The full publication (again a Google translation this one is a lot better)
North of the Marais Poitevin, the triple enclosure ditches interrupted Field-Durand Nieul-sur-l'Autise (Vendée) was discovered in 1971 by Maurice Marsac during an aerial survey and excavated by Roger and his team Joussaume between 1975 and 1988.
The area thus defined is approximately 250 m in diameter. Ditches are supported on the valley Maléons. Fifteen meters of altitude divide the edge of the plateau that supports pregnant, the bottom of the valley. This steep slope is a natural defense strengthened in its upper part by a single gap that the search has revealed.
A dozen interruptions cut three lines parallel ditches that are not mandatory-ment exactly contemporary. A grand entrance in "claw" has recently (2010) been demonstrated by satellite shots in the eastern part of the site.
In fact, the history of this place is quite long. The first pits were dug with a population of Neolithic Few contemporary richardien-Charente Maritime coast, which we call the Neolithic Seuil du Poitou, which is dated between 3400 and 3000 BC It continues by reoccupation, above the ramparts collapsed side, built with stones and sediment extracts ditches, Neolithic (Artenacien), then the Chalcolithic (Beaker). The site will be the last time partially occupied at the beginning of the Bronze Age when the ditches were already well filled.
The study of the filling of ditches and archaeological material they contained helped highlight an occupation behind walls of protection, with houses made of wood and mud. Field-Durand was also a center of slaughter cattle and salt production in small vases were found very stereotypical sometimes more than a hundred miles away, evidence of long-distance trade. These exchanges were also recognized through the stone industry that uses flint particularly from Saintonge but also the edges of the Loire.
The enclosure, which evolved during the Neolithic, before being reoccupied later, was also a center of worship and a place of deposition of human bodies in niches dug into the walls of the ditches. If all this indicates a well-organized society, nothing allows us to move it was very hierarchical around a leader.
JOUSSAUME (R.) dir., L'enceinte néolithique de Champ-Durand à Nieul-sur-l'Autise (Vendée), Mémoire n° XLIV, 2012, 685 p. Format 21 x 29,7 - Couverture couleur - Photographies couleurs et N&B - Dessins, plans - Bibliographie. Poids : entre 3 et 5 kg.
ISBN 979-10-90534-08-7
Prix : 35,00 €
http://www.chauvigny-patrimoine.fr/Editions/fiche_archeologie.php?id=MEM044
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