Abstract
Pendimoun rock-shelter is among the oldest Neolithic sites known on the French littoral (Impressa culture, since ca. 5700 bce). It was discontinuously occupied from the Mesolithic to the end of the Neolithic. During the Neolithic, it was used for pastoral purposes and domestic activities as well as for pottery production. Agriculture and cereal processing are clearly attested during the Impressa occupation (grains, husk and straw macroremains, grindstones) and become less obvious in the overlying layers. Phytolith analysis concerned 1 Mesolithic sample (Sauveterrian culture) and 16 samples covering most of the 6th millennium bce (Impressa, Cardial, and transition to Early Square Mouthed Pottery—SMP cultures). Significant amounts of grass phytoliths and the scarcity of dicot phytoliths suggest that the livestock, whose dung constitutes an important part of the sediment, mainly fed on wild grasses. Inflorescence bract phytoliths are well represented only in the Impressa levels, confirming that cereals were partly processed in situ only during the earliest stages of the Neolithic. Amounts of Bilobate short cells proved to be higher than expected in an area where only a few panicoid species can grow. The three candidates for Bilobate phytolith producers (Setaria spp., Digitaria sanguinalis, Echinochloa crus-galli) all have a short vegetation cycle that lies entirely between the end of spring and the beginning of autumn, suggesting that the shelter was mainly used during that period. The low amount of inflorescence bract phytoliths (except during the Impressa) seems to restrict that range to the period before the ears become mature, namely the end of spring or early summer.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Albert RM, Weiner S (2001) Study of phytoliths in prehistoric ash layers using a quantitative approach. In: Meunier JD, Colin F (eds) Phytoliths: applications in earth sciences and human history. Balkema Publishers, Lisse, pp 251–266
Alexandre A, Meunier JD, Lézine AM, Vincens A, Schwartz D (1997) Phytoliths: indicators of grassland dynamics during the Late Holocene in intertropical Africa. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 136:213–229
Angelucci DE, Boschian G, Fontanals M, Pedrotti A, Vergès JM (2009) Shepherds and karst: the use of caves and rockshelters in the Mediterranean region during the Neolithic. World Archaeol 41:191–214
Arobba D, Caramiello R (2009) Indagini archeobotaniche sul deposito neolitico del Ripario di Pian del Ciliegio. Quad Mus Archeol Finale 5:117–130
Ball T, Vrydaghs L, Mercer T, Pearce M, Snyder S, Lisztes-Szabó Z, Petõ Á (2017) A morphometric study of variance in articulated dendritic phytolith wave lobes within selected species of Triticeae and Aveneae. Veget Hist Archaeobot 26:85–97
Basso E, Binder D, Messiga B, Riccardi MP (2006) The Neolithic pottery of Abri Pendimoun (Castellar, France): a petro-archaeometric study. In: Maggetti M, Messiga B (eds) Geomaterials in cultural heritage. Geological Society Special Publications 257. The Geological Society, London, pp 33–48
Battentier J (2018) Gestion des espaces forestiers provençaux et ligures au Néolithique: approche anthracologique. PhD Thesis, Université Côte d’Azur
Battentier J, Thiébault S, Binder D, Théry-Parisot I, Carré A, Delhon C (2015) L’abri Pendimoun (Castellar, Alpes-Maritimes): nouvelles données sur l’évolution du couvert forestier et l’exploitation du milieu au Néolithique (5800–2000 ans cal. bce). Quaternaire 26:277–290
Battentier J, Lepère C, Théry-Parisot I, Carré A, Delhon C (2016) La grotte de Pertus II (Méailles, Alpes-de-haute-Provence): exploitation du couvert forestier au chasséen récent (3850–3650 cal. bc). In: Cauliez J, Sénépart I, Jallot L, de Labriffe P-A, Gilabert C, Gutherz X (eds) « De la tombe au territoire » & Actualité de la Recherche. Actes des 11e Rencontres Méridionales de Préhistoire Récente, Montpellier (Hérault) 2014. Archives d’Écologie Préhistorique, Toulouse, pp 223–232
Beeching A, Berger J-F, Brochier JL, Ferber F, Helmer D, Sidi Maamar H (2000) Chasséens: agriculteurs ou éleveurs, sédentaires ou nomades? Quels types de milieux, d’économies et de sociétés? In: Leduc M, Valdeyron N, Vaquer J (eds) Sociétés et Espaces, Rencontres méridionales de Préhistoire récente. Archives d’Écologie Préhistorique, Toulouse, pp 59–79
