ANNEXES DU VOLUME 8

TEXTILE, TISSAGE ET PARURE

Articles :C-W Beck et A. Bocquet- 1982 - Découverte à Charavines (Isère) d'ambre néoli-

thique provenant de la mer Baltique. Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres,Compte rendus mensuels, novembre-décembre. 3

Aimé Bocquet et Françoise Berrétrot. – 1988 - Le travail des fibres textiles auNéolithique récent à Charavines (Isère). IXe rencontres internationales d'archéologie etd'histoire. Antibes, octobre 1988. 8

Sophie Desrosiers – 1988 - Des fragments de textiles du Néolithique finalprovenant du lac de Paladru (Charavines, Isère, France). In : Tissage, corderie,vannerie, IX° Rencontres Internationales d’Archéologie et d’Histoire, Antibes, octobre1988. 22

Dominique Cardon – 1996 - Neolithic textiles, matting and cordage fromCharavines, lake of Paladru, France : In : Textiles in European Archaeology, reportfrom the 6th NESAT Symposium, 7-11th May 1996 in Boras, GOTARC Series A, vol. 1, Göte-borg 1998, p. 3-21. 31

Rapport :

J. Amossé, A. Bocquet, F. Reverchon, M.-B. Eyraud-Sele, R. Bouchez, C. Disant, J.Diébolt et A. Cornu- 1976 - Étude d’une perle en cuivre du Néolithique final du Sud-Est de la

France 48

NEOLITHIC TEXTILES, MATTING AND CORDAGEFROM CHARAVINES, LAKE OF PALADRU, FRANCE

Dominique CARDON

Présentation de la version intégrale de la publication : In : Textiles in European Archaeology, reportfrom the 6th NESAT Symposium, 7-11th May 1996 in Boras, GOTARC Series A, vol. 1, Göteborg1998, p. 3-21.

Résumé de la communication

Textiles, réseaux, vanneries néolithiques de Charavines, lac de Paladru (Isère, France).

Présentation des différents types de fibres et structures textiles retrouvés lors des fouillessubaquatiques du village néolithique de Charavines-les-Baigneurs. Les structures textilescomprennent un grand nombre (plus d’une centaine) de fragments et pelotes de fils, ficelles, cordages- dont plusieurs présentant divers types de nœuds - ainsi que des fragments de nattes, réseaux demailles et tissus.

Certains de ces derniers sont d’un très grand intérêt parce que rarement ou jamais rencontrésauparavant, dont l’un des deux plus anciens exemples connus au monde de tissage à pile à point noué(nœud encore employé aujourd’hui pour les tapis turcs). Comparaison avec les textiles néolithiquesretrouvés dans les lacs de Suisse et du Jura français.

Rise and fall of a small village by the shore of a mountain lake, 5000 years ago

The neolithic village of Les Baigneurs now lies in shallow waters, about 100 metres off thebeach of the present village of Charavines, at the south end of Lake Paladru, nestling among woodedhills at the foot of the Alps, between Grenoble and Lyon. Its existence had been known by localarchaeologists since the beginning of this century (first mention in 1904) and, in 1921, a particularlysevere winter drought even allowed a superficial exploration of the site, photos of which were thentaken (Fig. 1). But the waters soon came up again and no more archaeological research occurreduntil winter 1971-72, when another important lowering of the lake-level luckily happened at a timewhen some building projects for enlarging the beach were threatening to destroy the neolithic site. Itsmajor historical importance having been revealed by a preliminary survey, however, underwaterarchaeological research was decided upon, began the same year, and then went on every summer

until 1986, under the direction of Aimé Bocquet, Director of the Centre de Documentation de laPréhistoire Alpine in Grenoble1.

Multidisciplinary studies of the finds, started immediately after the first underwaterexcavations, have been going on since then, leading numerous publications (latest bibliography inBocquet 1994, 103-104). In particular, dendrochronological analyses, correlated with the French-Swiss absolute chronological sequences, and completed by dendroclimatic and pollen analyses, haveprovided precise data on the origin and end of the two successive occupations of the site (ibid., 10-13,21-29) : the first village was founded and occupied between 2668 and 2580 BC, after several years ofdrier climate had allowed a space of bare, soft ground to emerge by the rim of the lake. This firstvillage was to gradually grow to include up to six wooden houses, sheltering a population ofapproximately 50 people (ibid., 35). After 18 years, the villagers start leaving gradually, withouthurry, taking their possessions away with them ; the abandoned houses were left to tumble down andthe site was only flooded occasionally during the following years, which explains why the organicremains of this first occupation-layer (B3) have partly rotten in the open air - textile fibres, cordage,basketry and fabrics accordingly being much less abundant in this deeper layer.

