Territoriality and Settlement in Southern France in the Early Neolithic: Diversity as a Strategy?

Autor: Manen Claire, Perrin Thomas, Bouby Laurent, Bréhard Stéphanie, Defranould Elsa, Rigaud Solange, Philibert Sylvie
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Zdroj: Open Archaeology, Vol 7, Iss 1, Pp 923-938 (2021)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2300-6560
DOI: 10.1515/opar-2020-0179
Popis: In the western Mediterranean, the question of the settlement patterns of the first farming communities remains a much debated issue. Frequently compared with the LBK model, based on hundreds of well-documented villages, the settlement organization of the Impressed Ware complex is still poorly characterized and highly diversified. New data obtained in Southern France (Languedoc) may shed light on this matter, based on new excavations, revised data, and a multi-proxy perspective (site type, domestic area, food supply strategies, activities, spheres of acquisition of raw material, and so forth). Rather than reproducing a pattern of site locations and settlement structuring, it seems that these Early Neolithic groups sought to optimize the location and structuring of their settlements in relation to the specific characteristics of the surrounding environment and available resources. We therefore propose that the diversity observed in the settlement organization of these first farming communities is a reflection of a social organization well-adapted to the diversity of the ecosystem.
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