Mesolithic/Neolithic

JEUNESSE C., ARBOGAST R.-M., MAUVILLY M. et DENAIRE A. (2019) – La couche 5 de Lutter. Le second Mésolithique et la transition avec le Néolithique dans la zone Jura – Plateau suisse (6300 – 4300 av. J.-C.), in : R.-M. Arbogast, S. Griselin, C. Jeunesse et F. Séara, dir., Le second Mésolithique des Alpes à l’Atlantique (VII°-V° millénaires), table ronde internationale de Strasbourg, novembre 2015, Strasbourg, Mémoires d’Archéologie du Grand-Est n°3, 55-108.


Lutter, level 5. The second Mesolithic and the transition to Neolithic in the Jura-Swiss Plateau area

Christian Jeunesse, Rose-Marie Arbogast, Michel Mauvilly, Anthony Denaire


A description of level 5 from the Lutter rock shelter (Haut-Rhin, France) enables us to present a review of the data available on the Second Mesolithic (Recent and Late Mesolithic) in the Jura and Swiss Plateau area. Lutter level 5 is the result of multiple occupations in a rock shelter that was likely used as a hunting camp. It has yielded a set of artefacts dated from the end of the 6th millennium and the beginning of the 5th, and typical of the late Mesolithic in the Jura area. Arrowheads make up the major group of the lithic industry, composed of trapezes and three distinct types of evolved arrowheads (armatures évoluées), namely the Bavans point, the concave based small arrowhead (fléchette à base concave), and a yet unknown type of triangular arrowhead with concave sides which we suggest naming the “Lutter point”.

Through a review of the reference sites for the Second Mesolithic in our study area, among which the major Swiss assemblages from Arconciel “La Souche” and Onnens “Praz-Berthoud”, as well as the Grotte du Gardon in Amberieu-en-Bugey (Ain, France), we are able to draft an overview of the main characteristics of this period. It begins with the emergence of the “blade and trapeze industry” around 6300-6200 and is divided into two horizons classically termed Recent Mesolithic and Late Mesolithic. The former is characterized by the use of trapezoid points only and of deer antler harpoons with two rows of barbs. The latter is marked by the emergence of evolved arrowheads and pottery, found in eleven sites from our study corpus and belonging to various local pottery styles. The transition between the two periods takes place between 5500 and 5300. During the Recent stage, the studied area is part of a wider group, called the Montbanien, which extends from Bavaria to the center of the Paris Basin and occupies the western end of the northern branch of the “blade and trapeze industries” spreading zone. During the later stage a regional culture, which we suggest naming the “Bavans group”, develops its own identity in a smaller area.

The possible interactions with the major cultures from the Early/Middle Neolithic settled to the South (Cardial culture and Northern-Italy Early Neolithic) and to the North (LBK and post-LBK cultures) make up one of the most important parameters for the study of this time period. New sets of radiocarbon dates confirm that the Mesolithic lasted to around 4500-4400, and even beyond. On the Swiss Plateau, which yielded the most vestiges, this chronological pattern is corroborated by the data available on the emergence of the first Neolithic communities, namely those of the Egolzwil culture. As a consequence, the studied area can be considered, like large areas of Northern and Northwestern Europe (the Ertebölle and Swifterband cultures roughly spanning the same chronological range as the Bavans group), as a resistance force against the penetration of the major Early Neolithic cultures and the economic and ideological patterns they carry with them. Significant progress have been made these past fifteen years, but there is still much to do to disentangle the complex web of a period where entities as different as the LBK, the Cardial culture, the Bavans group and the various local pottery styles coexist, overlap and interpenetrate each other according to complex and various modalities

Bassin Laure, Cornelissen Marcel, Jakob Bastien & Mauvilly Michel - 2019 - Trapèzes, fléchettes et autres pointes : évolution des armatures du second Mésolithique au Néolithique ancien entre Jura et Préalpes suisses. In : Arbogast R.-M. et al. (dir.), Le second Mésolithique des Alpes à l’Atlantique (7e - 5e millénaire). Table ronde internationale, Strasbourg, les 3 et 4 novembre 2015, (Mémoires d’Archéologie du Grand-Est 3), pp. 11-37.