Fifty-eight years after the building of the first house, people came back to the site and builtsix new houses within the next 21 years. But the last building had to be located as high and far fromthe shore as possible, because the waters of the lake had started rising continuously and inexorably: the floor of the houses was getting damp and soft, hearths were sinking and had to beconsolidated. The story ends in the villagers precipitately running away from a sudden flood,leaving behind them some of their most precious belongings : tools, daggers, jewels and finetextiles.

Although probably quite traumatic for the inhabitants of the village, this catastrophic flood haspreserved, and provided archaeologists with, a huge amount of organic remains of all kinds -including cooked food. These have greatly improved our knowledge of everyday life in a smallcommunity of farmers, hunters and craftsmen belonging to the civilization now called LateRhodanian Neolithic, a regional variant of the Corded Ware Culture, spread from WesternSwitzerland to the French regions of Jura, the Saône valley, Savoy, down to the north of Dauphiné.

Textile achievements of the neolithic dwellers of Charavines : Aimé Bocquet’s and SophieDesrosiers’ work

Like the other organic materials, the textiles, cordage and basketry fragments have been betterpreserved in the upper layer, B1 : here, they amount to 160 items, against only 96 of them in thedeeper occupation layer (ibid., 35). That this difference cannot merely be accounted for by a lesserlevel of textile activity in the former village, is demonstrated by the significant numbers of spindle-whorls, made of inorganic material, that have been preserved from bot layers : 50 in layer B3, 63 inlayer B1.The abundant material, both organic and inorganic, related to textile craft, and its distribution on thesite, has been studied and the results, presented by A. Bocquet at the IXe Rencontres Internationales

d’Archéologie et d’Histoire d’Antibes, in october 1988, are already published (Bocquet and Berretrot1989, 113-118). A big group of 457 microdenticulate silex tools appear to have been used to scrapehard fibre plants, as part of the process of preparing string and thread. Only vegetable fibres havebeen preserved on the site, including several bundles of semi-retted flax stems. But, in spite of the factthat the cultivation of flax is further confirmed by the presence of numerous seeds, we shall presentlysee that none of the analysed textile remains could be identified as linen. Although 11 long humanhairs have been found, no animal hair or wool has been preserved either, but bones and teeth-remainsprove that the villagers were keeping sheep and goats. Yarn was spun with spindles : one whorl stillhas its hole filled with a fragment of wooden spindle ; another spindle, with its whorl, is nearlycomplete (Fig. 2) ; and 56 sticks of the same shape and dimensions have also been preserved.Witnesses to weaving are more hypothetical, albeit numerous : 250 notched pebbles which mightrepresent loom-weights (or fishing-weights ?) ; 17 box-wood combs, the exact use of which is difficultto determine. Dyeing was also probably practised since the beginning, as the unusual proportion ofpollen from Madder (Rubia sp.) found by A. Emery-Barbier in the former occupation level, B3, wouldtend to show. A great number of Dwarf Elder seeds (Sambucus ebulus) have also been found by K.Lundstrom-Baudais in both layers (Bocquet et al. 1987, 33-54) : its berries being poisonous but rich inpurple juice, their most likely use would be for dyeing or painting.

Moreover, the concentration, during the second period of occupation, of 32 microdenticulate tools and29 notched pebbles within a building which does not seem to have been a dwelling place (it has nohearth) has led A. Bocquet to suggest it may have been a textile workshop, the most elaborateproductions of which may even have been appreciated and « traded » in a wider sphere than thevillage itself (Bocquet and Berretrot 1989, 124-127, Fig. 6).

Effectively, the results of the textile analyses that had been entrusted to Sophie Desrosiers, who wasthen working for the Centre International d’Etudes des Textiles Anciens (CIETA) in Lyon, had, in themean time, shown that some people in Charavines were able to weave fine, and even elaboratelydecorated cloth (Desrosiers 1989, 129-139).

Three groups of textile fragments were then published : the first group (Inv. n° 5060, level B1)includes 5 fragments and 9 single meshes of a fabric in knotless netting, also called nalebinding ;more precisely, it is a loop-and-twist structure with one S-twist (i.e. crossed left-over-right) (Seiler-Baldinger 1979, 8, Fig. 11a; Emery 1980, 31), made of a z-spun yarn of diameter 2-4 mm. The meshesmeasure 1,2 x 1,3 cm. An interesting feature, in one of the fragments, is the addition of one loop, twoloops thus interlinking into the same mesh of the previous row, which may be considered as a sign of aplanned shaping of the fabric while it was being made (Desrosiers 1989, 131, Fig. 1-D).

