Nouvelles sépultures individuelles du Bronze ancien dans le Sud de la France : contextes et problématiques

Abstract

The origin of this article lies in the discovery of two Early Bronze Age graves to the south of Toulouse (Canségala, Le Vernet, Haute-Garonne). Since the excavation (2005), some colleagues have informed us of other discoveries, which it seemed interesting to integrate and set in context. Individual graves of this period remain very rare in Languedoc and burials in jars were previously unknown. The first grave at Canségala was that of an adult, probably a woman. The burial in a jar, which concerns an infant, was placed at a distance of about 8 metres. The infant had been inserted buttocks first into a container that is no different from the domestic productions. Some elements of litter (potsherds, animal bones) from a nearby structure allow the context of their implantation to be defined. Their discovery provides material concerning a possible funerary association within a domestic area. The burial in a jar allows various influences to be evoked. The only close comparisons concern some sites in the Massif Central (Auvergne) (Loison, 2003). Such infant burials in jars can be integrated in either domestic or funerary areas. As for individual graves, they remain very rare in the South of France. The Chalcolithic tradition of multiple burials in stone cists or cavities was present until the Middle Bronze Age. The few individual graves (in silos or specific pits) do not seem to be integrated in cemeteries, but seem to be vaguely organized, maybe connected to dwelling cells, as attested in Auvergne. Concerning the chronology, graves in domestic pits seem, for the moment, to be related to the emergent phase of the Early Bronze Age, but clearly “ architectured” specific pits are also known for this period in the Rhone valley. The few known burials in jars all seem connected to a more advanced phase of the Early Bronze Age. This attribution seems to be the same on a wider scale on sites where this practice is well known, such as the prestigious site of El Argar (phase 2, 1900 to 1600 cal. BC), (Siret and Siret, 1887 ; Cauwe dir., 2003) in south-eastern Spain or for the rockshelter sites of the Adige valley, in the Italian Alps (Perini, 1971 and 1975 ; Nicolis, 1996 and 2004). One of the documents integrated in the article which concerns a funerary rockshelter site in the Provence Prealps (Les Baguarettes, Ménerbes, Vaucluse) allows a convergence to be proposed with the Italian series, which may chronologically be the earliest among the proposed comparisons. This is not sufficient to propose an Alpine origin for the phenomenon, as that domain could merely constitute a regional relay for influences from much farther afield. What complicates the search for a possible genesis is the fact that burials of young children in jars are also known locally at the end of the Neolithic… However a local origin is not convincing either, because there still remains an important documentary hiatus for the Bell-Beaker culture and the Early Bronze Age. At this stage, we can merely observe that the use of a jar as a “ burial container” for young children could have been sporadic at the end of the Neolithic before being truly ritualized through new influences during the development of the full Early Bronze Age.