Matériaux,
productions, circulations du Néolithique à l’Age du
Bronze, by Jean Guilain (Editor)
Éditions Errance. Paris, 2002. 245 pages;
78 figures. ISBN 2-87772-232-5-30 The
intervention of man on material resources, to supply subsistence equipment,
dates back to the earlier evolutionary steps of humankind. It was a
slow route, but after the first exploitation of roughly adapted pebbles,
working techniques developed towards a surprising
set of tools made in stones and tough animal matters (bones, hornlike
parts, claws, teeth, shells etc.) already available in the early Neolithic
Age. Exactly, the study of the progressive use of natural resources
in the pre-historical contexts constitutes the rationale for this volume.
That is a collection of 12 essays prepared by renowned French specialists
to present the state of the art of knowledge about the way artisans
in the Neolithic and proto-historical time worked minerals, metals,
and bony parts of animals to get products for daily use or with extra-ordinary
purposes.
The publication is the 5th in a series following after
the distinguished seminaries organized by the chair “Civilisations
de l’Europe au Néolithique et à l’Age du Bronze”
of the “Collège de France”, actually held
by the curator of the collection, professor Jean Guilain. Previous titles
dealt with prehistoric western burial ceremonies (1998), megaliths (1999),
peasantry and agriculture (2000), and ancient villages communities (2001).
The present volume (Materials, productions, distribution
from Neolithic to the Bronze Age), encompasses stone tools, natural
gemstones, shells and claws ornaments, glass and faience sets, golden
objects, and earthenware treating their making, circulation, and the
surrounding economics from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age. The focuses
are in the Mediterranean, the Western/Central Europe, and in the Middle
East. But the discourses frequently embrace a wider perspective of production
and distribution, under the guide of professor Guilain that briefly
introduces the lectures presenting the theme, the authors and their
current research, and suggesting further readings on the treated argument.
A central point for this issue is the awareness that
right away, after the step of hunters-gatherers society, the communal
significance of tools and artefacts overwhelmed the utilitarian or economic
functions and - likewise in modern times - prestige and rank happened
to be associated with possession of regarded objects. Power functional
items, like weapons, and precious ornaments expressed symbolically a
sense of magic associated with the properties of the materials (colour,
toughness, rarity), but also with the remoteness of their sources, since
geographic distance equated figuratively with chronological detachment
of sacred ages and with the inaccessibility of supernatural realms.
The opening essay, “L’obsidienne et
sa diffusion dans le Proche-Orient néolithique”, is
afforded to Marie-Claire Cauvin. Obsidian forms during volcanic eruptions
as a natural-occurring hard glass and has been used to obtain sharp-edged
tools since 30.000 years ago. Its chemical homogeneity, ensuing from
the natural rapid solidification, permits the recognition of patterns
of sources and trade. That is why obsidian emerges like a paradigmatic
material for the inferences obtainable through its study. Cauvin centers
her analysis on the Anatolian sources and trades. She provides, indirectly,
an economic estimate following the status of obsidian artifacts and
the presence of workshops as a function of their distance from the volcanic
sources. Production techniques, distribution, and use of obsidian are
also investigated, observing the scenarios modifying with time. Feeble
occurrence of the artifacts, with prevalent singular provenance, is
appreciated from 12000 to 9500 BC, then diversification of sources and
workshops seem to have taken place during Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPN-A:
9500-8700 BC). Finally, at the end of the 9th millennium, increment
of local cutting and set off of the pressure-flaking technique are appreciated
in Djade el Mughara, on the Euphrates (Syria), and Cyprus.
Afterwards, Marie-Louise Inizan, in “Tailler
des roches par pression: émergence d’une technique, étapes
de sa diffusion dans le monde ”, introduces the first of
4 chapters that deal with the making of stone artifacts (blades and
cutting tools) and with their diffusion and commercial contexts. Her
contribution is solely devoted to the analysis of a working technique:
she tries to place in space and time the origins of pressure-flaking,
applied to gently cut rock pieces with pointed tools made of bone, ivory,
horns, or metal. The method has been documented in the area of the Aztec
civilization - passing from Siberia and Northern America - as well as
the Middle-Eastern regions. Inizan locates the first establishment of
the technique among Japan, Northern China and Mongolia in a period dating
back to 20.000/16.000 years before our era. The advantages of the technique
are appreciated when pressure-flaking of Anatolian obsidian blades is
faced with bipolar-cutting applied on the nucleus of oblong rock pieces
in the Levant PPN-B (7600 to 6000 BC).
