Haches plates en cuivre dans le Jura français. Transferts à longue distance de biens socialement valorisés pendant les IVe et IIIe millénaires

Abstract

The likely provenance and dates for six flat copper axes from the Jura region in eastern France have been established with the aid of metallographic and typological comparisons. The selection of the artefacts studied was based on a preliminary typological examination that was conducted to isolate specimens potentially dating from the 4th millennium BC. Only one axe from Pont-de-Roide turned out actually to belong to this phase, as it could be identified as an import from the Pfyn Culture between 3700 and 3500 BC. The find was made of east Alpine Mondsee copper. An axe from Montmorot was probably imported from the south of France in the 3rd millennium, whereas the remaining four items from Chassagne-Saint-Denis, Myon, Rochefort-sur-Nenon and Salins-les-Bains could surprisingly be identified as imports from the Atlantic region in France (Brittany and Vendée). These axes date from the end of the Neolithic or the very beginnings of the Bronze Age (2nd half of the 3rd millennium) and were probably produced from copper ores found in Brittany. Finally, a seventh flat copper axe was added to the study. The very large axe from Seurre is a longdistance import from Spain and can probably be assigned to the Bell Beaker Culture. A comparison of these imports with others from the Jura region that have a social significance (serpentine battle axes, Forcalquier flint blades, Grand-Pressigny flint daggers) allows us to suggest some possible reasons for the exchange of flat copper axes over distances of between 200 and more than 1 000 kilometres as the crow flies.