Papers by Christian Jeunesse
Jeunesse, C. et Waldvogel, L., 2024, « Différenciation verticale et compétition sociale dans la c... more Jeunesse, C. et Waldvogel, L., 2024, « Différenciation verticale et compétition sociale dans la culture à Céramique linéaire : cimetières ''riches'' et cimetières ''pauvres'' », in Kerouanton I., Maitay C., Praud I. et Soler L. (dir.), La place des morts chez les vivants. Architectures, mémoires et rituels de la fin du Mésolithique à l’âge du Bronze. Actes des IVe Rencontres Nord / Sud de Préhistoire récente (La Rochelle, Charente-Maritime, 27-30 avril 2022). Association des Publications Chauvinoises (Mémoire, LIX), Chauvigny, p. 199-212.
Abstract
The concept of hoarding or Hortsitte is usually associated with the Bronze and Iron Ages... more Abstract
The concept of hoarding or Hortsitte is usually associated with the Bronze and Iron Ages. But it has long been known that this practice is also typical of the copper age, where it flourished from the middle of the 5th millennium. The recent work of P. Pétrequin and his team on the “alpine” axes has reminded us that there are also depots in Neolithic context. It should not be forgotten, however, that the oldest phenomenon in this category of finds is the deposition of adzes and perforated axes from the danubian Neolithic, dated between 5100 and 4500, whereas the chronological range accepted for alpine axe depots is between 4700 and 4300 BC. However, these Neolithic 'preludes' are only the beginning of a long-lasting, multi-millennial phenomenon At the other chronological extreme, we also know that hoarding continues beyond the second Iron Age, until the beginning of the second millennium AD, within the non-state and pagan societies of northwest, north and east Europe. This very long-lasting phenomenon (about 6 millennia) is one of the material manifestations of a symbolic system that includes hoards and elite tombs. It embodies a way specific to part of late prehistoric Europe to consider the triangular relationship between humans, supernatural powers and material goods. Deeply rooted in the ideological framework of "barbarian" Europe, it will be dismantled by the intrusion of the State in the second half of the 1st millennium BC, the State and the Christian religion during the first millennium AD.
Our objective in this article will be to provide some details about the oldest – but also the less well known – documented Hortsitte, that of the Central European danubian Neolithic. We will first present its main characteristics before comparing it to the more recent Hortsitten. We will see that the analogies are numerous and convincing, including a dialectical relationship with the funerary furnishings that clearly announces that of the metal. There are therefore good reasons to believe that the social and ideological substratum underlying the hoarding phenomenon of late prehistoric Europe has been in place since the end of the 6th millennium
Long version of the english summary of :
JEUNESSE C. (2024) Contribution à l’étude des fondemen... more Long version of the english summary of :
JEUNESSE C. (2024) Contribution à l’étude des fondements théoriques des recherches archéozoologiques sur la préhistoire récente européenne et procheorientale. Un détour par la Nouvelle-Guinée et son apport pour la compréhension des systèmes d’élevages néolithiques et protohistoriques, Gallia Préhistoire [En ligne], 64 | 2024, mis en ligne le 12 novembre 2024, consulté le 20. URL : http:// journals.openedition.org/galliap/4780 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/12ns7
Gallia Préhistoire
Our dependence on common sense when it comes to transforming the truncated documentation from our... more Our dependence on common sense when it comes to transforming the truncated documentation from our excavation campaigns into interpretative narratives has been regularly emphasised since Leroi-Gourhan. Its counterpart, and one of the conditions of its existence, is our lack of ethnological culture. We know too little about the characteristics, properties and modes of operation of the vast category of pre-state societies, of which prehistoric European societies are, after all, a part. The aim of ethnoarchaeology and ethnographic comparatism is precisely to familiarise us with this universe, so strange in some respects to our Western eyes, of societies that were once called 'primitive'. The article begins with an epistemological reflection on the way in which a set of presuppositions conditions the interpretations of researches devoted to the exploration of the human-animal relationship in societies of late European prehistory. We attempt to show how an implicit model inspired in particular by our knowledge of historical peasantry and a biased conception of the functioning of the primitive economy (both being part of our 'intellectual habitus' a scholarly conditioned form of common sense) slips into the process of knowledge production, between the examination of raw facts and the elaboration of interpretations. A detailed examination of pig farming in the New Guinea Highlands then serves to show that the presuppositions of this model are anything but universal. It also leads us to develop alternative models likely to shed new light on prehistoric animal husbandry, for example on the conditions of emergence of the first domestications in the Near East and elsewhere. In this way, we hope to contribute to the development of a catalogue of the forms of animal husbandry known in pre-state, pre-literary and animist societies, both current and sub-actual, with the aim of making it a tool for understanding prehistoric animal husbandry. The underlying idea, which is one of the 'commandments' of ethnoarchaeology, is that the depth of the political, social and ontological rupture introduced by the emergence of the state and universal religions is such that the level of proximity between present-day pre-state and prehistoric societies will necessarily be greater than that between the latter and the historical European societies that are the main source of inspiration for the implicit model mentioned above.
