Another brick in the wall: fifth millennium BC earthen-walled architecture on the Channel shores

Abstract

Abstract

L’usage de la terre crue dans le mégalithisme des Pyrénées nord-occidentales : nouvelles données

“…Ces premières études montrent une utilisation de la terre crue dans les structures funéraires mégalithiques des Pyrénées occidentales aussi importante qu'inattendue pour un matériau jusqu'alors surtout réservé à la sphère domestique (Sénépart et al, 2015) jusque dans des régions septentrionales comme la Bretagne avec le site d'habitat de Lillemer en Ille-et-Vilaine (Laporte et al 2015). L'enjeu dorénavant est de mieux appréhender comment l'architecture en terre participe à l'émergence du monumentalisme dans les Pyrénées nord-occidentales.…”

The Mega-Site of Valencina de la Concepción (Seville, Spain): Debating Settlement Form, Monumentality and Aggregation in Southern Iberian Copper Age Societies

“…Though exceptional in its scale, Valencina might indeed be considered not an instance of global processes of proto-urbanisation but as an example of practices of social interaction widespread across Western Europe in the 4 th and 3 rd millennia (Figure 8). North of the Pyrenees, the region of West-Central France, between the estuaries of Loire and Gironde, has a very large number of enclosures dating to the late 4th and earlier 3rd millennium BC derived in all likelihood from an earlier enclosure tradition going back to the 5th millennium (Joussaume and Large 2014;Laporte et al 2015). They are variable in form and in size, but are typically characterised by multiple concentric ditches and complex 'pince de crabe' entrances.…”

Reconstruction of control and application of thermal energy process and its technical, social, symbolic and palaeoenvironmental consequences

“…This work allowed us to analyse the diversity of combustion structures at these kinds of sites as well as the use of fire-produced thermal energy for other purposes. In addition to the use of fire for different purposes, such as the possible domestic production of ceramics, cooking food, and even some activities that could be related to ritual behaviors, some authors have discovered traces of fires from arson that affected the palisades surrounding the site as well as room structures made of mud and rocks (Laporte et al 2015). The Lillemer site was studied in the context of academic research programmes and preventive archaeology, with fire structures in certain sections of the site being excavated both for contractual purposes and for preventive archaeology (Fig.…”

“…The excavated remains at Lillemer can be associated with domestic, as well as symbolic, ceremonial or funerary spheres. (Laporte et al 2015).…”