Populating and circulations in the valleys of the western alps of prehistory to antiquity/ PJ. Rey

Populating and circulations in the valleys of the western internal alps of prehistory to antiquity : the results of the study of a micro-région (Hillsides of the Petit-Saint-Bernard pass) confronted with the state of knowledge in Tarentaise, Maurienne and Beaufortin. Pierre-Jérôme REY. In "La construction des territoires montagnards : exploitation des ressources et mobilité des pratiques", 2e International Workshop on archaeology of european mountain landscape, organisé par les laboratoires GEODE, FRAMESPA, GEOLAB et Chrono-Environnement. Université Toulouse 2-Le Mirail, 8-11 octobre 2009. [seconde journée]

From 2003 till 2007, within the framework of the program Interreg Alpis Graia then of the annual scheduled operation, an archaeological study was driven on hillsides of the Petit"St Bernard Pass (Savoy-Val d'Aoste). In this region badly known until then in spite of the presence of a transalpine passage historically very important, the objectives were to develop the knowledge of the first populatings of the alpine mountain, to enrich the very incomplete documentation of the regional material culture and to clarify the dynamics of circulations by the pass.The zone of study covers all the height of hillsides to approach the vertical variability of the modalities of occupations and exploitations of the environment. The approach of ground privileged the realization of big series of manual poll in sectors favorable to the sedimentary piégeage, determined by fast locations.According to vestiges and to big series of datings radiocarbons, the meditative archaeological data divide up of the average Neolithic in the high Middle Ages and present net chronological and vertical fluctuations which will be presented in detail. The confrontation of these results with the bibliographical compilation of the existing data in the nearby French valleys shows an often rather good correlation. We observe three important conflicts which concern the density of the sites of the ancient Bronze and the first Iron, far better represented in the results of the PSB, as well as the distribution altitudinale neolithic occupations, marked by a bipartition vertical to the PSB. This stake in perspective allows a critical return on the efficiency of the method and on the meaning of the obtained results. According to the taphonomic and paléo-environmental available data and according to the models of exploitation of the mountain territorys, various hypotheses of explanations not exclusive and sometimes contradictory will be advanced, for every big chronological period.