitevin and to the south-east into the Périgord to the middle reaches of the Dronne and the Isle . It was very well rooted in the lower and middle reaches of the Charente , but its eastern extension beyond Angoulême is not yet known. To the south it can be found in the Médoc , the Libournais and the Entre deux mers .

Settlement sites

The settlement areas of the Matignons culture were protected by large circular mine works and girded by one or often two or more deep ditches. Previously known as the enormous number of more than 250 of these facilities during the Néolithique récent I . On the inside of the trenches were wooden palisades or walls built from the trench . The entrances were designed as so-called crab tongs (French pinces de crabes ) for defense purposes . Inside there were mostly wooden houses with enclosures for pets . Due to their old age, the trenches are now heavily filled, but can usually still be seen quite well on aerial photographs. Often the mine works also sealed off protrusions (French éperon barré ), but were mostly on slopes - but valleys are also known.

Agriculture

The keeping of pets is confirmed by numerous bone finds. Cattle bones are represented by the majority . Oxen were probably used as pack animals and draft animals (for plowing and harrowing). However, the hunt was still pursued - as can be seen from the bone finds of wild boar , deer , roe deer and other small mammals.

Burial places

In contrast to the previous megalithic cultures, no clear collective burial sites could be assigned to the Matignons culture . In some of the trenches, however, some human skeletal finds were made, including a double burial. The burials were generally random and directionless. The deceased were occasionally wrapped in perishable material, surrounded by stones and possibly covered with wooden planks or the like.

Artifacts

Stone tools

As far as stone tools are concerned, in the course of the Matignons culture there were no profound changes compared to the Middle Neolithic - in particular with regard to their production methods and their cutting techniques, which were still only made with a hard cutting device (French percuteur dur ). The tools were mostly made from poorly prepared stone cores, with one or more cutting levels and occasionally centripetal cutting directions. Blades were made subordinate and only take up about 10 percent of total production. They were mostly short and irregular and often followed the Kombewa method. Reductions here were used for other cutting tools. Bigger innovations concerned quite thick drills (drills of the Moulin de Vent type appear for the first time ), knives and very common small burins (French micro-denticulés ). The knives are no longer just back knives with an abruptly retouched edge. Rather, inverse, alternating or bifacial retouching now also occurs to reduce the thickness of the edges. Their cutting edges often have a luster due to use. Burins are very common and are based on oblong blade cuts that can be turned slightly.

The cutting tools of the Matignons culture were generally sharp-edged, with triangular cross-sections predominating over the trapezoidal ones (typical of the later Peu Richard culture). Although the double -sided haircuts (French bi-troncatures ) still survived , they were increasingly replaced by bifacial retouching.

Ceramics

Pottery of the Matignons culture from Pont d'Husson in Pons , basket impression on the left

The ceramic remains of the Matignons culture can be assigned to two groups. On the one hand, a range of smaller vessels that are thin-walled and whose surfaces appear brown when rubbed smooth are encountered. Larger vessels such as vases, bowls or bowls are flat-bottomed, sometimes also slightly keel-shaped and can have a shoulder approach. Plates are rare. The circular flat soils - they appear for the first time in the Matignons culture - often also reveal imprints of wickerwork - a technique that was previously only used in the Matignons culture. Decorations are rare and are mostly limited to string patterns and characteristic, double-appearing chalice-like depressions (French cupules ). Often a thick, smooth bulge can be seen under the edges of large flat-bottomed vessels - in the case of fine-walled vases there is also a pattern of cord pulling vertically down from the opening. The vases with flat bottoms have a bulbous profile that is usually slightly surmounted by the bottoms. With the two opposite handles (in contrast to the Peu-Richard culture, which usually has four) buttons, horizontal ears or simple bulging handles predominate.

origin

The origin of the Matignons culture is still in the dark, especially with regard to its ceramics - the first appearance of flat floors. Cultures of the Middle Neolithic I or II would come into question - the Chasséen, the Seine-Oise-Marne culture , the NMO (French Néolithique Moyen Occidental ) and contacts with Brittany are possible. Possible forerunners from the Middle Neolithic cannot yet be clearly identified.