The rich lithic assemblages from the sites Arconciel/La Souche and Onnens/Praz Berthoud provide new insights into the end of the Mesolithic in western Switzerland. The continuous stratigraphic sequence at the rock-shelter of Arconciel/La Souche (canton of Fribourg) was excavated between 2003-2012. It evidences the repeated occupation of the site between 7100-4800 BC. The numerous projectile points found here show the typological development of this artefact category throughout its occupation. This development is characterised by the appearance of Late Mesolithic blade and trapeze industries just before the middle of the 7th Millennium BC and a continuing tradition of production into the 5th Millennium BC. Macro- and microscopic use wear analysis of a sample of artefacts allows the discussion of the function of artefacts which are habitually called projectile points. These analyses indicate multiple uses of the artefacts throughout the site’s occupation and show how those artefacts used as projectile points were probably hafted.
Excavated between 1997-2004, open-air site Onnens/Praz-Berthoud (canton of Vaud) is another rare example of a recently excavated site dating to the end of the Mesolithic on the Plateau Suisse. In addition to a comparable corpus of Late Mesolithic projectile points, an assemblage of Early Neolithic, 5th Millennium lithic artefacts extends the chronological range offered by Arconciel/La Souche.
Although there are small differences between the projectile point assemblages from the two studied sites, there are many parallels as well. This is especially true for the symmetric and rectangularly shaped trapezes and some of the so-called “evolved” points. A diversification of shapes can be observed towards the end of the Mesolithic. This diversification is accompanied by an increase asymmetric trapezes and the appearance of small, asymmetric points with concave bases, called “evolved” points or “fléchettes”. With time these small points show ever increasing inverse and invasive retouch, slowly developing the characteristics of Early Neolithic points.
The comparative study of two assemblages of projectile points provides new insights into the typological characteristics and their developments throughout the End of Mesolithic and the beginning of the Neolithic north of the Alps. This study increases our knowledges of the Late Mesolithic of the Swiss Plateau, while the archaeology of the following period, esp. that between 4800 and 4500 BC remains difficult to grasp here. Little comparative material is momentarily available for the rare material from this period from Onnens/Praz Berthoud.

This paper presents bulk stable isotope (δ 13 C, δ 15 N, C/N ratio) measurements of 14 C dated carbonized crusts on 6th and 5th millennium cal BC pottery from Finland and northwestern Russia. Based on this data, it explores the differences in the origins of crusts attached on the inner and outer surfaces of vessels, and the changes in dietary practices and pottery use. It is argued that during the earliest phase of pottery use, mostly terrestrial ingredients were processed in the vessels, and aquatic resources became visible centuries later during the 5th millennium cal BC.

The report informs of the first half of the 2019 field campaign in the scope of exploration of late prehistoric occupation at Jebel Sabaloka (West Bank), in particular on the detailed surface survey and excavation of test pits at sites designated as minor settlements within the identified settlement structure of the area.

JEUNESSE C., BARRAND-EMAM H., CHENAL F., DENAIRE A. et MAUVILLY M. (2019) La flèche brisée. La tombe 4/2014 de la nécropole d’Illzach-Mulhouse-Est (Haut-Rhin) et les modalités du contact entre colons rubanés et chasseurs indigènes dans la Plaine du Rhin supérieur durant le dernier tiers du 6ème millénaire av. J.-C.  in : R.-M. Arbogast, S. Griselin, C. Jeunesse et F. Séara, dir., Le second Mésolithique des Alpes à l’Atlantique (VII°-V° millénaires), table ronde internationale de Strasbourg, novembre 2015, Strasbourg, Mémoires d’Archéologie du Grand-Est n°3, 235-254.


The broken arrow. Grave 2014/4 from the Illzach-Mulhouse-Est cemetery (Alsace, France) and the contacts between LBK settlers and local hunter-gatherers during the last third of the 6th millennium BC.

Clues to violent confrontations between LBK settlers and local hunters in the European Early Neolithic are few and far between. That is what makes the skeleton (male individual, 15-20 years old) discovered in grave 2014/4 from the LBK cemetery at Illzack-Mulhouse-Est (Haut-Rhin, France) so interesting. A Mesolithic type arrowhead was indeed found in its rib cage, stuck between two ribs, and very likely caused the death of the individual. The suggested connections with the Mesolithic, whose contemporary sites closest to the cemetery are located thirty-odd kilometers to the south, pertain to both  typology and petrography, since the raw material used to craft the arrowhead comes from a site located right in the Mesolithic area, in the northern part of the Jura Mountains. We will first present in this paper the cemetery and the grave, and in a second time briefly discuss the historical singification of this discovery.

The paper continues the publication of collections from the Archaeological Museum of Kazan Federal University studied by the authors with the aid of archaeological and natural scientific techniques since 2018. It covers the collections of the Mesolithic, Bronze, Early Iron and Early Middle Ages. Three collections from Kazan governorate, Gari bone bed and Shigir peat bog were obtained in the 19th century by the Societies of Archaeology, History and Ethnography, and Naturalists affiliated with Kazan University. The fourth collection obtained at the excavation of Gremyachiy Klyuch hillfort in 1948 is associated with the History Department of Kazan University. The study of the collections has allowed to obtain information of considerable interest for the understanding of the development of material culture of the Ural-Volga region in a broad retrospective.