JEUNESSE C, 2024, Review of : Birgit Regner-Kamlah, Das Erdwerk der Michelsberger Kultur von Bruc... more JEUNESSE C, 2024, Review of : Birgit Regner-Kamlah, Das Erdwerk der Michelsberger Kultur von Bruchsal “Aue”. Eine lange Geschichte. Forschungen und Berichte zur Archäologie in Baden-Wurttemberg volume 19. Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, Wiesbaden 2021.
Megalithic techniques at Sumba Island (Indonesia)
Archaeopress Publishing Ltd eBooks, Aug 22, 2022
Mégalithismes vivants et passés: approches croisées [contributions issues de deux tables rondes organisées en 2014 et 2015 à Strasbourg sous l'égide des UMR 7044 ARCHIMEDE et 7363 SAGE]
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2016
Avant-propos : archéologues et ethnologues autour du mégalithisme, une approche interdisciplinaire
Foreword : Archaeologists and ethnologists on megalithism, an interdisciplinary approach
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2016
Les sépultures de type Chamblandes et la géographie des systèmes funéraires en Europe centrale et occidentale au 5ème millénaire avant J.-C
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2017
Préhistoires méditerranéennes
Préhistoires méditerranéennes
Entre Rhône et Rhin au Néolithique ancien
La Bourgogne entre les bassins rhénan, rhodanien et parisien : carrefour ou frontière ?
PROBLÉMATIQUE Il y a une quinzaine d'années, on pensait généralement que les deux courants de... more PROBLÉMATIQUE Il y a une quinzaine d'années, on pensait généralement que les deux courants de néolithisation de l’Europe occidentale étaient totalement indépendants l’un de l’autre et se déroulaient selon des procédés tout à fait opposés, colonisation danubienne au Nord, acculturation méditerranéenne au Sud. On croyait également que seules deux cultures étaient porteuses de la première diffusion néolithique, le Rubané au Nord, le Cardial au Sud, et que la zone intermédiaire ne voyait apparaît..
Bulletins et mémoires de la société d'anthropologie de Paris
Human remains of the 4 th millennium BC in the south of the Upper-Rhine Valley
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), Oct 18, 2012
Dating the emergence of dairying by the first farmers of Central Europe using 14 C analysis of fatty acids preserved in pottery vessels
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Direct, accurate, and precise dating of archaeological pottery vessels is now achievable using a ... more Direct, accurate, and precise dating of archaeological pottery vessels is now achievable using a recently developed approach based on the radiocarbon dating of purified molecular components of food residues preserved in the walls of pottery vessels. The method targets fatty acids from animal fat residues, making it uniquely suited for directly dating the inception of new food commodities in prehistoric populations. Here, we report a large-scale application of the method by directly dating the introduction of dairying into Central Europe by the Linearbandkeramik (LBK) cultural group based on dairy fat residues. The radiocarbon dates ( n = 27) from the 54th century BC from the western and eastern expansion of the LBK suggest dairy exploitation arrived with the first settlers in the respective regions and were not gradually adopted later. This is particularly significant, as contemporaneous LBK sites showed an uneven distribution of dairy exploitation. Significantly, our findings demon...