Age

Original radiocarbon dates , carried out in the 1960s, were still 2600 and 2400 BC at the type locality. Performed. The Matignons culture but is now classified as a much older and now the Néolithique récent I assigned. According to this, the culture begins at 3900 BC. BC, reached its peak between 3700 and 3300 BC. And then exists until 2800 BC. Chr. Continued.

Simultaneous neighboring cultures are the Chasséen in southeastern Aquitaine and the as yet little outlined Crosien in the transition area between the two cultures south of the Lot . The Chasséen was about to expire and existed until 3200 BC. Chr. Continued. The Croisien appeared around the same time in 3600 BC. BC and disappeared around 2900 BC Chr.

Claude Burnez proposed a subdivision of the Matignons culture into an older ( Matignons ancien ) and a younger stage ( Matignons récent ) based on ceramic differences , whose temporal delimitation was around 3500 BC. Comes to rest.

Sites

In addition to the type locality in the Charente, the following sites of the Matignons culture are known:

These settlement sites were used by the subsequent Peu Richard culture .

literature

  • J.-M. Bouchet and C. Burnez: La civilization des Matignons. Revision des données. In: Recherches Archéologiques en Saintonge . Société d'Archéologie et d'Histoire 'de la Charente-Maritime, 1992, p. 3-34 .

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Claude Burnez and Humphrey Case: Les camps néolithiques of Matignons à Juillac-le-Coq (Charente) . In: Gallia Préhistoire . 1966, p. 131-245 .
  2. ↑ P. Fouéré: Variabilité des industries en silex entre le Néolithique moyen et le début du Néolithique récent en Center-Ouest . In: Le Néolithique du Center-Ouest de la France, Actes du XXIe colloque inter-régional sur le Néolithique . Poitiers 1998, p. 133-145 .
  3. ↑ C. Burnez: Le Néolithique et le Chalcolithique du Center-Ouest de la France . Société préhistorique française (Mémoire, 12), Paris 1976, p. 375 .
  4. ↑ a b c C. Burnez: Font-Rase à Barbezieux et Font-Belle à Segonzac (Charente). Deux sites du Neolithique récent saintongeais Matignons, Peu-Richard . Archaeopress (BAR International Series 1562), Oxford 2006.
  5. ^ S. Cassen: Le Center-Ouest de la France au IVe millénaire av. JC In: BAR, International Series . 1987, p. 390 .
  6. ^ V. Ard: Enfin des traces d'habitat à l'intérieur d'une enceinte du Néolithique récent du Center-Ouest de la France: premiers résultats et perspectives des fouilles du site de Bellevue (Chenommet, Charente) . In: Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française . tape 106, 3 , 2009, pp. 597-601 .
  7. ↑ F. Fischer and I. Bradfer: Un vase avec empreintes de vannerie à Festalemps (Dordogne) . In: Préhistoire du Sud-Ouest . n ° 9, t. 2, 2002, p. 191-1196 .
  8. ↑ C. Burnez: La station de Soubérac à Gensac-la-Pallue (Charente) . In: Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française . tape 62, 7 , 1965, pp. 289-327 .
  9. ↑ J.-M. Bouchet and C. Burnez: La civilization des Matignons. Revision des données. In: Recherches archéologiques en Saintonge . tape 2 , 1992, p. 3-34 .
  10. ^ JP Mohen and D. Bergougnan: Le camp néolithique de chez Reine à Semussac (Charente Maritime) . In: Gallia Préhistoire . t. 27, 1984, pp. 7-40 .
  11. ↑ JP Pautreau: L'habitat Peu-richardien de la Sauzaie (Charente Maritime) . DRAC Poitou Charentes, Poitiers 1974.
  12. ↑ Claude Burnez: Enceintes néolithiques. La Grande Prairie à Vibrac (Charente-Maritime) . 1996, p. 83 .

Coordinates: 45 ° 36 ′ 8 ″  N , 0 ° 15 ′ 35 ″  W.