Environ un siècle sépare l'abandon des ateliers de réduction de minerai de fer datés du Haut-Empire (Fock et al., 2015) et la réoccupation du site de Nereth 2 par un établissement rural (Fock et al., 2014). Celui-ci connait deux phases d'aménagement. Lors de la première, dans le courant du 4e siècle (F. Hanut, comm. pers.), un édifice principal A (16,60 m × 8,80 m) implanté perpendiculairement à la vallée du ruisseau de Baelen et une petite dépendance B (5,50 m × 5,40 m) sont disposés de part et d'autre d'une vaste cour. L'ensemble est délimité par un fossé formant enclos, large d'environ 0,40 m pour une profondeur maximale de 0,45 cm et pourvu d'au moins trois accès. Par sa structuration cohérente et par ses modes de construction, cet ensemble se distingue des deux bâtiments également datés du 4e siècle qui ont été dégagés au nord-est, sur le site de Nereth 1 (Hanut et al., 2012), et notamment du bâtiment D, pourtant similaire à l'édifice A par son plan mononef à entraits et sa subdivision intérieure. Il marque ainsi une évolution de l'habitat qui devra être précisée sur base de l'étude du matériel associé, notamment céramique. Il reste à évoquer l'alignement de trous de poteau (fig 37 : 1) inséré dans l'angle oriental de l'enclos. Formé d'une série de négatifs de poteau logés dans des fosses d'installation singulièrement vastes, il est prolongé, au sud-ouest, par un chapelet de vestiges de pieux. Il est tentant d'y voir une réplique de la façade nord de la maison-étable germanique E découverte à environ 60 m au nord-est, sur le site de Nereth 1, mais la présence de supports pouvant compléter un tel plan reste sujette à caution. Durant la seconde phase d'aménagement (transition entre le 4e et le 5e siècle ; F. Hanut, comm. pers.), la subdivision de l'établissement marquée par le fossé F21 est abandonnée au profit d'une autre dépendance C (7 m × 5,40 m) dont l'orientation diverge de 6° vers l'est. Seule construction à utiliser des tuiles comme éléments de calage, elle se distingue aussi par le doublement du poteau qui, dans chaque pignon, soutenait la panne faîtière. Un fond de cabane (F354) et une construction de plan circulaire (F369) à fonction indéterminée viennent compléter l'habitat rural. Réparties entre les bâtiments préexistants du 4e siècle, ces nouvelles structures attestent une continuité de l'occupation dont le prolongement, le long du ruisseau de Baelen, est d'ores et déjà signalé par un épandage lithique (F380) et des plaques de torchis effondrés, en bordure sud du décapage. Bibliographie Fock H., de Bernardy de Sigoyer S., Henrard D. & Collette O., 2014. Baelen/Baelen : atelier paléométallurgique et établissement rural sur le site de Nereth 2, Chronique de l'Archéologie wallonne, 22, p. 168-171. Fock H., de Bernardy de Sigoyer S., Henrard D. & Collette O., 2015. Atelier sidérurgique du Haut-Empire à Nereth 2 (Baelen). Campagnes de fouille 2013- 2014. In : Frébutte C. (coord.), Pré-actes des Journées d'Archéologie en Wallonie, Rochefort 2015, Namur, Service public de Wallonie (Rapports, Archéologie, 1), p. 57-59. Hanut F., Goffioul C. & Goemaere É., 2012. L'établissement germanique du Bas-Empire à Baelen/Nereth, province de Liège (Belgique). In : Annaert R., Jacobs T., In't Ven I. & Coppens S. (éd.), The very beginning of Europe ? Cultural and Social Dimensions of Early-Medieval Migration and Colonisation (5th- 8th century). Archeaology in Contemporary Europe. Conference Brussels – May 17-19 2011, Brussels (Relicta Monografieën, 7), p. 243-253.
