Un site d'habitat du Néolithique ancien à Vénizel "Le Creulet" (Aisne)

International audienceThis article presents the results of excavation in 2007 and 2009 of an early Neolithic settlement located on the alluvial plain of the river Aisne at Vénizel "Le Creulet" (Picardy, France). The discovery of this site provides additional evidence for a dense pattern of early Neolithic settlement in the part of the Aisne valley between Soissons and Missy-sur-Aisne. A total of nine pits were excavated. Three are lateral pits associated with an incomplete houseplan. The other pits may have belonged to houses whose post-holes have not been preserved. As all these features were found on the edge of the excavated area, the original size of the settlement is unknown. The pit fills produced quite low quantities of finds. The analysis of the flint industry indicates two periods of occupation on the site, the earlier dating to the very end of the Seine basin Linear Pottery sequence and the later to Blicquy/Villeneuve-Saint-Germain. The main distinguishing traits here are blade modules and raw materials. The small amount of pottery evidence is in accord with this chrono-cultural attribution. The faunal data point to consumption mainly of caprines in the earlier occupation, and cattle in the later period. These trends, which are well attested on other sites in the region, fit the dating proposed on the basis of the flint industry. The pits also contained fragments of sandstone macrolithic tools, together with some manufacturing or maintenance flakes. Soil samples from pit fills were analysed for charcoal and carbonised plant remains. Around thirty charcoal fragments were identified (oak, Maloideae, alder, elm), as well as three wheat grain