Two essays, remaining on stone, deal with the polished
Neolithic long axes, which first attracted the attention of scholars
and art collectors thanks to their superior aesthetic attributes. Since
from the end of the XIX century, mineralogists tried to locate the original
areas of these pieces, usually addressing to the Alps, to reconstruct
the working processes, and to recover the social role long axes played
in ancient contexts.
The contribution by Pierre Pétrequin, Serge
Cassen, Christophe Croutsch, and Michel Herrera, “La valorisation
sociale des longues haches dans l’Europe néolithique”,
integrates archaeological and geological data. It permits to retrieve
regional concentrations of the long axe findings in Western Europe and
Great Britain, within a distance of 1600 km from the epicenters, located
in the inner Alps and the Apennines. Typological breaks associate with
differences in composition: the pieces of green red-mottled eclogite
are abundant in the southern regions and occasionally found in burial
graves, while the longer specimens of the depots in the North are made
of greenish jadeite. Changes with time are appreciable about the social
and cultural attributes of long axes. Beginning with a mere practical
use, to do the working of wood (6000 to 4000 BC), the approach to long
axes gradually shifted towards the affirmation of privileged status
and gained trans-cultural meaning, as evidenced from the over-refined
and continuously diversified working. Along the 5th and 4th millennia,
the counter position of the megalithic Western Europe with the copper-making
Eastern Europe is reflected by a parallel dichotomy between rock-axes
and copper-axes. Finally, the autonomy and creativity of the western
production is underlined remarking how it sparely met with oriental
influences.
Then, in “Plussulien et la diffusion des
haches polies armoricaines”, Charle-Tanguy Le Roux discusses
on a statistical basis the distribution of polished axes originating
from the ore of metadolerite at Plussulien, in the middle Britain region
(France), formerly called Armorica. The number of pieces originating
from this location is estimated between 2 and 3 millions over a period
of exploitation that lasted from 5000 to 3000 BC. These axes reached
the regions around Orleans and Paris, the Southern England, Belgium,
and Alsace. Among the applications of the blades in metadolerite, the
use as a ploughshare is suggested, remarking that although rare this
was already documented in 3000-2000 BC Syria. It is notable that for
these objects there is no appearance of relationship with the symbolical
and cultural spheres. Diversely from eclogite, jadeite and serpentinite
axes, polished Armorican axes seem to have remained just under the domain
of utilitarian practical applications.
The successive contribution by Jacques Pelegrin, “La
production des grandes lames de silex du Grand-Pressigny”,
is the last one dealing with stone matter. The appraisal of several
other workshops of long blades of flint has been already appreciated
in Europe. But, the location of Grand-Pressigny, in the French/Swiss
region of Jura, stands as a reference site for flint blades, thanks
to its large impact in Western Europe, the originality of its productions,
and the wideness of its distribution. On the basis of his own practical
experiences, with conscience of the constrains and limitations of empirical
approaches, Pelegrin offers details on the whole operative chain, starting
from the choice of the proper nucleus upon which the working-out develops.
His conclusions point at the great skill of the prehistoric workers,
who applied indirect cutting to obtain flint blades about 40 cm in length
within a labour environment of selected and experienced artisans. The
powerful socio-cultural attributes of these long siliceous blades is
testified by their presence, likewise poniards, in burial places, with
other sharp weapons, exclusively marking male interments.
In the Prehistory, non-functional objects, with only decorative or symbolic
purposes, first appeared made of natural resources: minerals, shells,
bones, and teeth. Then the variety of colours and forms was enlarged
when mastering of fire permitted to employ man-made artefacts done by
forgery of metals and alloys, or imitating in the aspect the natural
gemstones through the production of faience and glasses. The supernatural
world and social identification permeated the wearing of these stuffs.
Six chapters of this volume deal with ornaments. The
first one is the interesting contribution by Christian Jeunesse, “La
coquille et la dent. Parure de coquillage et évolution des systèmes
symboliques dans le néolithique danubien (-5600/-4500)”,
that presents the symbolic meaning of fancy sets made of shells and
mammal claws in the Danube region, within the millennium broadly ranging
from 5600 to 4500 BC. Spondyles and continental or sea gastropods are
recurrent among the findings. In particular Atlantic and Mediterranean
shells appear within an occidental branch production, the so-called
French Rubané, which extended from Northern Alsace to
the basin of Paris. Thus, communication with Mesolithic civilisations
(the only contemporary inhabitants of the Western areas) has to be attested
along with contacts with Cardial Pot People, in the direction of the
Mediterranean Sea. During the Middle Neolithic Age (5000 – 4500
BC) faunal remains, as teeth of boar, deer, fox, and wildcat reoccur
in burial tombs, identified as a novel savage ideology. It is the same
period in which horns, antlers, mandibles, and skulls can be found in
continental interments. According to the author, this indicates the
integration of the native imagery in the agro-pastoral societies. The
question posed by Jenuesse is on the dichotomy between Rubané
shells and Mesolithic mammal bones: the Rubané society
developed under the twofold influence of Balkan Neolithic people and
European hunters; perhaps those Rubané people kept on using shells
to mark their Danube origin, before integration within the indigenous
tradition.
