DC5: For a history of maritime techniques in Europe: Norms and uses of techniques in prehistoric coastal communities

Objectives

Techniques mediate the actions of humans on their environment and constitute essential archaeological evidence of the norms and practices of past populations in their lived landscapes. Because the prehistory of the shore has long been marginalized in the grand narrative of human origins, no synthesis has been produced on the particularities of these technical systems and networks compared to those developed in the inland of the continents. 

Based on bibliographic data (publications, reports, inventories) and databases, the project studies coastal hunter-fisher-gatherer toolkits dated to 12 000–2000 cal BC made of different raw materials (lithic, bone, shell), techniques or structures (marine or estuarine fisheries, prey processing devices, storage structure) across Europe (Atlantic, North Sea and Baltic). 

They also concern several other registers of action on matter as culinary practices and means of displacement movement (boats and navigation). This investigation is resolutely multi-disciplinary, integrating technological and archaeological data, archaeozoological, ethnographic data and experimental archaeology. 

The aim of DC5 is firstly to establish a common methodology for interrogating such data and unifying the results. As part of the dissertation/research, a relational database should then be established to define technical solutions adopted by HFG hunter-fisher-gatherers in these different environments. The question of their originality in relation to continental techniques is central to defining the historical dynamics on the shores at the beginning and during of thein the early Holocene. The cultural and topographic diversity of the coastal earlier prehistory in Europe appears to be an asset for identifying standards and adaptations, from the Baltic to the Mediterranean seas. 

The question of the functionality of certain habitats (shipyards, prey processing areas, habitats related to the maintenance and use of fisheries, etc.) is central to DC5, as this logistical organization of territories is likely to reflect original social structures. This doctoral research project requires the mobilization of numerous registers of knowledge dealing with various chronological prehistoric contexts, fueled by a real spirit of curiosity and interdisciplinarity.