Luc Laporte

News From the West: Ancient DNA From a French Megalithic Burial Chamber

Recent paleogenetic studies have confirmed that the spread of the Neolithic across Europe was neither genetically nor geographically uniform. To extend existing knowledge of the mitochondrial European Neolithic gene pool, we examined six samples of human skeletal material from a French megalithic long mound (c.4200 cal BC). We retrieved HVR-I sequences from three individuals and demonstrated that in the Neolithic period the mtDNA haplogroup N1a, previously only known in central Europe, was as widely distributed as western France. Alternative scenarios are discussed in seeking to explain this result, including Mesolithic ancestry, Neolithic demic diffusion, and long-distance matrimonial exchanges. In light of the limited Neolithic ancient DNA (aDNA) data currently available, we observe that all three scenarios appear equally consistent with paleogenetic and archaeological data. In consequence, we advocate caution in interpreting aDNA in the context of the Neolithic transition in Europe. Nevertheless, our results strengthen conclusions demonstrating genetic discontinuity between modern and ancient Europeans whether through migration, demographic or selection processes, or social practices.

Long Mounds and Megalithic Origins in Western France: Recent Excavations at Prisse-la-Charriere

The ancestry of the long mound has long been a key focus in debates on the origins of monumental and megalithic architectures in western France. Typological schemes and absolute dates have alike been invoked in support of different models of monument development, but with limited success. Recent excavations at Prisse-la-Charriere, a 100-metre long mound in the Poitou-Charentes region, have emphasised the importance of internal structure and the complex process of modification and accretion by which many long mounds achieved their final form and dimensions. Excavations have revealed an early megalithic chamber in a dry-stone rotunda, that was progressively incorporated in a short long mound, then in the 100 m long mound we see today, which contains at least two further chamber tombs. The wide range of monument forms present in western and northern France during the 5th millennium BC suggests that the issue of monument origins must be viewed in a broad inter-regional perspective, within which a number of individual elements could be combined in a variety of different ways. Consideration of seven specific elements, including the shape of the mound, the position and accessibility of the chamber, and the significance of above-ground tomb chambers as opposed to graves or pits leads us to propose a polygenic model for the origins of the long mounds and related monuments of western France.

Neolithic Houses and Chambered Tombs of Western France

The Neolithic tombs of northern Europe have often been presented as built in the image of the hous e of the dead. We wish to discuss here the different terms of this proposition in the light of recent discoveries concerning the domestic habitat in western France, whence we draw most of the architectural examples — both funerary and domestic.

Megalithic monumentality in Africa: from graves to stone circles at Wanar, Senegal

The World Heritage Site of Wanar in Senegal features 21 stone circles, remarkable not least because they were erected in the twelfth and thirteenth century AD, when Islam ruled the Indian Ocean and Europe was in its Middle Ages. The state of preservation has benefited the exemplary investigation currently carried out by a French-Senegalese team, which we are pleased to report here. The site began as a burial ground to which monumental stones were added, perhaps echoing the form of original funerary houses. Found in a neighbouring field were scoops left from the cutting out of the cylindrical monoliths from surface rock. While the origins of Wanar lie in a period of state formation, the monuments are shown to have had a long ritual use. The investigation not only provides a new context for one of the most important sites in West Africa but the precise determination of the sequence and techniques used at Wanar offers key pointers for the understanding of megalithic structures everywhere.

Natural and artificial colours: the megalithic monuments of Brittany

Abstract Megalithic art is a well-known feature of the Neolithic chambered tombs of Atlantic Europe. The surviving evidence consists largely of carved motifs, and, until recently, painted megalithic art was thought to be restricted to western Iberia. Recent discoveries have expanded that distribution, assisted by new methods of detection, recording and analysis. The discovery of painted motifs at Barnenez in Brittany, reported here, marks a breakthrough and raises the possibility that many megalithic tombs in north-west Europe were once coloured as well as carved. Similarities in motifs and techniques also point to the likelihood of direct connections with Iberia.

L’Art et la manière : Approche technologique des céramiques de dépôt dans le mégalithisme sénégambien – Le cas de la nécropole de Wanar (Sénégal)

Among the many characteristics of the Senegalese and Gambian megalithic phenomenon, the deposition of pottery on the eastern edge of funerary structures is a recurrent practice present throughout the excavated sites. In the western part of the megalithic area, ceramics are generally located between the standing stone-circles and one or more frontal stones erected east of monuments. With the exception of morphological and decorative aspects, no technological studies have ever been conducted on the pottery from these deposits. Such an approach has now been taken to the analysis of around forty ceramics from deposits at the site of Wanar — about as many as are available from the deposits of all other Senegambian megalithic sites. The results demonstrate the range of technical choices mobilized in the shaping process. The high degree of finish on the vessels also suggests an important added value to the material culture which participated in the monuments’ ritual function.