Des dernieres industries a trapezes a l'affirmation du Neolithiqueen Bretagne Occidentale (5500 - 3500 av. J.-C.)

An in-depth study of Neolithic material and sites from western France that answers many questions in terms of the neolithization of Europe and future developments in the British Isles. This volume presents a new perspective on the neolithisation of the Armorican Massif, based on an examination of lithic material and its spatial ordering. The emphasis is on the detection of sites where raw material was extracted, and of workshops where bangles and stone axeheads (especially those of fibrolite) were manufactured; this allows the author to investigate the 'chaines operatoires' involved and their spatial organisation. The author places the conclusions of this research within a broader consideration of the evidence relating to the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition process in Armorica, and considers ways in which aspects of this process correlate with, and others diverge from, the cultural dynamics of the fifth millennium BC in the northern half of France. The approach adopted here, with its emphasis on the production and modes of diffusion of bangles and axeheads has the potential for more general application to the study of 'socially valorised artefacts' elsewhere in Continental Europe.