Technical and cultural characterization of the ceramics of the Lacustre de Conjux 3 (Lake Bourget, Savoie) The final Neolithic of the Savoyard foreland in question

Final Neolithic ceramic assemblages are still rare in the northern French Alps. Since the excavation of Les Baigneurs (Charavines, Isere) in the 1970s, the only important sites to complete the documentation are those of Parc La Grange (Geneva, Switzerland) and Les Balmes (Sollieres-Sardieres, Savoie). Although inclusions are sometimes described, none of these sets have been studied with regard to modelling and finishing techniques. This article presents unpublished sets from a stratified pile-dwelling site, which was studied from both technical and stylistic points of view. These data are compared with smaller ceramic sets, also unpublished, from other pile dwellings in Savoy. A wider contextualization allows the studied site to be replaced within the cultural dynamics of the second half of the Final Neolithic. In 1985, a test pit in Lake Bourget, on the submerged pile dwelling Conjux 3 (La Chatiere, Conjux, Savoie), revealed a stratigraphy going back to the Final Neolithic, and comprising three superposed levels defined by a series of radiocarbon and dendrochronological dates (levels 1, 2sup and 2inf). A Bayesian model based on the seven most reliable dates leads to the following chronological steps: - 2905 to - 2660 cal. BC (level 2inf), - 2750 to - 2570 cal. BC (level 2sup), and - 2580 to - 2455 cal. BC (level 1). Nearly 29 kg of ceramic fragments were found in these layers. The large number of assemblies has identified 73 stratigraphically related units, with 40 incomplete bowls. Coarse-ware jars - cylindrical, ovoid or barrel-shaped - mainly prevail in the corpus. Their lip is generally rounded and is, in a few cases, decorated with tool impressions. Frequent plastic ornaments are protruding horizontal strips and smooth cords, which may be single or multiple. Technical study of the pottery shows a quasi-systematic use of crystalline inclusions, mainly composed of crushed granitic stone in level 2 and crystalline sand in level 1, practices that seem clearly related to traditions found on the Swiss Plateau. The body and neck are mainly built by coiling, using stretched coils with oblique alternating joins, as in the contemporary pottery of the Jura groups. The exterior surface of many bowls is treated by burnishing or by polishing which has left no traces. Partially oxidizing firing dominates, even though some vessels that may have been made by firing in a reducing atmosphere - mainly small bowls with fine walls - occur in level 2inf and, less frequently, in the other levels. Finally, burnt residues are numerous and attest to the culinary use of most of the large pots. Morphological comparisons show northern influences from the Swiss Plateau in the two lower levels. Influences from the Treilles group (Causses region) can also be detected, while relations with Jura groups (Clairvaux and Chalain) seem more tenuous. The assemblage from level 2inf is thus transitory between the Luscherz group and the groups without ornamentation from the middle Rhone Valley. Level 2sup points to a limited impact of the first Auvernier-Corded Ware phase, while a vessel with a reduced opening recalls some Italian influence. Pottery from level 1 no longer participates in the evolution of the Auvernier-Corded Ware, but rather shows links with ceramics from the upper levels of Charavines, and points to the development of a local group in a more southern tradition. These hypotheses are quite compatible with the chronological steps indicated by the Bayesian model. The series from Conjux 3 are compared with small unpublished ceramic sets from the pile-dwelling settlements of the Bourget and Annecy lakes. Around Lake Bourget, the settlements of Sous-le-Four and Memars 1 (Brison-Saint-Innocent, Savoie) and Les Bourres (Tresserve, Savoie) delivered bowls and dates similar to those of Conjux. Technically, a clear division can be observed between sets from the north of the lake, characterized by dominant crystalline inclusions, and Les Bourres, on the southern shore, with carbonated inclusions mainly composed of crushed calcite. Other indications towards stronger southern influences can be seen in the morphology of the ceramics from the southern shore of Lake Bourget. The use of crushed calcite, already known around the 30th century at Angon (Talloires, Haute-Savoie), is dated to between the 26th century and the first half of the 24th century at Les Bourres (Tresserve, Savoie). This practice, of southern origin, seems to cover a fairly wide area between the Rhone and the inner Alpine valleys in the course of the second third of the third millennium. The Final Neolithic phase at Conjux 3 points to the gradual fading of northern influences during the first half of the third millennium, to the north of Lake Bourget. The strong relations with the recent Luscherz were followed by more limited northern relations during the early phase of Auvernier-Corded Ware, then by a quite clear break (although less visible in the technical aspects). The rise of influences from Southern France and Italy is probably one of the causes of this evolution, as can be seen in the levels at La Chauve-Souris (Donzere, Drome) and the two successive assemblages from Les Baigneurs, Charavines. The apparent reluctance to call on ornaments, whether of southern, Jura, or northern origin, and the use of crystalline inclusions are characteristics shared by Conjux 3 and Les Baigneurs, Charavines. Other stylistic similarities can be observed in pottery from these two sites, but the present state of studies of the collections does not allow an exact definition of their relations. The importance of northern influences in the pottery from Charavines and other cultural groups with non-decorated ceramics from the middle Rhone Valley (Les Bruyeres, Allan, Drome) is still subject to discussion. Even if they do not allow this question to be brought to a close, the assemblages from Conjux 3 provide a welcome geographical marker to help in understanding relations with the Swiss Plateau during the first third of the third millennium, and emphasize a northern filiation concerning the use of crystalline inclusions frequently found at Charavines.