Supplement 4 - ISSN 2101-3608 - ISBN 978-2-9552594-1-2 - publication date: 2017 - number of pages: 285

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THE LATE BRONZE AGE CREMATION CEMETERY AT CHÂTEAU-LANDON "LE CAMP" (SEINE-ET-MARNE)

Directed by Emmanuelle du BOUËTIEZ de KERORGUEN, Sylvie PLUTON-KLIESCH and Daniel SIMONIN

with the collaboration of Bernard GRATUZE, Jean-Marie PERNAUD and Anne TRESSET

The cemetery at Château-Landon "le Camp" was excavated in 1996-1997 prior to the building of the A77 motorway. It is situated in the south-east of the Paris basin on the eastern border of the Gâtinais beauceron plateau on a spur that dominates the confluence of the Loing and Fusain rivers. The grave goods of the 53 cremations burials date the cemetery to the middle phase of the Late Bronze Age or more accurately to the last decades of the 12th century BC and the first half of the 11th century BC. The typology of the tombs suggests a hierarchy based on their relative intricacies and on their material wealth. It is also possible to perceive in the tombs’ layout an evolution over a relatively short period time. This cemetery bears similar traits to others that are of a slightly earlier date. Indeed, data from funerary contexts in the south-east of the Paris basin including evolving practices, the stylistic renewel of the pottery and land occupation shows a smooth transition from the early to the middle phase of the Late Bronze Age. This analysis brings into question the diffusionist hypothesis that the "Rhin-Suisse-France orientale" styled pottery originating from the innovative pole centred in the Middle Rhine valley swept across Northeastern Europe towards the South-West. It invites us to reconsider this question from a different perspective by taking into consideration more local evolutionary dynamics.