Structure et identité des styles céramiques du Néolithique ancien entre Rhône et Èbre

The advance of archaeological research ceaselessly demonstrates the important polymorphism that characterizes the first agro- pastoral communities in Southern France, and, on a larger scale, in the Western Mediterranean. Through the construction of a referential corpus of homogenous ceramic assemblages and the treatment of their stylistic characteristics by quantitative analysis, a new framework is suggested for the Early Neolithic between Rhône and Ebro river. This scheme includes three main chronological phases. In the first one, impressed wares appear along the Languedocian and Catalonian coastlines with various stylistic characteristics suggesting a multiplicity of origins. The second identified phase concerns the parallel evolution of two ceramic styles, Recent Cardial and Early Epicardial, the origins of which are being discussed. The third and last chronological phase shows a stylistic homogeneity in ceramic decoration in opposition to the previous phase. The geographical extension of Recent Epicardial shows, with farming and herding plans, an exploitation of territories more and more distant from the coastline. Finally we observe a consolidation of the economic system and the first steps of exchanges networks which will greatly increase during the fourth millenium before Christ.