Mining for a week or for centuries: Variable aims of flint extraction sites in the Mons Basin (Province of Hainaut, Belgium) within the lithic economy of the Neolithic

Jean-Philippe Collin

doi:10.2218/jls.v3i2.1819

Abstract

The Mons Basin (Province of Hainaut, western Belgium) is a geologically rich region, particularly from the point of view of Upper Cretaceous sedimentary deposits, conducive to an important flint gathering activity during the whole regional Prehistory. Focusing on the Neolithic period, indications of flint procurement as early as the end of the 6th millennium have been recorded, but there are concrete evidences of mining sites in the region since the second half of the 5th millennium. Flint extraction activities have lasted at least until the second half of the 3rd millennium. According to literature and recent researches, eleven sites could be extraction sites, including the World Heritage site of Spiennes. This paper critically assesses the accuracy of the data available and focuses on the issue of the unequal function of these extraction sites and their socio-economic function for Neolithic communities. Is it really possible to establish a hierarchy between the extraction sites? Can different acquisition-production strategies be highlighted? These questions are dealt with by synthesizing the data concerning the methods of flint exploitation in the Mons Basin, the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the products relative to the production intentions but also by addressing the issue of their importance in exchange networks.

Highlights

While flint raw materials in the Mons Basin were exploited throughout prehistory, the earliest evidence for recurrent extraction dates to the earliest phases of the Belgian Neolithic (5200-4900 BCE)
This exceptional longevity for a raw material extraction site prompts us to reconsider the importance of the Mons Basin extraction sites and the role that they each played in the economy of Neolithic populations
Among the Neolithic artefacts from Baudour held at the IRSNB, we have studied a group consisting of 417 axe roughouts which came from the hamlet of Douvrain

Summary

Introduction

While flint raw materials in the Mons Basin were exploited throughout prehistory, the earliest evidence for recurrent extraction dates to the earliest phases of the Belgian Neolithic (5200-4900 BCE). The first farming and pastoral populations of Western Belgium, belonging to the Linear Pottery Culture and subsequently to the Blicquy and Villeneuve-Saint-Germain Culture, settled during the last quarter of the 6th millennium in an area approximately 10 km north of the basin where the river Dendre has its two sources (Constantin 1985). The most spectacular evidence for this transformation in raw material acquisition strategy is, without question, the development of the Spiennes site (which today lies within the Mons Municipality). It was exploited from the Middle Neolithic (Michelsberg Culture, 4300-3600 BCE), through the Late Neolithic (SeineOise-Marne culture, 3600-3000 BCE) and into the Final Neolithic (Deûle-Escaut Group, 3000-2300 BCE) (Collet et al 2008a). This exceptional longevity for a raw material extraction site (almost two millennia!) prompts us to reconsider the importance of the Mons Basin extraction sites and the role that they each played in the economy of Neolithic populations

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Conclusion