Description
This large-scale work represents a study of the occupation of space and management of resources at the interface between primary massifs and secondary and tertiary basins during the Neolithic: the example of the Armorican massif and its margins. This study seeks to establish to what degree we can quantify the impact of a physical feature, the interface between the Armorican massif and the Paris and Aquitainian basins, on population dynamics in western France during the Neolithic. The study area is extensive (62324 km) and includes almost the whole of eleven French departments (Manche, Calvados, Orne, Mayenne, Sarthe, Maine-et-Loire, Vende, Deux-Svres, Vienne, Charente-Maritime and Charente). Its natural limits, which have evolved since the Neolithic, are the English Channel in the north and the River Charente and its tributary La Bonnieure, flowing into the Atlantic Ocean, in the south. The period in question is the whole of the Neolithic, chronologically subdivided (with much simplification) in orderto facilitate the comparison between the successive chronological stages: Early Neolithic: 5500-4600 BC; Middle Neolithic: 4600-3600 BC; Late and Final Neolithic: 3600-2200 BC. Gwenole Kerdivel
