This thesis examines the use of coinage on votive sites of the later Iron Age and earliest Roman period in the north-east of France. Moving beyond numismatic studies, it evaluates the archaeological contexts in which Iron Age coins have been found, and seeks to use a single artefact type to consider the nature of centralised votive deposition in this area. Previously, a single type of votive deposition has been assumed to exist in the study area based on the presence of an archaeologically visible votive tradition in western Picardy. This study reviews the archaeological evidence from a wider area, and considers the extremely regional nature of votive deposition from the point of the numismatic deposits. It also looks chronologically at developments in the deposition of artefacts on votive sites, and reviews the changing nature of votive deposition over time. The development of oppida is also entwined with votive sites, many in the study area also having votive foci, and large ritual deposits of coinage. The appearance of coinage is closely related to an increasingly complex society, including the appearance of oppida and centralised votive sites, and reasons for this are suggested. The function of coinage in later Iron Age societies is considered. In the later Iron Age coinage was produced in large quantities on votive sites, and was deposited in the immediate locality. The evidence suggests that coins were produced primarily for votive deposition in parts of the study area, a trend which begins with early potin and silver, and increases after the Gallic Wars in the middle of the first century BC.

The chariot burials of the Arras Culture reveal a strong link with the Continent, but what precisely is the nature of this connection? Were the chariot burials and other continental features introduced by immigrants from northern Gaul? If so, then why is the local British component so strong and why have features been adopted from different regions in northern Gaul, so that it is impossible to identify the immigrants' homeland? Migration was not the only type of mobility in Iron Age Europe; certain individuals travelled long distances and not necessarily for economic reasons. Social networks, and more specifically elite networks, were created through mechanisms like strategic marriages, clientship, hostageship and perhaps fosterage. When comparing the archaeological data from East Yorkshire with the evidence from various regions in northern Gaul, it becomes clear that these networks offer a more satisfactory explanation. Moreover, the introduction of chariot burials in East Yorkshire, in the early third century BC, coincides with the appearance of the same phenomenon in several regions in northern Gaul (for example in the Paris area). In the Aisne-Marne region, renowned for its rich chariot burials of the fifth and early fourth century BC, the tradition was long waning by this time. In the early third century BC, internationalisation is the keyword: ideas and technologies disseminate rapidly over very long distances; social networks become more complex and the world has become a smaller place. However, the exchanges between East Yorkshire and the Continent primarily took place in the field of ritual, and much less in other aspects of life, like weaponry or art styles. This raises the question to what extent druids and other learned men, and their networks, had a part in the introduction of new funerary practices in East Yorkshire.

This thesis concerns the development of long-distance connections between Italy and Greece from the fall of the Greek Mycenaean palaces to the foundation of the earliest colonies in Italy (ca. 12th to 7th centuries BC). I focus on four case studies - two each in Italy (Basilicata and Salento) and Greece (Achaea and Laconia) - in order to understand the socioeconomic contexts that enabled long distance contacts to develop and how local changes affected them through time. My hypothesis is that local, hierarchical changes in Italian and Greek communities had a direct effect on the intensity of Italian-Greek exchange and reciprocal entanglement. I demonstrate that this was indeed the case, and show that contacts during the early stages of the Early Iron Age were less intensive than the previous and subsequent periods because both areas experienced a reduction in social competition. The principal focus of exchange shifted to metals (in the form of raw materials, finished objects and specialised technological and stylistic knowledge) because control over metal exchange and production allowed local leaders to maintain their status. This period was one of stability and gradual growth that by the end of the Early Iron Age had put in motion a positive feedback loop whereby demographic and economic growth sparked renewed social competition which, in turn, fuelled the search for new resources. Locally, this resulted in increased social stratification and the establishment of a powerful elite with ample access to exotic commodities. It also prompted a change in landscape use with settlement expansion, reorganisation and new foundations. On a larger scale, a network of entangled, Mediterranean-wide exchanges was established. Perhaps the most significant consequence of this long-term, macroscopic process was the eventual arrival of Greek settlers to southern Italy. Their success in establishing settlements in an already well-developed territory is due largely to their role as providers of commodities to the local elite.

This thesis focuses on the British Iron Age and challenging the current hypotheses of exposing the dead on five Iron Age sites in Hampshire and one from Dorset, England. Current theories are based on anthropological analogies and classical texts to understand and interpret the burial record. However, this research focused on understanding the formation of the burial record employing a new science-based methodology. This new approach is both integrated and multidisciplinary, combining the osteological and context taphonomic physical or material evidence to discern cultural behaviour from natural processes. The approach utilises a wide range of forensic anthropology and taphonomy, including I 'anthropologie de terrain or archaeothanatology, to identify archaeological signatures from three key and interrelated areas: the remains, the deposition context, and the relationship between the corpse and its deposition circumstance. A new system of categorising Iron Age remains was developed to differentiate funerary and depositional behaviour between sites. The results show that during the Iron Age , several depositional practices can be observed: intentional exposure, propitiatory deposits and intentional practices where the body was kept whole in death which ran in parallel with each another. The research also identified the need to integrate burial data from the outset, including associated finds and stratigraphic evidence in order provide a comprehensive account of funerary and depositional practices.