La flèche brisée. La tombe 4/2014 de la nécropole d’Illzach-Mulhouse-Est (Haut-Rhin) et les modalités du contact entre colons rubanés et chasseurs indigènes dans la Plaine du Rhin supérieur durant le dernier tiers du 6ème millénaire av. J.-C
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2019
Human sacrifices as „crisis management“ ?
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2016
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Papers by Christian Jeunesse
The concept of hoarding or Hortsitte is usually associated with the Bronze and Iron Ages. But it has long been known that this practice is also typical of the copper age, where it flourished from the middle of the 5th millennium. The recent work of P. Pétrequin and his team on the “alpine” axes has reminded us that there are also depots in Neolithic context. It should not be forgotten, however, that the oldest phenomenon in this category of finds is the deposition of adzes and perforated axes from the danubian Neolithic, dated between 5100 and 4500, whereas the chronological range accepted for alpine axe depots is between 4700 and 4300 BC. However, these Neolithic 'preludes' are only the beginning of a long-lasting, multi-millennial phenomenon At the other chronological extreme, we also know that hoarding continues beyond the second Iron Age, until the beginning of the second millennium AD, within the non-state and pagan societies of northwest, north and east Europe. This very long-lasting phenomenon (about 6 millennia) is one of the material manifestations of a symbolic system that includes hoards and elite tombs. It embodies a way specific to part of late prehistoric Europe to consider the triangular relationship between humans, supernatural powers and material goods. Deeply rooted in the ideological framework of "barbarian" Europe, it will be dismantled by the intrusion of the State in the second half of the 1st millennium BC, the State and the Christian religion during the first millennium AD.
Our objective in this article will be to provide some details about the oldest – but also the less well known – documented Hortsitte, that of the Central European danubian Neolithic. We will first present its main characteristics before comparing it to the more recent Hortsitten. We will see that the analogies are numerous and convincing, including a dialectical relationship with the funerary furnishings that clearly announces that of the metal. There are therefore good reasons to believe that the social and ideological substratum underlying the hoarding phenomenon of late prehistoric Europe has been in place since the end of the 6th millennium
JEUNESSE C. (2024) Contribution à l’étude des fondements théoriques des recherches archéozoologiques sur la préhistoire récente européenne et procheorientale. Un détour par la Nouvelle-Guinée et son apport pour la compréhension des systèmes d’élevages néolithiques et protohistoriques, Gallia Préhistoire [En ligne], 64 | 2024, mis en ligne le 12 novembre 2024, consulté le 20. URL : http:// journals.openedition.org/galliap/4780 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/12ns7
The concept of hoarding or Hortsitte is usually associated with the Bronze and Iron Ages. But it has long been known that this practice is also typical of the copper age, where it flourished from the middle of the 5th millennium. The recent work of P. Pétrequin and his team on the “alpine” axes has reminded us that there are also depots in Neolithic context. It should not be forgotten, however, that the oldest phenomenon in this category of finds is the deposition of adzes and perforated axes from the danubian Neolithic, dated between 5100 and 4500, whereas the chronological range accepted for alpine axe depots is between 4700 and 4300 BC. However, these Neolithic 'preludes' are only the beginning of a long-lasting, multi-millennial phenomenon At the other chronological extreme, we also know that hoarding continues beyond the second Iron Age, until the beginning of the second millennium AD, within the non-state and pagan societies of northwest, north and east Europe. This very long-lasting phenomenon (about 6 millennia) is one of the material manifestations of a symbolic system that includes hoards and elite tombs. It embodies a way specific to part of late prehistoric Europe to consider the triangular relationship between humans, supernatural powers and material goods. Deeply rooted in the ideological framework of "barbarian" Europe, it will be dismantled by the intrusion of the State in the second half of the 1st millennium BC, the State and the Christian religion during the first millennium AD.
