The emergence of monumental architecture in Atlantic Europe: a fortified fifth-millennium BC enclosure in western France

Vincent Ard (1) , Marylise Onfray (2) , David Aoustin (3) , Éric Bouchet (4) , Guillaume Bruniaux (5) , Grégory Dandurand (1, 6) , François Daniel (7) , Alexa Dufraisse (8) , Salomé Granai (9, 10) , Antoine Laurent (1, 11, 12) , Victor Legrand (1) , François Lévêque (5) , Friedrich Lüth (13) , Vivien Mathé (5) , Pascal Mora (7) , Hélène Vitté (4)

1 TRACES - Travaux et recherches archéologiques sur les cultures, les espaces et les sociétés
2 Trajectoires - UMR 8215
3 CReAAH - Centre de Recherche en Archéologie, Archéosciences, Histoire
4 Chercheur indépendant
5 LIENSs - LIttoral ENvironnement et Sociétés
6 Inrap - Institut national de recherches archéologiques préventives
7 Archeovision
8 AASPE - Archéozoologie, archéobotanique : sociétés, pratiques et environnements
9 GeoArchEon SARL
10 LGP - Laboratoire de géographie physique : Environnements Quaternaires et Actuels
11 IRIT-REVA - Real Expression Artificial Life
12 Toulouse INP - Institut National Polytechnique (Toulouse)
13 DAI - Deutsches Archäologisches Institut

The earliest monumentality in Western Europe is associated with megalithic structures, but where did the builders of these monuments live? Here, the authors focus on west-central France, one of the earliest centres of megalithic building in Atlantic Europe, commencing in the mid fifth millennium BC. They report on an enclosure at Le Peu (Charente), dated to the Middle Neolithic ( c . 4400 BC), and defined by a ditch with two ‘crab claw’ entrances and a double timber palisade flanked by two timber structures—possibly defensive bastions. Inside, timber buildings - currently the earliest known in the region- were possibly home to the builders of the nearby Tusson long mounds.

Keywords: Atlantic Europe; Neolithic; enclosure; megalithic structures; monumentality; defensive architecture

Domains: Archaeology and Prehistory

Vincent Ard, Marylise Onfray, David Aoustin, Éric Bouchet, Guillaume Bruniaux, et al.. The emergence of monumental architecture in Atlantic Europe: a fortified fifth-millennium BC enclosure in western France. Antiquity, 2023, 97 (391), pp.50-69. ⟨10.15184/aqy.2022.169⟩. ⟨hal-04001251⟩