Amazing stuff! Our ancestors recognized that the French Riviera is a nice place to be! 😊
As so many times, this archaeological dig is in a race against time!
"A rare archaeological discovery reveals one of France’s very first Neolithic settlements, attributed to the Early Cardial period. On France’s Riviera, excavations conducted by the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research, Inrap, are currently in progress at Cavalaire-sur-Mer. In advance of an urban renewal program for the city center, the State has requested this massive preventive excavation, covering a 4,200-square-meter zone, which began in May and is expected to continue until late January.
The Neolithic period along the Mediterranean coastline represents a transformative chapter in human history: transitioning from a nomadic lifestyle to a sedentary one, characterized by agriculture and livestock farming. Just as its name suggests, in the Early Cardial period—around 5800 BCE—the period is characterized by pottery decorated with impressions made using the serrated edges of Cardial shells. This ‘cultural current,’ believed to have originated in Anatolia, spread rapidly across the coasts of Greece, southern Italy, and eventually into southern France.
The importance of the settlement at Cavalaire-sur-Mer is that it is the second known site of this period in France. Similarities to earlier finds in Greece, Slovenia, and central Italy confirm that the original impetus for this cultural diffusion came from the east and that it played a very significant part in the introduction of agro-pastoral economies into Europe.
Beneath a four-meter layer of alluvial deposits in a small coastal valley, archaeologists found a building that dated from the Early Cardial period. Its position, 1.3 meters beneath Middle Neolithic occupation layers dated to ca. 4800 BCE, confirmed its age. The building had two parallel stone walls and a small apse, now badly eroded. The area measured approximately 7 by 5 meters, and the walls were reinforced with a mixture of raw earth and gravel, resulting in dense diagnostic sediment. ..."
À Cavalaire (Var), la plus ancienne maison néolithique de Provence (original news release)
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