Abstract
p. 221-222
Texte intégral
1Single Beaker burials have for a long time in France been treated piecemeal. Their small number made any systematisation of the evidence and of their clear similarities difficult. Since the 1990s new discoveries have continued to be made. Emphasis has been placed on the study of the funerary features and their environment, on precise dating of the deceased as well as on the technical analysis of the grave-furnishings. What hitherto seemed to be unique occurrences are now integrated into a more coherent and standardised set of funerary practices than thought. Certain norms seem, indeed, to overlay regional substrates.
2The different site studies in this collective publication put forward, first of all, a more complex picture of the individual Beaker burial. In the south (O. Lemercier and Y. Tchérémissinoff, Ch. XIV) as much as in the north (L. Salanova, Ch. X) they are situated within older or contemporary sites where their positioning is not random (K. Meunier et al., Ch. VI). They are never situated away from any context, but often in relation to a settlement or to funerary locations which would continue to be active into the Bronze Age (J.-Y. Noël, Ch. IV; O. Lemercier and Y. Tchérémissinoff, Ch. XIV).
3The features revealed at some sites show that the burials were visible within the landscape, with barrows or systems of enclosures, sometimes complex, as with the burial of La Folie at Poitiers (Y. Tchérémissinoff et al., Ch. I). The bodies were most often placed within a container of stone or wood. Whereas stone is more common in areas with a geology yielding slabs, the category of wooden containers is more common in the north-east of France (L. Hachem et al. Ch. II; K. Meunier et al., Ch. VI), where also there is evidence for funerary chambers (A. Lefebvre et al., Ch. VIII). Apart from one exceptional instance of cremation (A. Lefebvre et al., Ch. VIII), all these tombs contained one or indeed two inhumations. The double burials usually consisted of an adult and a child, sometimes with remarkable grave lay-outs (F. Le Brun-Ricalens et al., Ch. IX).
4At the end of the Beaker sequence and of the Early Bronze Age there remained a significant number of multiple burials (almost a third of the total) in the south. In the north several recent discoveries have brought to light Beaker-derived or Late Corded Ware vessels placed in pits without a body (C. Billard, Ch. III; P. Brunet et al., Ch. V). Everywhere instances of manipulation and of secondary deposits are rare (A. Lefebvre et al., Ch. VIII; Y. Tchérémissinoff et al., Ch. XIII). As far as the posture of the body is concerned, the gender differentiation observes general European practice: laid on the left side for men and on the right side for women. Orientations are fairly variable, but on the whole they conform to the east-west and north-south axes, especially in the middle Beaker period.
5Secondly, the new dates obtained for the bodies have enabled reconsideration of the evolution of the burials and of their contents. The funerary material follows the same sequence of development as in the rest of Europe: the assemblages are at their most diverse during the middle stage of the Beaker period, then they become simpler or indeed non-existent at the end of the Beaker period and the beginning of the Bronze Age.
6The grave-goods are closely linked to the status of the deceased. Items of weaponry (copper daggers, wristguards, arrowheads) clearly mark out the category of adult males. The objects making up the panoply of the warrior or the archer, although with strong symbolic connotations, nevertheless show signs of use (L. Salanova et al., Ch. VIII). As in other regions of Europe, the importance of certain juveniles is clear, as the burial of Grotte Murée shows (O. Lemercier et al., Ch. XII; O. Lemercier and Y. Tchérémissinoff, Ch. XIV). Lastly, four of the earliest Beaker burials on French soil (La Fare, La Bouche à Vesle, Le Haut Château and La Folie) exhibit across a range of their aspects relatively exceptional components for their contexts, which must doubtless be related to the status of their occupants.
7This new analysis of Beaker funerary practices in France shows finally that each of the sites considered seems somewhat out of the ordinary. Interpretation therefore doubtless has to be nuanced on a case-by-case basis. In the north-eastern quarter of France several arguments point towards the movement of individuals, since the single Beaker burials seem to be a break with indigenous practices, as regards both the funerary practices and the furnishings. By contrast, Beaker burials in the Mediterranean area do not amount to a break, since most frequently they link with traditional collective monuments, which would seem to reflect symbolic appropriation. These differences attest indubitably to two different and distinct Beaker currents in France, yet both will lead to a re-individualisation of funerary practices, echoing profound transformations in the rules for the organisation and transmission of power.
8Simon Esmonde-Cleary
Auteur
- Simon Esmonde-Cleary (trad.)
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