engleski

Who built the dolmen? The contribution of ceramic provenance study o the understanding of 3rd millennium BC megalithic cemetery of Petit- Chasseur (Sion, Switzerland)

The megalithic cemetery of Petit-Chasseur (Sion, Western Switzerland) is one of the most important prehistoric funerary contexts of Central Europe. The site has been used throughout the Final Neolithic (2800-2450 BC), the Bell Beaker period (2450-2200 BC), and early Bronze Age (2200-1600 BC). The study and classification of the pottery played a key role in defining the cultural identity of prehistoric communities, but, as of yet, did not allow to establish a link with the known settlement sites. In this contribution, we present the results of the multi-element chemical analysis of both Petit-Chasseur pottery and geological materials. Sediment samples were collected from different areas of the Upper Rhône valley, putting an accent to the locations in the vicinity of the known settlement sites. Raw geochemical data obtained by means of the Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) and Laser Ablation ICP-MS were subjected to multivariate statistical techniques including the Principal Component Analysis and Linear Discriminant Analysis in order to define possible sources of clayey raw materials. The diverse elemental concentration patterns revealed the use of different types of clay sources in the pottery production taking into account not only a diachronic point of view but also a synchronic one. The conclusion thus emerges pointing out the idea of people coming from different parts of the Upper Rhône valley to gather at the site of Petit-Chasseur, which suggests its role as a political and ceremonial center in addition to the burial function it had as a megalithic cemetery. An in-depth ceramic study is therefore proven to be necessary to thoroughly reconstruct the history of the Petit-Chasseur site adding to our understanding of its significance for prehistoric communities.

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