Binder D (1991) Une économie de chasse au néolithique ancien: La grotte Lombard à Saint-Vallier-de-Thiey (Alpes-Maritimes). Monographies du Centre de Recherches Archéologiques 5. CNRS, Paris
Binder D, Brochier J-E, Duday H, Helmer D, Marinval P, Thiébault S, Wattez J (1993) L’abri Pendimoun (Castellar, Alpes-Maritimes): nouvelles données sur le complexe culturel de la céramique imprimée méditerranéenne dans son contexte stratigraphique. Gall Préhist 35:177–251
Binder D, Lanos P, Angeli L et al (2017) Modelling the earliest north-western dispersal of the Mediterranean Impressed Wares: new dates and Bayesian chronological model. Doc Praehist 44:54–77
Binder D, Battentier J, Bouby L et al (in press) First farming in the North-Western Mediterranean: evidences from Castellar–Pendimoun during the 6th millennium bce. In: Gron KJ, Sørensen L, Rowley-Conwy P (eds) Farmers at the frontier: a Pan-European perspective on Neolithisation. Oxbow Books, Oxford
Bréhard S, Beeching A, Vigne J-D (2010) Shepherds, cowherds and site function on Middle Neolithic sites of the Rhône Valley: an archaeozoological approach to the organization of territories and societies. J Anthropol Archaeol 29:179–188
Brown DA (1984) Prospects and limits of a phytolith key for grasses in the Central United States. J Archaeol Sci 11:345–368
Cabanes D, Burjachs F, Expósito I, Rodríguez A, Allué E, Euba I, Vergès JM (2009) Formation processes through archaeobotanical remains: the case of the Bronze Age levels in El Mirador Cave, Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain. Quat Int 193:160–173
Delhon C (2010) Phytolithes et taphonomie, apport de l’expérimentation à la quantification des phytolithes dans les cendres de bois. In: Théry-Parisot I, Chabal L, Costamagno S (eds) Taphonomie des résidus organiques brûlés et des structures de combustion en milieu archéologique. P@lethnologie 2. Université Jean-Jaurès, Toulouse, pp 97–107
Delhon C (2014) Analyse phytolithique des niveaux de bergerie du Néolithique (coupes stratigraphiques S30 et S32). In: Nicod P-Y, Picavet R (eds) Fouille archéologique de la Grande Rivoire à Sassenage (Isère), rapport de fouille 2012–2014. Lampea, Aix-en Provence, pp 387–389
Delhon C, Martin L, Argant J, Thiebault S (2008) Shepherds and plants in the Alps: multi-proxy archaeobotanical analysis of Neolithic dung from “La Grande Rivoire” (Isère, France). J Archaeol Sci 35:2,937–2,952
Fredlund GG, Tieszen LL (1997) Calibrating grass phytolith assemblages in climatic terms: application to Late Pleistocene assemblages from Kansas and Nebraska. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 136:199–211
Gomart L, Weiner A, Gabriele M et al (2017) Spiralled patchwork in pottery manufacture and the introduction of farming to Southern Europe. Antiquity 91:1,501–1,514
Guilaine J, Manen C, Vigne JD (2007) Pont de Roque-Haute (Portiragnes, Hérault). Nouveaux regards sur la néolithisation de la France méditerranéenne. Archives d’Écologie Préhistorique, Toulouse
Harvey EL, Fuller DQ (2005) Investigating crop processing using phytolith analysis: the example of rice and millets. J Archaeol Sci 32:739–752
ICPT: Neumann K, Albert RM, Ball T, Scott Cummings L, Strömberg C, Vrydaghs L (in press) International Code for Phytolith Nomenclature (ICPN) 2.0. Ann Bot. https://phytoliths.org/the-new-code-for-phytolith-nomenclature-version-2-0-will-soon-be-published/
Institut Technique de l’Agriculture Biologique (2012) Connaitre les adventices pour les maîtriser en grandes cultures sans herbicides - Annuelles germination d’été. http://www.itab.asso.fr/downloads/desherb-meca/dm-brochure-adventices_6_ete.pdf. Accessed 1 Dec 2015
Kibblewhite M, Tóth G, Hermann T (2015) Predicting the preservation of cultural artefacts and buried material in soil. Sci Total Environ 529:249–263
Kondo R, Childs CW, Atkinson I (1994) Opal phytoliths of New Zealand. Manaaki Whenua Press, Lincoln
Lancelotti C, Balbo AL, Madella M et al (2014) The missing crop: investigating the use of grasses at Els Trocs, a Neolithic cave site in the Pyrenees (1564 m asl). J Archaeol Sci 42:456–466
