Potters and houses. From production cycles to settlement dynamics in the early Neolithic sites of the Paris Basin (France)

Résumé En

Excavations carried out over the past 40 years in the Aisne valley (Picardy, France) have yielded over a dozen LBK sites characterized by housing units with virtually no overlap, allowing for detailed analyses of their associated domes- tic assemblages. This context is an ideal case study for discussing the production and distribution cycles of pottery at the house level. Using the concept of chaîne opératoire to address pottery biography, this paper aims at recon- structing the sequences of technical gestures implemented by the early Neolithic potters, from the selection and preparation of raw materials to forming, finishing and firing in order to reveal technical traditions transmitted within learning networks. The combination in this study of petrographical, micro- and macroscopic surface and section analyses (notably using micro-tomography and microfabrics) allows for a high-resolution tracing of those learning networks in time and space at the scale of the Aisne valley, revealing the trajectories of distinct groups of producers in the various settlements and houses.