Our objective in this article will be to provide some details about the oldest – but also the less well known – documented Hortsitte, that of the Central European danubian Neolithic. We will first present its main characteristics before comparing it to the more recent Hortsitten. We will see that the analogies are numerous and convincing, including a dialectical relationship with the funerary furnishings that clearly announces that of the metal. There are therefore good reasons to believe that the social and ideological substratum underlying the hoarding phenomenon of late prehistoric Europe has been in place since the end of the 6th millennium
JEUNESSE C. (2024) Contribution à l’étude des fondements théoriques des recherches archéozoologiques sur la préhistoire récente européenne et procheorientale. Un détour par la Nouvelle-Guinée et son apport pour la compréhension des systèmes d’élevages néolithiques et protohistoriques, Gallia Préhistoire [En ligne], 64 | 2024, mis en ligne le 12 novembre 2024, consulté le 20. URL : http:// journals.openedition.org/galliap/4780 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/12ns7
Nourrir les convives et sacrifier aux dieux : abattages massifs d’animaux à l’occasion des funérailles d’une princesse sumbanaise
par Christian Jeunesse
(Université de Strasbourg, Institut Universitaire de France, UMR 7044 Archimède)
Abstract
The Vendenheim cemetery yielded 111 graves, including 94 inhumation graves and 17 ‘symbolic’ graves (pits located within the graveyard, with the same morphology and orientation as the inhumation graves, but devoid of human remains). The position of the graveyard in relation to the settlement is not known precisely, although a few immediately adjacent pits suggest a nearby location. Burnt bones found in the fillings of some graves could be the remains of disturbed cremations. Five of the 94 burials are double burials, a high rate in the Lbk, bringing the number of individuals exhumed to 99. The burial pits form three distinctly oriented groups: head to the ESE (group A), to the ENE (group B) and to the E (group C). 17 of the 96 orientable individuals (18%) have antipodal orientations. The degree of preservation of the human remains is very uneven. The number of individuals of determinable sex is therefore quite low; it consists of three females and 14 males. There were also 22 immatures. 45 of the 99 individuals (45.4%) were provided with grave goods. Objects that could be interpreted as funerary furnishings were found in three of the 17 symbolic graves. The high proportion of individuals with antipodal orientation or stretched position (on their back, lower limbs extended) and the composition of the grave goods leads to the attribution of the Vendenheim graveyard to facies IIa (formerly ‘tradition II’) in the classification of funerary practices in the western area of the Lbk.
The finds consist mainly of lithic objects. The most common categories are adze blades (33 graves) and arrowheads (17 graves), followed by ceramics (11 graves). Milling and bone tools are present in eight graves each. Finally, rare categories include large exogenous flint blades (six graves) and food deposits (four graves). The eleven ceramic deposits consist of vases or large fragments of vases in a primary position, generally a single vessel per grave, almost always incomplete. Other graves contain ceramic sherds whose functional relationship with the grave is often difficult to determine. The decorated vessels found in primary position all date from the late phase of the Lbk (jüngere Lbk), covering the whole of its duration (stages IVa and IVb of the regional chronology). The lithic tools were analysed in detail. The thirty-seven arrowheads give a fairly complete idea of the regional typological spectrum. Among other things, some of them show affinities with the arrowheads of the autochthonous, Mesolithic, component. The perforated maces and perforated double adzes are placed in their respective regional contexts. The six large non-retouched flint blades made of "exotic" material confirm the existence of a long-distance distribution net of lithic objects that can be interpreted as status symbols, and which may have at least partially replaced the large spondylus objects, whose circulation declined significantly from the late Lbk onwards. Bone tools stand out for the paucity of their typological spectrum, consisting exclusively of pointed tools. The animal remains, found in four of the richest burials, consist of the thighs and shoulders of domestic animals (pigs and goats). The preferred hypothesis to explain their presence is that they were used as ‘food deposits’. The analysis of the regional inscription from the Vendenheim cemetery provides an opportunity to test the solidity of the major facies identified in the 1990s and, thanks to a comparison with the Schwetzingen graveyard, to refine our understanding of funerary practices of the ‘northern facies’, the one stretching from Lower Alsace to the Rhineland-Limburg area
From the point of view of the richness of the graves, the Vendenheim cemetery yielded burials belonging to the two lower levels of the three-level classification established for the Lbk. It can thus be attributed to the category of the ‘poor’ cemeteries. The two levels of wealth involved probably reflect the existence of two distinct hereditary social strata, only the highest of which had access to the precious goods used as status symbols. The members of this stratum probably occupied the large type I houses. On the basis of ethnological comparisons, we imagine that the Lbk communities were heterarchical, with different kinds of social hierarchies but political egality. Villages are distinguished by their hierarchical rank in the genealogy of settlements. The ‘rich’ graveyards reflect a high level of social competition, typical of the villages at the top of the ladder, those housing the houses of origin of the descent groups and the ‘great organisers’ who occupied them. The ‘poor’ necropolises are those of secondary villages, characterised by a position of ritual dependence vis-à-vis the settlements at the head of the network.