The second group of textile fragments (Inv. n° 4587, layer B1) includes 13 fragmentsmeasuring from 1cm² to more than 25 cm². The ground structure is tabby, made of 2 z-spun yarns,S-plied (= z2S, following Walton 1989, 317, Fig. 125), in both systems ; the yarns are fine (0,5-0,7mm in diameter) and regular. Thread-counts are : 11,6-12,2/5,4-6,1 per cm. The peculiarity of thistextile is that, on 10 of the preserved fragments, in several places, there is a woven-pile, obtained bylocal additions of a supplementary thicker, i-twist wrapping weft in Ghiordes or Turkish knot, cutafterwards (Desrosiers 1989, 131-133, Fig. 2-5).

The third and last group of textile fragments published by Sophie Desrosiers (Inv. n° 4606,layer B1) includes 2 fragments of tabby-cloth, made of fine, regular z2S yarns (diameter 0,3-0,6 mm)

in both systems. Thread-counts are : 5,3/cm in one direction, reported as impossible to count in theother (Desrosiers 1989, 134-135, 138-139)

Cordage, yarn and matting

Beside these particularly interesting textile fragments, there remained considerable numbersof finds, initially registered as textiles, strings, ropes or mats, to study. Because of the new, time-consuming lecturing job Sophie Desrosiers had been offered at the Ecole des Hautes-Etudes enSciences Sociales in Paris, she and A. Bocquet agreed to propose that I should take over the study ofthe rest of the 256 presumed textile finds.

I here present the results of the study of 130 groups of fragments registered under a commoninventory number. Out of these 130 distinct references, 13 have been found to correspond to materialunidentifiable, in its present state, as any form of textile structure (Inv. n° 658, 1043, 1060, 1061,1073, 1520, 1791, 1792, 1794, 2057, 3579, 3808, 7589).

Out of the remaining 117 groups of identifiable textile fragments that I have examined, 17belong to the lower level, B3, 100 to the upper one, B1. But, on the other hand, the structural analysisof all the fragments has allowed me to discover very close similarities between some fragments whichhad received different inventory numbers. In these cases, I systematically checked their respectiveplaces of discovery on the site plan and listing2.

Whenever structurally identical fragments turn out to come from adjacent small triangles. Iconsider it necessary to mention the possibility that they may initially have been parts of the sametextile object. On this hypothesis, the number of different textile finds studied and published here mightactually amount to only 80 (15 from the lower layer, B3 ; 65 from the upper layer, B1).

The problem of fibre identification

The previous studies of various textile samples from Charavines had not allowed preciseidentification of any vegetable species (Bocquet 1994, 76). Another selection of 16 samples, takenfrom the different types of textiles, cordage and matting here published was sent to Dr. Allan Hall,EAU, University of York, U.K. His comments on each sample are quoted in the present report andfollowed by his initials, A.H. To sum up the results of his examination of the samples underpolarising light microscope, A. Hall could not « identify to species any of the material except forsome stray plant fragments which were associated with some of the samples... nearly all of thesamples seem to have some fine roots or rootlets present... this is not surprising if the deposits werefairly shallow... they may even have come from plants growing just above the archaeologicalhorizons ; it is very difficult to tell in some cases if the root epidermis is part of the textile fragmentor not ! None of the samples has the structure and solidity of the fibres of flax, hemp or nettle and

the fibres must come from some other herbaceous plant ». A. Hall does not think any of the« woody » material is tree bast either and he wonders whether a lot of this material does not come« from roots (since characteristic epidermis features are lacking), which means that it will probablynever be identifiable »3.