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The study presented in this contribution is part of a new multidisciplinary research program undertaken by the “Service Public de Wallonie” since 2011 on archaeological sites uncovered in the Walloon region (SE Belgium). Indeed, very few archaeoenvironmental studies have been done in this area, especially in archaeobotany, and none of them was employed in combination. Up to now, most of the studies have been concentrated on the Neolithic period which is thus the best documented so far. In this context, we analysed pollen and NPPs from two Neolithic sites of primary importance for the understanding of the first sedentary occupations and/or their specific activities. Our data represent the first NPPs records in Wallonia. The first site (Fehxe-le-Haut-Cloché) is an Early Neolithic village (Belgian LBK) situated on the Belgian High Speed Train path Brussels-Liege. It is characterized by outlying houses which are older than the rest of the village’s houses located within an enclosure. Pottery style, techno-functional aspects of flint-tools and AMS C14 dating attest that these isolated houses may be considered as pioneer installations. Pollen and NPPs analyses are based on 35 samples coming from 18 pits and ditches linked to 8 houses belonging to both pioneer and secondary phases. The second site (Spiennes), located in the outskirts of Mons, is well known for its Middle-Late Neolithic flint mines which are listed on the UNESCO World heritage Sites since 2000. The men who started to dig mines in Spiennes had just discovered a profuse deposit of quality, which was to be exploited for more than 1 800 years. In total, around one hundred hectares were to be exploited and thousands of shafts were to be bored. Pollen and NPPs samples (48) have been retrieved from exploited flint layers, extraction shafts infillings and flint knapping workshops of 12 structures scattered on 3 different parcels of the exploitation.
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This work reconstructs the history of local landscape at two sites located in the Champsaur Valley (French Alps), namely Lac de Faudon (1577 m asl) and Laus des Combettes (1175 m asl), during the last 3400 years. Here we propose a multidisciplinary approach to explain complex human/climate relationships and their effects on the evolution of biodiversity over time scales that go beyond human life span. Modern pollen data and vegetation surveys from 49 sites, selected within different environmental and land-use contexts in the Champsaur Valley, were used to create a pollen-based transfer-function to quantify pasture pressure. Its application to the two well-dated pollen sequences, covering the last 3400 and 2000 years respectively, allowed reconstructing the evolution of pasture-pressure through time. The pollen-based reconstructions were compared with changes in percentages of palynological and NPP pastoral indicators like spores of coprophilous Fungi, showing a good correlation but differences in the inferred intensity of the pastoral pressure. Palaeoecological data, in consistence with archaeological and historical evidences, underline a continuous human presence surrounding the two sites since the Antiquity. Pollen diversity reaches its highest value during the Medieval Warm Period (850-550 cal BP), when demography increase and stability of human presence are reported. An unprecedented fall of diversity is recorded at the beginning of the climate deterioration of the Little Ice Age (650 and 380 cal BP), coinciding with invasions from neighbouring human groups and wars and with a reduced pastoral activity at both sites. Data suggest that the interaction between human activities and climate changes produced important transformations in the composition of the local flora, resulting in a weakened ecosystem highly dependent on Human cares and more sensitive to climate variability. Keywords: palynology, late Holocene vegetation history, human/environment relationships, pasture pressure modeling, diversity indexes.
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The study presented in this contribution is part of a new multidisciplinary research program undertaken by the “Service Public de Wallonie” since 2011 on archaeological sites uncovered in the Walloon region (SE Belgium). Indeed, very few archaeoenvironmental studies have been done in this area, especially in archaeobotany, and none of them was employed in combination. Up to now, most of the studies have been concentrated on the Neolithic period which is thus the best documented so far. In this context, we analysed pollen and NPPs from two Neolithic sites of primary importance for the understanding of the first sedentary occupations and/or their specific activities. Our data represent the first NPPs records in Wallonia. The first site (Fehxe-le-Haut-Cloché) is an Early Neolithic village (Belgian LBK) situated on the Belgian High Speed Train path Brussels-Liege. It is characterized by outlying houses which are older than the rest of the village’s houses located within an enclosure. Pottery style, techno-functional aspects of flint-tools and AMS C14 dating attest that these isolated houses may be considered as pioneer installations. Pollen and NPPs analyses are based on 35 samples coming from 18 pits and ditches linked to 8 houses belonging to both pioneer and secondary phases. The second site (Spiennes), located in the outskirts of Mons, is well known for its Middle-Late Neolithic flint mines which are listed on the UNESCO World heritage Sites since 2000. The men who started to dig mines in Spiennes had just discovered a profuse deposit of quality, which was to be exploited for more than 1 800 years. In total, around one hundred hectares were to be exploited and thousands of shafts were to be bored. Pollen and NPPs samples (48) have been retrieved from exploited flint layers, extraction shafts infillings and flint knapping workshops of 12 structures scattered on 3 different parcels of the exploitation. The purposes of this study are (i) to reconstruct the vegetation around each site and its evolution between the different occupation phases by means of pollen and NPPs analyses, (ii) to try to characterize local settlement dynamics, nature and function of different structure types, and specialized activities such as animal husbandry, cultures, waste management or mining, and (iii) to compare the pollen and NPPs results with those of the other palaeoenvironmental analyses undertaken (charcoal, seeds and fruit, phytoliths, archaeozoology). Questions relating to the economy and organisation of Neolithic society are also considered.
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