Cette rencontre fut la première jamais organisée sur ce thème, qui n’a suscité que peu de recherches depuis les années 1960. Elle répondait à un double besoin : rattraper, autant que faire se peut, une partie au moins du retard accumulé et mettre en perspective un certain nombre de découvertes réalisées ces dernières années, découvertes qui renouvellent largement la documentation disponible.
Ce volume comprend les 11 communications prononcées à l’occasion de la table ronde. Elles s’appuient pour l’essentiel sur des sites découverts lors d’opérations d’archéologie préventive réalisées par Antéa Archéologie, la PAIR et l’INRAP et couvrent l’Alsace (7 comm.), la Lorraine (3 comm.) et le Nord de la Franche-Comté (1 comm.).
Les sites présentés sont pour la plupart inédits et concernent, pour certains, des domaines qui étaient jusque là complètement vierges de trouvailles, par exemple la question de l’habitat campaniforme en Alsace. Des articles de synthèse présentent, en outre, l’état le plus récent des recherches sur les pratiques funéraires en Lorraine (Néolithique final et Bronze ancien) et en Alsace (Bronze ancien) ainsi qu’une esquisse de chronologie de la séquence Campaniforme – Bronze ancien en Alsace.
Un catalogue exhaustif des sites Cordés, Campaniforme et Bronze ancien connus pour le Sud de la Plaine du Rhin supérieur (Alsace et Bade), agrémenté de cartes de répartition et d’une bibliographie complète vient, enfin, compléter cet ouvrage appelé à faire référence pour la période couverte.
Résumé français La définition du modèle des Chasseurs-cueilleurs sédentaires-stockeurs et son utilisation dans l'interprétation de la place historique de certaines cultures épipaléolithiques ou mésolithiques figurent parmi les apports les plus marquants d'Alain Testart à la recherche préhistorique. Dans cet article, nous nous demandons d'une part de quelle manière ce modèle a été reçu dans le domaine des recherches sur le foyer de néolithisation proche-oriental et, d'autre part, dans quelle mesure il demeure pertinent dans un paysage qui a été profondément modifié par les découvertes intervenues depuis sa première formulation il y a 35 ans. Un examen des principales publications montre qu'il n'a eu, jusqu'à nos jours, qu'un impact très limité sur la conduite des recherches et l'évolution des interprétations. Les découvertes de ces vingt dernières années, comme les sites de Göbekli Tepe et de Körtik Tepe, illustrent pourtant, selon nous, sa puissance heuristique et sa profonde actualité.
Table ronde internationale
Strasbourg, 24 octobre 2016
Dans le courant du 7ème millénaire, l’Europe occidentale connaît une profonde mutation avec l’apparition de la « blade and trapeze industry », qui signe le passage au « second Mésolithique ». Ce dernier constituera, à des moments variés selon les régions, le substrat régional au moment du passage au mode de vie néolithique. Bien caractérisée dans certaines régions bénéficiant de bons sites de référence et d’un taux de publication élevé, cette période l’est beaucoup moins dans d’autres, souvent par manque de documentation, parfois du fait d’une exploitation insuffisante des données existantes. L’objectif de la table ronde sera d’établir un « état des lieux » pour un territoire couvrant la Suisse, la France, le sud de l’Allemagne, l’Italie du nord et la Belgique.
