1The present research project seeks to assess what studies of lithic technology can contribute to a knowledge of cultures inhabiting the south-east part of the Paris Basin from the fifth millennium BCE to the middle of the fourth millennium BCE. The aim was to respond to a request to widen the scope of research into the Neolithic period into a region marked by cultural interpenetration phenomena and characterized by abundant deposits of siliceous materials –chalk flint in this case– which, although accessible, were of poor quality.

2The author’s methodology involved studying historical series in a number of reference collections in the Seine/Yonne sector. The principal objective was to shed light on the stages in the development of the production of flint tools that ought to overlay the cultural chronologies that are currently accepted or in the course of becoming so. It was felt that these might perhaps lead to a more accurate definition of the chronologies. The series examined are abundant and varied. They were excavated at early Neolithic habitats found in the valleys of the Petite Seine (at Balloy and Barbey) and the Yonne (Passy and Villeneuve-la-Guyard), at Middle Neolithic I Cerny sites (Châtenay-sur-Seine, Balloy, Barbuise-Courtavant and the Seine valley) and in the case of the Middle Neolithic II, at the Noyen group enclosures sites (Noyen-sur-Seine, Grisy-sur-Seine and the Seine valley) or flint workings (Villemaur-sur-Vanne/Les Orlets and the River Vanne valley). While lithic industries in this sector account for more than one third of the collected archeological remains by number of items, no-one had previously attempted to study them. Individual examination of around 100,000 flint artifacts, including some 6,000 retouched items, enabled the author to shed light on the principal characteristics of their production and how they evolved during the period under considération.

3It thus appears that the lithic industry during the early Neolithic period in the south east of part of the Paris Basin is very similar to that of the late Linear Bandkeramik (LBK) period in Picardy. This is reflected both in flaking techniques and methods and in the types of sickle and arrowhead assemblages. The industry does, however, have its own unique features, including the large numbers of retouched flakes (scrapers and denticulate items), together with the presence of specific types of arrowhead assemblages (eg, triangular items lacking inverse low angle retouch) and of sickles with inverse oblique truncation.

4While their similarities tend to point to a direct relationship between the lithic industries of the later LBK in the Paris Basin and those of the early regional Neolithic period, their dissimilarities testifyto their evolution. The distinctive attributes of the early Neolithic went on, in fact, to become widespread during the subsequent period. As an example, in the final Villeneuve-Saint-Germain period, at Passy/La Sablonnière, early signs of changes heralding the general characteristics of the later industries are perceptible. Knapping methods become more simplified and innovative features begin to emerge such as "tranchets" and sharp arrowhead assemblages. Subsequently, these features became extremely widespread in the Cerny group. It is therefore interesting to note that they emerge in a "Danubian" environment, reflected in the recourse to indirect percussion in blade débitage, in the existence of supplies of exogenous raw materials (eg, blades made from tertiary silex) and in the appearance of architectural features specifie to Danubian houses.

5By the time of the transition from Villeneuve-Saint-Germain to Cerny at Châtenay/Les Pâtures, the break with the earliertype of production organization seems to be complete. Supplies of exogenous silex dry up and sophisticated knapping methods such as the indirect percussion blade débitage are no longer used. The raw material becomes exclusively local in origin and even if, in the Cerny-Barbuise group, the blade concept continues to be found for a time, it was with extremely simplified knapping techniques and methods: blades are shaped using hardhammer direct percussion on local silex. Such characteristics are a sign of the growing technical simplification that would culminate in the Noyen group, where the output would mostly be manufactured using flaking and hardhammer percussion.

6With respect to the lithic materials, one may therefore observe, towards the end of the Villeneuve-Saint-Germain period, the gradual but ultimately complete disappearance of the Danubian characteristics of the industry and of the supply networks for high-quality raw materials. The society also underwent large-scale mutations in other areas. Generally speaking, population groups were more open to the potential of their regions and better integrated into their natural environment, with the development of hunting, the expansion into new biotopes, the construction of enclosures, and so on. Changes in the production of domestic tools fit in well with the overall picture in that the simplification and gradual loss of the acquisition networks for exogenous materials reflect improved adjustment of knapping techniques and methods to the poor quality of local raw materials.

7In the Middle Neolithic II, the tools manufactured by the Noyen group represent the culmination of the process of technological simplification. In respect of the extraction industry focused on the manufacture of axes which emerges at this period in the region, the data tend to show that it was the work of relatively unskilled knappers working the deposits for local needs.

8In conclusion, the simplification of domestic lithic technology completed by the Noyen group, together with the emergence of flint mining for purely local or regional needs (a hypothesis which requires further substantiation) seems to be part of the phenomenon of regionalization shown by the mass of archeological data. The improved insertion of human communities in their environment reflected in the increased use of their natural setting no doubt encouraged the loosening of supra-cultural links and the gradual loss of technologies foreign to local human substrates. The manufacture of tools evolved in line with these new economic conditions and adjusted to the limitations created by the use of local raw materials. At the same time, the increased exploitation of these local resources, one aspect of which is quarrying, was expanding rapidly.