Afterwards, Marie-Josefa Villalba examines the progressive
appearance of the semi-precious turquoise-type gemstones in her essay,
“Le gîte de variscite de can tintorer: production, trasformation
et circulation du mineral vert”. Guilaine exalts the research
carried out by Villalba and co-workers, able to identify the mining
site of Can Tintorer, at Gava, in the core of Catalonia, and to characterize
and differentiate its mineralogical features from other occidental mining
locations. Can Tintorer appears as the reference site for the production
of the turquoise minerals which encompasses Provence to the East, the
Ebro river and the Burgos regions to the West, Toulouse on the Northern
side, and Priorat (Spain) on the Southern side. Exploitation of the
site is recognized from about the early Neolithic to 4000 BC. But, what
is more remarkable, technical and cultural implications suggest social
selection, as observed in some Catalonian necropolises where only a
number of the buried bodies (children for example) deserved the right
to turquoise jewellery. When compared with the complex actions of mining,
trade, and working, the distribution of turquoise addresses to a well-developed
and ordered selective social system.
On the theme of gemstones, the following pieces by
Michèle Casanova and Colette du Gardin challenge, respectively,
lapis lazuli and amber, two of the most precious ornamental resources
in ancient times. The extremely large areas of distribution for these
natural gemstones attest for a very well rooted and long standing symbolic
meaning.
It is emblematic the case of lapis lazuli, whose blue
colour addresses to the source of life, to be counter posed to the reddish
cornelian and jasper minerals, which represent mourning and death since
from the dawn of civilization. In addition, the lapis lazuli gemstones
are decidedly rare and difficult to obtain. Thus the ideological power
results enriched by the remoteness of their sources in the very high
mountains, that should attest for primordial and celestial connections.
Casanova, in “Le lapis-lazuli, joyau de l’orient ancien”,
remarks that the only sources available in the prehistory were in the
massif relief regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan, 2.000 km away from
the archaeological sites where lapis lazuli beads have been found (Mesopotamia,
Syria, Levant, and Egypt). Numerous towns in the Middle East, likewise
Susa and Ebla, were important commercial centres, with an apex of trading
in the IV and III millennia BC. The rulers of civilised Mesopotamia
adopted lapis lazuli as the notice of supernatural power, and the fabulous
tombs of Ur stand as the best example for their symbolic meaning. The
trove of lapis lazuli stocked in the funerary treasures at Ur represents
the bulk of the whole findings of this material in the Middle East.
Together with the number of servants died to accompany the kings in
the afterlife, the abundance of lapis lazuli witnesses for the potent
status gained by those rulers, when the concept of State definitely
emerged in Mesopotamia.
Colette du Gardin, in “L’ambre et
sa circulation dans l’europe protohistorique”, offers
a contribution on the typologies of amber sets and the evolution with
time of the distribution circuits. Surveying the morphology of the precious
objects of amber, she observes the absence of stereotypes, as amber
has been found in a multitude of different forms, frequently assigned
to unique exemplars. In the Evolved Neolithic (3400-3000 BC) the usage
of amber seems to be limited to the Danish and Baltic regions, although
increasing in number and typologies. Along the 3rd millennium, amber
objects continuously gained in diffusion and diversification, reaching
England, France, and Central Europe. Then, in the Bronze Age the distribution
progressively reached the central and Southern-Eastern Europe, and polarised
around the major Mycenaean and great tumulus civilisations. The Late
Bronze Age (1400-1000 BC) associated with a decline in the spreading
of amber artefacts. Nevertheless, the Mediterranean area enriched its
content of amber objects in the Sepulchres of the first Iron Age (Greece,
Adriatic Sea, Lipari and Sardinia islands), but sources had differentiated.
Finally, du Gardin remarks that number and dimensions of the objects
diminish with the distance from the banks of the Northern Europe; consequently
she puts some doubts on the possibility to define a network of exchanges,
preferring to address towards a phenomenon of circulation of amber artefacts.
