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RESEARCH PRODUCT

L'habitat néolithique récent de Geispolsheim "Forlen" (Bas-Rhin) : contribution à la périodisation de la culture de Munzingen et à l'étude de ses relations avec les cultures du Plateau suisse et du lac de Constance

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The recent Neolithic site of Forlen in Geispolsheim, attributed to the recent Munzingen, has yielded a series of enclosures containing ceramic forms unprecedented in the context of Munzingen B. We have detected the influence of late productions by the Pfyn culture and propose the identification of a new stage in the recent Munzingen, which we have unoriginally named Munzingen C, and is typified by the appearance of ceramic forms with rounded profiles. This episode may date from around 3650-3550 BC, a late dating that has been confirmed by two carbon 14 tests. The discovery allows a strong claim to be made that ancient trading networks that linked the Rhine Valley with the Swiss Plateau and shores of Lake Constance were reopened during the second half of the fourth millennium BC. I t also invites reflection on the question of the evolution of the Munzingen culture outside of Lower A lsace. The Munzingen A-Munzingen B transition is only attested in the region of Colmar and the Kaiserstuhl, the nuclear zone of this culture, and probably also of the Munzingen B style. Whereas the expansion of Munzingen B towards the north of the Rhine Valley (as far as Hesse) is well documented, the recent discoveries in the Mulhouse region have shown that this style was completely absent in the southern area of Upper A lsace. In this region untouched by the expansion of style B, Munzingen A, which was probably open to other influences, evolved independently. A few clues allow us to postulate that a recent Munzingen from Upper A lsace (style A 2) really existed that continued the stylistic tradition of the ancient Munzingen (A1) which we are only beginning to identify.