Le mobilier de la sépulture collective de La Chaussée-Tirancourt (Somme)

"La Chaussée-Tirancourt” (Somme), excavated between 1967 and 1972, is one of the most famous collective graves in the Paris Basin. Thanks to the good preservation of the monument and to the quality of the excavation and registration of data, it is possible to relate the history of burial practices as well as the chronology of artefacts deposition. No less than 300 individuals were buried within this grave, over more than a millennium: between circa 3 400 BC and circa 2 000 BC. During this long period funeral practices were not constant. They can be divided into two phases (Leclerc and Masset, this volume): during the first period the bodies were deposited in the centre of the burial chamber whereas in the second period they were distributed in separate boxes or cists, each independent of the others. Following re-examination of the finds and study of their spatial distribution (in both the grave and stratigraphy), we can better understand the evolution of funeral practices in La Chaussée-Tirancourt. The grave goods are not abundant when we consider the number of individuals buried there. They consist of pottery (one small complete pot, the greater part of another one, one bottom and sherds), bone industry (four antler axe sleeves, four awls), flint industry (one axe, one transverse arrowhead, two retouched blades, two pyrites and flakes) and ornaments (two copper beads, two pierced teeth, one small pierced axe, one shell and two pins in bone or antler). The location of artefacts shows that pottery, axe sleeves and flint axes are found most of the time in the entrance of the grave although the flint industry and ornaments come from the burial layer. According to the stratigraphy and to the relative chronology of the finds we can argue that the deposits of the antechamber and the entrance of the burial chamber were older than the ones of the burial area. Moreover the significance of the first deposits is rather "collective” and "symbolic”, whereas the significance of the latest ones is "individual”. The chronological evolution of the deposited artefacts found can be divided into three main phases. At the end of the 4th millennium BC three axe sleeves and a pot were deposited in the monumental antechamber of the grave. These gifts probably had a symbolic significance, in connection with the founding of the tomb. Then the antechamber was abandoned and the same kind of collective assemblage deposited in the entrance of the burial chamber: a pot and an axe sleeve containing its flint axe. At the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC we can observe a change within the collective finds: a pottery is in contact with a "monumental object”, which is only known by negative traces, in the burial area. Although the interpretation of this deposit is difficult, its signification may differ from that of the first phase. Finally, the third period starts a complete change in the funerary practices. At the end of the first half of the 3rd millennium the "monumental object” disappears, people no longer care about collective gifts, as the importance of the "individual equipment” (especially ornaments) increases. This third phase corresponds to the establishment of new burial practices, "boxes” or cists that separate individuals or families within the burial chamber. It introduces a new concept in collective graves at the end of the 3rd millennium BC: individuality. The artefacts of La Chaussée-Tirancourt, the composition of assemblages and their spatial distribution is typical of the collective graves of the Paris Basin at the end of the Neolithic (Sohn, 2002). La Chaussée-Tirancourt offers a good example of the evolution of funeral practises in the 3rd millennium BC, especially with regard to the transition from collective to individual burial.Le mobilier de la sépulture collective de La Chaussée-Tirancourt (Somme) témoigne d’un millénaire et demi d’évolution de la pratique funéraire à la fin du Néolithique. L’attribution culturelle et chronologique des objets, leur distribution spatiale et leur position en stratigraphie permettent d’esquisser une évolution des dépôts en trois phases. À la fin du 4e millénaire av. J.-C. ont lieu des dépôts collectifs stéréotypés (vase et gaine de hache) dans l’entrée du monument. Ces dépôts collectifs évoluent, dans les débuts du 3e millénaire, vers le dépôt d’un seul vase auprès d’un objet monumental "énigmatique" dans la partie antérieure de la chambre sépulcrale. La troisième phase, correspondant à la seconde moitié du 3e millénaire, marque la rupture la plus brutale puisque les offrandes collectives disparaissent au profit d’un équipement individuel plus fourni, composé presque essentiellement de parure. Cette phase est synchrone de l’établissement de cellules d’inhumations dites "cases" dans la chambre sépulcrale et marque un changement majeur dans les pratiques funéraires. Cette évolution des dépôts de mobilier en plusieurs étapes, du collectif vers l’individuel, inscrit La Chaussée-Tirancourt dans les traditions funéraires des sépultures collectives du Bassin parisien à la fin du Néolithique.Sohn Maïténa. Le mobilier de la sépulture collective de La Chaussée-Tirancourt (Somme). In: Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française, tome 103, n°1, 2006. pp. 117-131