No description available.

À la fin de l’âge du Fer (IIe et Ier siècle av. n. è.), le quart nord-ouest de la Gaule – plus précisément les régions actuelles de Bretagne et des Pays de la Loire – est subdivisé en plusieurs cités indépendantes. Huit ont fait l’objet d’une attention particulière dans le cadre de cette étude qui consiste à comprendre leur organisation et le rôle des différents sites d’habitats mis en évidence par l’archéologie. Effectivement, ces dernières années, quelques récentes fouilles sont venues enrichir le corpus des habitats groupés fortifiés ou non, à l’exemple de l’oppidum de Moulay ou d’Entrammes en Mayenne, ou encore l’agglomération de Trégueux près de Saint- Brieuc (Côtes-d’Armor), motivant la réalisation de ce travail. Il s’est concentré, dans un premier temps, sur les formes et les fonctions des habitats groupés en complément des nombreuses synthèses déjà existantes sur l’occupation des campagnes à La Tène moyenne et finale, mais également sur la forme et la place des espaces à caractère religieux au sein des territoires. Ces analyses ont permis, dans un second temps, de réfléchir sur les liens économiques, voire administratifs, entre ces divers types de sites et dans le même temps à la structuration sociale des cités et à l’évolution de leurs organisations jusqu’au changement d’ère. Enfin, les principales composantes des territoires de la frange occidentale de la Gaule ont pu être comparées à celles d’autres régions du centre et de l’est de la France – cité des Turons, des Bituriges, des Leuques et des Médiomatriques –, qui ont bénéficié d’approches similaires sur l’occupation des sols. / At the end of the Iron Age (2th to 1st century BC), the northwest of the Gaul (the current region of Bretagne and Pays de la Loire) is subdivided into different cities. Eight of them have been subject to a particular attention within the framework of this study. This one included understanding their organization and the various habitation sites unearth by the archaeology. In fact, these last ten years some recent excavations have now supplemented the corpus of the grouped settlements, enclosed or not, as the oppidum of Moulay or Entrammes in Mayenne, or as Trégueux near Saint-Brieuc, motivating the realization of this work. At first, it focused on the forms and the functions of the grouped settlements as a supplement to the numerous already existing syntheses which deal with the rural occupation in Middle and Late La Tène, but also on the form and the place of spaces with religious characters within territories. Then, these analyses may to think about the economic links, even administrative, between these various types of sites, and at the same time in the social structuring of cities and the evolution of their organizations until the change era. Lastly, the main components of the territories of the western fringe of the Gaul were compared with those of the center or east regions of France, as city of Turons, Bituriges, Leuques and Médiomatriques.

Le travail presenté étudie à l’exemple de la Bohême la question dans quelle mesure la naissance des oppida (ou plus largement la transformation culturelle de la Transalpine à La Tène récente) a-t-elle été influencée par des impulsions venues depuis la Méditerranée et dans quelle mesure, par contre, peut elle être expliquée comme phénomène local. La carte historique et culturelle de la problématique est analysée en détail. La question même est étudiée à travers une analyse du corpus des importations méditerranéennes en Europe Centrale, ciblée à évaluer dans le cadre de l‘Europe centrale le rôle et la position de la Bohême dans les contacts avec la Méditerranée; ensuite les correspondances et différences entre les oppida et les systèmes d’habitat dont ils font partie et les villes méditerranéennes. Les contacts du monde transalpin avec la Méditerranée paraissent constants et très significatifs pour la Transalpie, les oppida se présentent toutefois plutôt comme un phénomène local. / The presented study analyses on the example of Bohemia the question in what extent the creation of oppida (and more broadly the cultural transformation of the Transalpine world in the recent La Tène period) were influenced by Mediterranean impulses and to what extent they may be on the other hand considered as a local phenomenon. The historical and chronological background are studied in detail, the question itself is approached by an analysis of the corpus of Mediterranean imports in central Europe intended to evaluate the role of Bohemia (within the central European context) in the contacts with the Mediterranean. In the concluding chapter the oppida and their settlement systems are confronted with the Mediterranean towns. The contacts with the Mediterranean turn out to have been constant and significant for the Transalpine word, the oppida, however, seem to be a largely local phenomenon.

