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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Les formations à silex dans le Sud de la France : Élaboration en multipartenariat d’une base de données géoréférencées, premiers résultats.

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description

A georeferenced database of the main flint-bearing formations of Southern France is currently being finalised. It offers a toolto all prehistorians that is essential for the development of studies regarding raw material circulation and selection criteria. This database results from the collaborative work of various actors involved in the optimisation of flint source determination. It groups together the results of their surveys — whether these are systematic or targeted — carried out in six regions (Aquitaine, Auvergne, Languedoc-Roussillon, Midi-Pyrénées, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, Rhône-Alpes). This database also incorporates recent studies on registering the properties of palaeoenvironmental changes recognisable on flints. Each of the registered formations is catalogued in a simplifiedon all scales ranging from the geological formation to the microfacies of the sample. Each note is completed by geological and archaeological bibliographic references. This approach extends beyond data compilation and can be positioned within cognitive approaches of human/environmental interaction in the dynamic field related to the collection and distribution of the flint “geomaterial”. We have opted for a dynamic representation of each primary formation with regard to all the superficial formations which it provides. This new mapping shows the main primary and secondary flint-bearing formations not in the form of distinct unities but as stages of a palaeogeographic evolution. These successive states of residence of a same type of flint represent as many potential sources for raw-material collection. They make it possible to define dynamic polarities with regard to the distribution of genetic types (primary and subprimary sources) and of types of deposits (secondary sources). This approach requires partial reorganisation of the lithothecae. Indeed, once the distribution areas of each genetic type and its derivative have been mapped, the existing samples have to be attributed to the various routes that were evidenced. It is then possible to identify the domain exploited by prehistoric men by recognising on the archaeological flint objects the associations of characteristic stigmata stemming from the different stages of distribution routes of each geomaterial.