Abstract
Territory is a complex notion whose definition varies depending on the discipline in which it is applied. Research on the notion of territory has often focused on the Palaeolithic. Studies in this field are mainly based on comparisons between archaeological assemblages and ethnographic data, an approach originating from the work of L.R. Binford, who introduced the concept of mobility, leading to various models of spatial occupation. How have researchers approached the notion of territory with regard to the first mixed farming populations of the Linear Pottery Culture in the Seine Basin and neighbouring regions? Can lithic industries contribute to our understanding of how these first sedentary populations perceived their territory? In this paper, we show that these first Neolithic communities likely obtained their siliceous materials via direct procurement strategies across a territory that they knew well and regularly frequented. In our study area, centred around the Rhine-Meuse region and the Seine Basin, two distinct litho-spaces are comprised of: 1) small numbers of minor territories with local resources, and 2) vast territories requiring greater mobility among the groups that occupied them. Furthermore, the procurement strategies of the occupants of the regions with few siliceous resources seem to have been based on long-distance relationships and networks. In this case, a high degree of mobility and ensuing social relations would have contributed to the attractivity of villages.
Highlights
Territory is a complex concept whose definition varies depending on the discipline in which it is applied
Delvigne defined the “litho-space” of an archaeological site as the geographic space delimited by the maximum extension represented by the origin of the raw materials found at the site (Delvigne 2016: 138)
Integrating research in social and cultural geography, he proposed that a territory defined in this manner comprises named and well-identified spaces, the itineraries linking them, and the empty spaces, which are rarely or only opportunistically frequented during periodic events (Delvigne 2016: 129-160)
Summary
Territory is a complex concept whose definition varies depending on the discipline in which it is applied. Human geography has emphasized historical and cultural factors (Ripoll & Veschambre 2005: 277-280), while political research has addressed the notions of limits, a central theme of territoriality (Kourtessi-Phillipakis & Treuil 2011: 7-10) This notion of territory was applied early-on in studies of prehistoric cultures, especially by Anglo-American researchers whose theoretical models were largely based on ethnographic data. Raw material circulation is a secondary factor in the reconstruction of a territory, especially for societies with a strong hierarchization of sites and frequented-exploited spaces, such as the Middle Neolithic (Aubry et al 2014: 66). This is not the case, for the beginning of the earliest Neolithic in continental Europe. We believe that the characteristics of raw material procurement strategies, identified via techno-economic approaches and the notion of litho-space, provide fundamental elements that can contribute to our understanding of how these first sedentary populations perceived their territories
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