Reconstruire les manifestations du sacré et les pratiques rituelles et/ou cultuelles de l'Italie méridionale et dela Sicile, au Xème-VIIème siècle av. J. Chr., est un objectif ambitieux parce que on doit aborder des aspectsimmatériels, liés à la spiritualité, pas facilement visibles dans l'évidence archéologique. Choisir, en plus, lapériode de la protohistoire représente une difficulté majeure puisque les sources littéraires sont presquetotalement absentes. L'analyse de la documentation archéologique, axée sur trois direction d'intervention -l'espace ainsi naturel qu'humain, les bâtiments et le mobilier retrouvés - a permis, par contre, d'identifier desmarqueurs cultuels, éléments qui se répètent avec persistance à travers les siècles. Le regard spécifique sur lecontexte est la clé interprétative utilisée pour étudier les trois aspects, avec un nouveau critère, qui n'est pluslié aux classes de la production artisanale, mais plutôt à leur fonctionnalité. La présence du rite et du culte aété détecté dans 166 sites de l'Italie méridionale, reconnus comme des lieux de culte or du rite (anaktora), etanalysée en comparaison avec les établissements et les contextes funéraires de la même période et de lamême aire géographique. Le résultat est une reconstruction du sacré qui vise à offrir un portrait des communautés grecques et indigènes vues dans la sphère du rite. / The reconstruction of the sacred manifestations and of the ritual and/or cult practices in Southern Italy, Sicilyincluded, in the 9th-7th B.C., is an ambitious project, because it is necessary to approach insubstantialaspects, linked to the spirituality, non readable in the archaeological evidence. Choosing, furthermore, theproto-historical period reveals another /a bigger difficulty, since the literary sources are almost absent. Theanalysis of the archaeological documentation, conducted through three research guidelines- the space, bothnatural and human, the buildings and the findings- has created a new interpretative model based on thecultual markers. These are recurring elements, enduring in the centuries, related to the depositional pattern orthe presence of particular objects. The specific attention due to the context is the key factor of the research,which uses a new criterion for the findings analysis, not based on the traditional division of production classes, but on their function. The presence of the rite and of the cult has been detected in 166 sites, identified as cultual places or even ritual places (anaktora), and has been compared with settlements and funerary contexts of the same period and geographical area. The result is the reconstruction of the sacred aspect which aims at giving a portrait of Greek and Indigenous communities in the cult sphere.

Cette recherche vise à déterminer les pratiques funéraires au sein des nécropoles de la région du Talyche (vallée du Lenkoran au sud de l'Azerbaïdjan; nord-ouest de l'Iran) pour les périodes du Bronze Récent jusqu'aux premiers âges du Fer. Grace à Jacques de Morgan, qui a exploré le Caucase à la fin du XIXe s., le Musée d'Archéologie Nationale (MAN) possède aujourd'hui de très importantes/riches collections provenant des nécropoles du Talyche. 23 nécropoles sont examinées dans cette thèse. L'étude typo-chronologique de leur mobilier nous permettra d'une part de caractériser les pratiques funéraires au sein des nécropoles du Talyche, pour la période allant de l'âge du Bronze Récent jusqu'aux premiers âges du Fer et d'autre part de mieux définir la période charnière de la transition entre l'âge du Bronze et l'âge du Fer ainsi que d'éclairer la nature des liens étroits qui unissaient les nécropoles de la région avec les régions voisines d'Iran, du Caucase et d'Anatolie. / The purpose of this study is to determine the funerary practices in necropolises of the Talyche area (Lankaran Valley in southern Azerbaijan, northwestern Iran) for the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age. Thanks to Jacques de Morgan, who explored the Caucasus in the late nineteenth century, The Musée d' Archéologie Nationale (MAN) has now a very important and rich collections from the necropolises of the Talysh area. 23 necropolises are examined in this Ph-D. The typo-chronological study of its artefacts will enable us, first of all, to characterize the funeral practices in the cemeteries of Talysh area for the period of the Late Bronze age to the early Iron age, and secondly to better define the key period of transition between Bronze age and Iron age as well as to clarify the nature of close relationship between the cemeteries of the region with neighboring regions of Iran, Caucasus and Anatolia.

Cette thèse doctorale présente les principaux aspects des pratiques funéraires d’un vaste territoire « transmanche » dit « province médio-atlantique ». Ce travail s’intéresse au second âge du Fer continental ou période de La Tène (milieu du Ve – dernier quart du Ier siècle avant J.-C.) et au Iron Age britannique (fin Ve avant – milieu du Ier siècle après J.-C.). Les analyses des données relatives aux traitements des corps, à l’architecture des sépultures et au mobilier funéraire, mettent en évidence six groupes funéraires « médioatlantiques» et révèlent leurs évolutions spatio-temporelles. Cette étude permet d’appréhender les territoires « transmanches » via leurs particularités du domaine funéraire, mais aussi de visualiser celles des régions voisines de ses marges orientales. / This doctoral thesis presents the funerary practices of a large cross-Channel area, called “Medio-Atlantic province”. This work focuses on the second Iron Age or La Tène period (mid-5th century – last quarter of the 1st century BC) and the British Iron Age (late 5th century BC – mid-1st century AD). The analyses of the data on the treatments of the bodies, the funerary architecture and the grave-goods highlight six “Medio-Atlantic” funerary groups and expose their spatial and temporal evolution. This study allows to understand the main funerary features of Cross-Channel areas, as well as other funerary groups in theirs eastern margins.