From the use of things to the status of the dead: Téviec and Hoëdic (Brittany)

International audienceWhen discovered in the 1920s and 1930s in southern Brittany (France), the cemeteries of Téviec and Hoëdic were immediately attributed to a Mesolithic phase predating the "dolmen builders". The great variety of objects that accompanied the skeletons, assembled in complex rituals, have significantly enhanced our understanding of these coastal communities. Based on the distribution of objects in the various single and multiple primary burials, previous works attempted to assess the social status of individuals, exploring gender differentiation and evidence for social hierarchy. The disturbance of material within each grave inevitably placed limitations on this research. Since then, critical examination of earlier radiocarbon dating combined with new direct dating has demonstrated the scale of bias that absolute chronology has created. The new phase of research on these sites, presented here, includes a revision of the funerary goods. Slightly modified anatomical parts of deer, antler knapping-tools, tooth pendants, bone points, flint blades and arrowheads, stone pebbles or hammers, as well as shell beads, all are common objects found in association with the skeletons in the recorded 23 burial pits of Téviec and Hoëdic. Such variety in grave offerings has made it possible to address their social, technical, economic and/or symbolic meaning. Prior use of some objects contrasts with the commissioning of others: information that has been obtained thanks to a new programme of technological and functional studies. By establishing the biography of each object through such analyses, and by integrating results from across different classes of artefacts, new perspectives have emerged on the links between the dead and the living at the end of the Mesolithic