On the ornamental objects return Yves Billaud and
Bernard Gratuze. In “Les perles en verre et en faïence
de la protohistoire française” they present the repertoire
of beads in glass over the French territory accompanied by a detailed
look over their chemical characterization. On the basis of the evidenced
composition, these researchers classify the finished products and clarify
that faience appeared earlier and in different forms (tubes, cones,
spheres, buttons etc.). Additionally they distinguish faience, an agglomerate
of quartz grains embedded in a vitreous matrix, from the completely
vitrified objects of glass, that only took place in France after 1600
BC in a restricted range of forms. Even if local workshops in Europe
have been identified, beads, annular pearls, and sets of glass and faience
are considered the first goods imported in Europe from the oriental
lane of Mycenae, Egypt, and Cyprus, where faience is known to have appeared
since from the 4th millennium BC.
The only essay on ceramics is that prepared by Laure
Salanova, “Fabrication and circulation des céramiques
campaniformes”. The so-called Campaniforme ceramics
appeared in the second half of the 3rd millennium BC, identified as
a reddish pottery in the form of reverse bell with simple geometric
decorations. The reconstruction of its origin and distribution in Europe
is an intriguing issue of prehistory, interesting a territory that spans
from the Britannic islands to the Northern Africa and from the Atlantic
Ocean to Hungary. Campaniforme beakers and vases are relatively
common in single tombs in Central and NorthEastern Europe, and in collective
burials for what concerns the Mediterranean and South Atlantic regions.
After the presentation of stylistic and technical aspects, Salanova
depicts the connections among the different production groups on the
Southern Atlantic coast (Britain, Galice, Portugal). Then, supported
by the trove of productions around the Tago estuary, she addresses to
Portugal as the core of the Campaniforme making. Alternative
controversial origins, as in Northern Central Europe, have been proposed
on the basis of the stylistic evolution of the pottery findings, continuously
contaminated in their fashion along the North-South direction. Nevertheless,
the diffusion of Campaniforme pottery all along the maritime
routes firmly supports the origin in Portugal, individuated as the median
point of a symmetrical distribution that, from the Britannic islands
and the French and Spanish seashores, reaches Sicily throughout the
whole Northern-Eastern Mediterranean coasts.
The conclusive essay, “Techniques et usages
de l’or dans l’Europe protohistorique”, by Christiane
Éluère, contemplates the role played by the golden artefacts
in Prehistoric societies. The analysis starts from the royal tombs of
Varna (5000 BC) on the Black Sea (Bulgaria). Here in the early Copper
Age gold was already regarded as the metal of wealthy people. Those
minor kings of the Caucasian demonstrated a precocious large usage of
gold in their burials with respect to the Ur and Aegean rulers. In the
Mediterranean golden metallurgy was only established with the Bronze
cultures (Troy, Cyclades, Crete) and in the Western world it was the
Campaniforme society that first contributed to its spreading
and divulgation. Subsequently (3000-2000 BC), together with amber jewellery
and sharp bronze weapons gold sets marked the leading elites in Europe
where hierarchy was most established. During the 2nd millennium in the
Crete-Mycenaean sphere the sovereigns were buried with golden masks
and in Western Europe metallic vases decorated with gold address to
ritual ceremonies and sacrificial offering. Bulk objects in gold (Bracelets,
necklaces, and twisted ornaments) appeared in the Atlantic Late Bronze
Age. In the 1st millennium Europe large wrought-gold collars and helmets
occurred in Alsace; twined pendants and necklaces appeared in Spain
while the Etruscan put the basis for the granulation technique. On the
Middle-Eastern side, gold was used as the support for animal and Greek
mythological scenery, testifying for the powerful references (symbolic,
ceremonial, extraordinary) of golden objects, continuously maintained
over the millennia.
What extremely characterises this volume is
its specificity on material culture of the Neolithic and Bronze Age,
which is a remarkable and rare propriety for an educational volume.
Making the point on prehistoric artefacts, the book permits useful and
complementary comparisons with more conventional publications, usually
focussing on the classical ages. The articulation of the different issues
about the materials, their production through exploitation of the available
resources, and their diffusion, valorises the analyses within an integrated
framework. Scale production, distribution, working techniques, and their
variation with times permit to reconstruct the way in which materials
have been used and transformed. At the same time, the social, supernatural
and ideological orders of the functional and precious artefacts can
be excerpted, even if care must be exercised to standardize and harmonize
these advances. The book is recommended to those teaching and
specializing in archaeological investigation, but its educational flavour,
the constructive focus of the discussed topics and the plain style make
it attractive also to non specialised readers.
Enzo Ferrara,
Materials Department,
Istituto Elettrotecnico Nazionale Galileo Ferraris,
Torino (Italy)
Review Submitted: September 2003
The views expressed in this review are not
necessarily those of the Society or the Reviews Editor.
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