Le site mésolithique de Rosnay ? Haut-de-Vallière ? (Marne) Une occupation spécialisée du premier Mésolithique

摘要

In 2010, during the excavation of a protohistoric site (dir.: E. Millet, INRAP), a small Mesolithic occupation was identified on the Haut-de-Vallière site, Rosnay (Marne). The brief rescue operation allowed the identification of a 20 m2 concentration and the collection of all artefacts by quarter square metre units. Against all odds, homogeneity and consistency of the site are attested by chronological and functional data despite its location at the top of a gentle slope of a small valley and its sealing by sandy slope deposits (tertiary residual hill). The Mesolithic level is well preserved and there is no mixing with other periods. The absence of a dip and the flat distribution of the remains allow us to envisage an installation on a ledge or in a hollow. The remains, set around a hearth structure, are characterized by the presence of flints, stone (sandstone), some burnt bone remains and rare fragments of burnt hazelnut shells. The hearth is a carbonaceous and sub-circular area (1.80 m2), with some dispersed sandstones. Two very consistent dates, one on burnt bone and one on burnt hazelnut shells, place the occupation at the end of the Pre-Boreal between 8628 and 8340 cal. BC. This chronological attribution appears in line with the microlith assemblage, dominated by crescents and retouched base points, assigned to the 'north-western Beuronian' technocomplex (Ducrocq, 2001 and 2009). 1,463 lithic remains were discovered. 45.9% are splinters. Domestic tools (82) are more numerous than microliths (27), with many scrapers (51). These scrapers have various morphologies; they are manufactured on flakes or blades, in tertiary or secondary flint. Those in secondary flint were more used and re-sharpened. Usewear analysis proves their use in skin scraping activities. Retouched flakes, blades and bladelets are also present as well as some rare burins. The chronocultural consistency is reinforced by the function of the site, specialized in skin-working (scraping and cutting), confirmed by the usewear analyses of many scrapers. In parallel, the usewear analyses have highlighted different treatments of skins, with scrapers used on dry skins or during the drying process and unretouched flakes or blades on moist skins, probably in association with the use of ochre. To a lesser extent, butchery and plant-related activities were also identified on the site with unretouched flakes and bladelets. 138 osseous remains were collected, mainly burnt.