Les discussions porteront principalement sur les thèmes suivants :
- Modalités de la transition avec les industries à triangle du Mésolithique moyen (évolution sur place ; rupture et origine externe, orientale ou méridionale ; chronologie du basculement, manifestement variable selon les régions).
- Périodisation interne, en s’appuyant sur les grandes stratigraphies de référence et les datations radiocarbones.
- Structuration géographique : plusieurs auteurs ont, à des moments différents, proposé de découper leur zone d’étude en « cultures ». Il s’agira ici de préciser d’évaluer la pertinence et de préciser les définitions des cultures existantes et de réfléchir à la possibilité de mettre en place un tel découpage dans les zones où ce travail n’a pas encore été effectué.
- Modalités de la transition avec le Néolithique : interactions avec les premières cultures néolithiques ; contribution à la formation des industries lithiques du Néolithique ancien.
- Caractérisation des industries (lithiques et sur matière dure animale).
- Caractérisation des systèmes de subsistance.
L’importance d’un autre mégalithisme « vivant », celui de l’Afrique de l’Est, a été soulignée à plusieurs reprises par les intervenants. C’est ce qui nous a conduits à lui consacrer une séance spéciale en 2015. Comme la précédente, elle sera abritée par la Maison Interuniversitaire des Sciences de l’Homme-Alsace (MISHA) à Strasbourg. L’objectif sera à nouveau de dégager des modèles susceptibles, par leur confrontation avec les données archéologiques, d’aider à la compréhension des mégalithismes anciens.
La région concernée se situe au sud de l’Ethiopie où le mégalithisme est encore pratiqué aujourd’hui par les ethnies Konso, Arsi, Gewada et Hadiya. Le programme et la discussion porteront sur les points suivants : Approche techno-typologique ; approche fonctionnelle ; les mégalithes dans le paysage ; pierres dressées individuelles : 1, qui les fabriques ? ; pierres dressées individuelles : 2, pour qui sont-elles érigées ? pierres dressées « collectives » ; mégalithisme et mode de vie ; mégalithisme et organisation sociale ; rituels « mégalithiques » ; la dimension historique ; le devenir des pierres dressées.
Participation libre, sans droit d’inscription
Rens. : C. Jeunesse (jeunessechr@free.fr) – P. Le Roux (p.le.roux@unistra.fr)
et anthropologie - nouvelles avancées, nouvelles méthodes»
Dates : vendredi 2 octobre 2015 ; vendredi 16 octobre 2015 ; vendredi 23 octobre 2015 ; vendredi 6 novembre 2015 ; vendredi 13 novembre 2015 ; vendredi 20 novembre 2015 ; vendredi 27 novembre 2015 ; vendredi 18 décembre 2015.
Reference : BEC DRELON (N.), JEUNESSE (C.) à paraître — Megalithic techniques at Sumba Island (Indonesia): from quarry to abandonment, in Laporte (L.) et al. (dir.) Rencontre Internationale: Mégalithes dans le Monde, Actes de colloque, 9-14 sept. 2019, Historial de la Vendée (Les Lucs-sur-Boulogne, France), à paraître.
Different techniques of megalithic tomb construction have been observed on the island of Sumba in Indonesia where this tradition is still alive. Through several case studies, from careers to abandonment, transport and construction, we propose a synthesis of these living practices in order to feed our reflections on those of the past. It will also deal with devices related to the use and restoration of tombs, which, in addition to their technical originality, are also indicators of collective functioning and the investment of these communities in the durability of their monuments.
This short article is part of a big article written by Christian Jeunesse entitled: The social context of megalithic practice: an ethnoarchaeological approach. What the case of the Indonesian island of Sumba teaches us, pp. 341-364.