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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Les modes d'habitat à l'âge du Bronze en France

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The many discoveries made in preventive archaeology have drawn the picture of a highly anthropogenic landscape in Bronze Age France. Timber post buildings are the most common type of dwellings however other types of construction (sills, mudbrick, …) that have lighter foundations and are more susceptible to erosion are considered less common due to the inherent problems of identification. Small dwellings from 25 to 40 m2 with a quadrangular 1 to 3 aisled plan and built to house a nuclear family are the most common,. Other types of buildings differ from this standardised plan such as the long rectangular dwellings in Alsace dating to the Early Bronze Age (type Eching) or the Early Bronze Age farm stables in eastern Burgundy that have an ellipsoid shape with one or two apses, a plan that is more generally found from the Lorraine to the Val de Loire during the Middle Bronze Age. The circular dwellings that are emblematic of the British Isles have recently been identified in the Atlantic zone of North-west France dating to the Middle and Late Bronze Age.The many dispersed farms are characteristic of land occupation during this period; grouped settlements tend to be found in prominent locations in order to guide and control exchange, however there is little evidence for settlements attaining the more complex village organisation. The development of hamlets indicates a demographic increase within already defined territories during the late Bronze Age.The collective structuring of living spaces seems to be on a relatively modest scale except for the pile dwellings with their safety issues (circulation, fire) and the problems of providing food to such a densely populated settlement. Hilltop settlements need to be more extensively excavated in order to define the role of these central places within the territorial organisation. Corent is currently the only example of a hilltop settlement that has been recently excavated and studied.There is plenty of evidence of a hierarchical society in the Bronze Age that is mainly provided by funerary contexts or metal production; it is less perceptible in domestic contexts where rare high status buildings or settlements have been observed.