Grinding tools can be considered as markers of the technical traditions and of the socio-economic organisation of the earliest Neolithic populations of north-western Europe. The study of grinding tool management can be viewed from both technical and spatial perspectives. The association of grinding tools with different contexts (e.g. rubbish pits, storage pits, hoards, graves) illuminates the use and ritual practices that may suggest an agricultural identity and a specific diet for the Linearbandkeramik and Villeneuve-Saint-Germain populations. Such observations demonstrate also that the domestic area is a functional space organised and managed communally, possibly following specific domestic practices and customs. This study contributes to a better understanding of the way of life encountered in Early Neolithic settlements of the Paris Basin. The comparison with the different ritual contexts also suggests that a shift in the symbolic expression of the new agricultural order was taking place on the margins of the latest Linearbandkeramik expansion.
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Last updated: Wed Jul 1 2009