Diversité technique des débitages laminaires au Néolithique ancien à Vaux-et-Borset (Hesbaye, Belgique) : manières de faire, problèmes d’interprétation et perspectives anthropologiques

Abstract

EnglishThis study explores the technical diversity of blade production in the village of Vaux-et-Borset located in Hesbaye (Belgium), where two settlements have been excavated. The first dates to the Linear Pottery Culture and the second is dated to the Blicquy/Villeneuve-Saint-Germain culture. The Linear Pottery Culture settlement comprises of five houses and an enclosure. Stratigraphic observations, combined with the different orientations of the farmsteads suggest two or three occupation phases. The Blicquy/Villeneuve-Saint-Germain village also comprises of five houses. This paper will focus on the flint industry from these settlements or more precisely on the blades, the study of which underlines a large technical diversity. The objective is to propose a new interpretation of these lithic industries aimed at defining technical traditions, based on the identification of technical processes acquired through learning. By studying both Linear Pottery culture and Blicquian productions, based on 755 Linear Pottery blades and 1186 Bliquian blades, we aim to understand the relationship between continuity and innovation in these two cultural groups from the unprecedented perspective of the transmission of technical expertise. Linear Pottery knappers and Blicquian knappers from Vaux-et-Borset do not select the same siliceous materials to produce their blades, as the former has clearly oriented their selection towards local raw materials, whereas the proportion of exogenous flint blades in Blicquian contexts is extremely high and is largely preferred in several housing units. The large supply of exogenous raw materials to the Blicquian settlement does not seem to be for the manufacture of tools for a particular technical activity, but was used for the village's contemporary needs, on the same basis as local materials. The productions are similar with the manufacture of small blades (7-10 cm) with a trapezoidal section. Furthermore, all raw materials seem to have been knapped locally, raising the question of the identity of the knappers, which is highlighted by their technical diversity and expressed by the differential treatment of the striking platforms and the preparations made for the detachment of the blades. Some blades have been knapped on a flat striking platform, some on a facetted one and the preparations for the detachment seem to have been done with a punch or a stone. Within the various stages and operations of blade production, the processing of striking platforms seems to constitute a technical action relaying a strong identity. Furthermore, it is necessary to underline the technical homogeneity within the Linear Pottery context, whereas in the Blicquian context the three raw materials are processed according to three different technical modalities. There is also a difference in the skills. Several knappers know specific arrangements to obtain more regular trapezoidal section blades, with a technical process that requires a good skill level. This underlines that it is the ideas and the technical know-how that distinguish the knapper groups. However, this distinction does not explain the technical variability observed in the processing of striking platforms and in the preparation for the detachment of the blades. The observed differences do not lead to the production of blanks for specific tools, nor are they justified by the intrinsic qualities of the raw materials. For an equivalent production context, we therefore propose that this technical variability reflects different ways of doing used by knappers in the settlements. This study distinguishes three main and two minor ways. Knappers of the Linear Pottery culture use local raw materials and the same way to manufacture blades. Only rare artefacts attest to the implementation of a different procedure, probably introduced during one of the site later phases. Blicquian knappers use diverse ways of doing. There are two main technical traditions, the first carries on the traditions of the Linear Pottery culture, the second, involving exogenous flints, uses another method. Two new ways of doing that are absent from Linear Pottery contexts have also been observed. There is therefore a certain technical continuity between the Linear Pottery culture and the Blicquy/Villeneuve-Saint-Germain culture, which attests to the transmission of knowledge through the generations. This transmission indicates the coexistence of at least two learning networks among Early Neolithic knappers. Moreover, the Linear Pottery knappers of Vaux-et-Borset almost all seem to come from the same learning network, unlike the four technical groups distinguished among the Blicquian knappers. This diversity of technical practices and technical traditions used by the Blicquians is discussed. As the data currently stands, it seems that this may result from both the mobility of neighbouring populations and the syncretism of certain traditions. francaisCette etude explore la diversite technique de la production laminaire dans les villages rubane et Blicquy/ Villeneuve-Saint-Germain de Vaux-et-Borset (Hesbaye, Belgique). Cette diversite technique est essentiellement definie par un traitement differentiel des plans de frappe et des preparations au detachement des lames. Or, les differences relevees ne conduisent pas a la production de supports pour un outillage specifique. Elles ne se justifient pas non plus par les qualites intrinseques des matieres premieres. A contexte de production equivalent, nous proposons des lors que cette variabilite technique reflete differentes manieres de faire parmi les tailleurs du village de Vaux-et-Borset. La reconnaissance d’une veritable continuite de certaines manieres de faire entre le Rubane et la culture Blicquy/Villeneuve-SaintGermain atteste de leur transmission dans le temps. Cette transmission signe la coexistence d’au moins deux filieres d’apprentissage chez les tailleurs au Neolithique ancien. Par ailleurs, les tailleurs rubanes du village de Vaux-et-Borset semblent presque tous issus du meme reseau d’apprentissage contrairement aux quatre groupes distingues chez les tailleurs blicquiens. La diversite des pratiques techniques et des traditions techniques au cours du Blicquien est discutee. En l’etat actuel des donnees, il semble qu’elle puisse a la fois resulter de la mobilite de populations avoisinantes et du syncretisme de certaines traditions.