Martin L (2014) Premiers paysans des Alpes. Alimentation végétale et agriculture au Néolithique. Tables des Hommes. Presses Universitaires de Rennes, Rennes
Martin L, Delhon C, Argant J, Thiébault S (2011) Un aperçu de l’élevage au Néolithique par l’archéobotanique. L’exemple d’une bergerie dans le Nord du Vercors. In: Lefèvre C, Denis B (eds) Le mouton, de la domestication à l’élevage. Ethnozootechnie 91. Société d’Ethnozootechnie, Toul, pp 37–45
Nisbet R (1997) The phytoliths from the Neolithic levels of Arene Candide. In: Maggi R (ed) Arene Candide: a functional and environmental assessment of the Holocene Sequence (Excavations Bernabo’ Brea-Cardini1940-50). Memorie dell’Istituto Italiano di Paletnologia Umana 5. Ministero per i Beni Culturali e Ambientali, Roma, pp 113–118
Novello A, Barboni D (2015) Grass inflorescence phytoliths of useful species and wild cereals from Sub-Saharan Africa. J Archaeol Sci 59:10–22
Ollendorf AL, Mulholland SC, Rapp G Jr (1988) Phytolith analysis as a means of plant identification: Arundo donax and Phragmites communis. Ann Bot 61:209–214
Parry DW, Smithson F (1966) Opaline silica in the inflorescences of some British grasses and cereals. Ann Bot 30:25–538
Portillo M, Kadowaki S, Nishiaki Y, Albert RM (2014) Early Neolithic household behavior at Tell Seker al-Aheimar (Upper Khabur, Syria): a comparison to ethnoarchaeological study of phytoliths and dung spherulites. J Archaeol Sci 42:107–118
Rojo Guerra M, Peña Chocarro L, Royo Guillén JI et al (2013) Pastores trashumantes del Neolítico antiguo en un entorno de alta montaña: secuencia crono-cultural de la Cova de Els Trocs (San Feliú de Veri Huesca). BSAA Arqueol 79:9–55
Rosen A (1992) Preliminary identification of silica skeletons from near eastern archaeological sites: an anatomical approach. In: Rapp G Jr, Mulholland SC (eds) Phytolith systematics: emerging issues. Plenum Press, New York, pp 129–147
Rovner I (1971) Potential of opal phytoliths for use in paleoecological reconstruction. Quat Res 1:343–359
Rowley-Conwy P (1991) Arene Candide: a small part of a larger pastoral system? Riv studi liguri 56:89–112
Rowley-Conwy P, Gourichon L, Helmer D, Vigne J-D (2013) Early domestic animals in Italy, Istria, the Tyrrhenian Islands and southern France. In: Colledge S, Conolly J, Dobney K, Manning K, Shennan S (eds) The origins and spread of domestic animals in southwest Asia and Europe. Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek, pp 161–194
Scurfield G, Anderson CA, Segnit ER (1974) Silica in woody stems. Aust J Bot 22:211–229
Thiébault S (2005) L’apport du fourrage d’arbre dans l’élevage depuis le Néolithique. Anthropozoologica 40:95–108
Twiss PC (1992) Predicted world distribution of C3 and C4 grass phytoliths. In: Rapp G Jr, Mulholland SC (eds) Phytolith systematics: emerging issues. Plenum Press, New York, pp 113–128
Twiss PC, Suess E, Smith RM (1969) Morphological classification of grass phytoliths. Soil Sci Soc Am J 33:109–115
Zemour A, Binder D, Coppa A, Duday H (2016) La sépulture au début du Néolithique (VIe millénaire et première moitié du Ve millénaire cal bc) en France méridionale et en Italie: de l’idée d’une » simple « fosse à une typologie architecturale. Bull Mém Soc d’Anthropol Paris 29:94–111
Acknowledgements
This paper is based on a lecture presented at the 10th International Meeting of Phytolith Research, held in Aix-en-Provence in September 2016. We wish to thank the organizers of the meeting, Doris Barboni, Jean-Dominique Meunier, Anne Alexandre and Marine Pasturel, as well as the Scientific Committee for giving us the opportunity to present our work. The authors are grateful to two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on the manuscript and to Katharina Neumann for drawing our attention on the newly completed ICPN 2.0 and for providing significant improvements concerning phytolith nomenclature.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Communicated by K. Neumann.
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Delhon, C., Binder, D., Verdin, P. et al. Phytoliths as a seasonality indicator? The example of the Neolithic site of Pendimoun, south-eastern France. Veget Hist Archaeobot 29, 229–240 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-019-00739-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-019-00739-0