Yarn and cordage

The small number of cables included in Table 1 only corresponds to finds which had notbeen previously recognized as such, since thick ropes and cables have been put together intoanother group, still to be systematically studied ans published. Those presented here actually arerather atypical ; 5257 must have been a very strong rope, made out of two 3-strand plaits twistedtogether (Fig. 3) ; 442 is a cable made of two standard fine strings, but its present flat shape makesit look like a piece of matting ; 1032 may more likely have been used for some decorative purpose,as it is made out of the same standard fine plied yarn as is used in all woven textiles, and balls ofwhich were found everywhere on the site, in both layers. Table 1 effectively reveals the strikinguniformity in the primary twist given to the threads according to their intended use and, moreover,the continuity of these technical habits, common to the earlier and later occupants of the site. Forcables and strings, in 81% of the 32 relevant references, the basic thread or strand used hasreceived a primary s-twist ; only 9,5% of them have a z-twist, and 9,5% have no twist at all (=i). Forfine strings of a diameter inferior to 1 cm, the s2Z twisting pattern appears in 87,5% of cases (Fig.4). For fine yarns, of a diameter inferior or equal to 1 mm (there is none bigger anyway !) theprimary z-spin prevails in 100% of yarns, the z2S pattern occuring in 97,5% of cases, since the onlyexception, 3788b, represents a small provision of single z yarn, probably waiting to be plied. On theother hand, 3-strand plaits are made out of untwisted strands in only 1/3 of instances ; strands aremore often z (38% of cases) and sometime s-twisted (28,5%).

Quite striking, equally, is the stock of yarn found on this neolithic site, especially for the laterperiod of occupation : 54 balls or bundles of fine plied yarn (Fig. 5). Some of the balls are fairly big,but most of them are, again, uniform in size, with diameters usually around 3 cm. All this is evidentlyin keeping with A. Bocquet’s considerations on the importance of the local textile production.

Charavines spinners also used to keep their yarns tied together in a bundle, in a variety ofknots (4972, 455, 750, 3279, 3688b, 4971, 4973, 5265) and even occasionnally plaited groups of them,much in the same way as embroidery yarns are sold nowadays (3258) - though, of course, this plaitmay also have been intended for some decorative purpose (Fig. 6). Two knotted fragmentsrespectively correspond to the starting (4603) and the ending (4295) of two different 3-strand plaits.How do these twisting and spinning patterns compare with the evidence provided by the textile findsfrom the lakes of Clairvaux and Chalain, in the French Jura which are geographically andchronologically quite close ? For thick string, only the few s3Z ones from Charavines levels B3 andB1 find exact counterparts in the XIXth c. finds from the lake of Chalain (recently datedapproximately 2800-2600 BC by P. Pétrequin)4 : these are textiles n°2267, 2268, 2269 of the Muséed’Archéologie of Lons-le-Saunier (Masurel 1985, 209, Fig. 36-37) ; and in the only string from therecent excavations of Clairvaux III, also dated 2800-2600 BC (Hundt 1986, 235, 238, Fig. 5, n°3-4).The fine s2Z strings of Charavines have only two equivalents, among the finds of the recentexcavations on the neolithic site of Chalain III, in level II (3200-3100 BC) (Delattre 1996, Fig. 3, n°2-3). On the contrary, the fine z2S yarns (in diameters always less than 1 mm) are very common amongthe ancient Chalain and Clairvaux III textile remains, both wound around spindle-sticks, and used forthe warp and weft of all woven textiles (Masurel 1985, 205, 208, fig. 29-31; Hundt 1986, 233-34, 236,Fig. 3, n°1-6, 237, Fig. 4, n°7). They already appear in the area, in level VI of the recent Chalain III

excavations, as the warps of some fine twined fabric fragments, Cc78 (Delattre 1996, Fig. 3, n°5-6).Two small fragments of fine z yarn (diameter 1,5 mm) were also found there, in level VIII (ibid. Fig. 3n°4). A big ball of single z yarn (8,2x6,5 cm) from Chalain XIXth c. finds (n°2251, Masurel 1985,207, Fig. 28) can be compared with the small provision of unplied z yarn in Charavines, 3788b.Another big ball of single yarn, Chalain n°2250 (Masurel, ibid. Fig. 27), is mentioned as s-spun,however. Some 3-strand plaits also figure among the ancient textile finds from the lake of Chalain, butH. Masurel does not give a detailed analysis of them, only mentioning that « sometimes the strandsappear to have no twist » (Masurel 1985, 209, Fig. 33-35).

Matting in right-angled plaiting

The term « matting » has been chosen here because all the fragments examined are lying flat,but, since they are all quite small, the possibility that they may have been parts of some kind of flat-sided basketry cannot be excluded.

- Inv. n°5267, level B3 : 7 fragments of very poorly preserved matting (6,4x4,3 cm ; 3,8x3 cm;3,5x3,5 cm ; 4x2,2 cm ; 3x1,5 cm ; 5,5x1,7 cm ; 4,4x3 cm). I am not sure they all belong to the samemat/object. Fragments II and III, the more legible ones, are in right-angled plaiting, plain weave. Inboth systems, elements are made of thin strips of fibrous matter, untwisted (4 mm wide). They havebeen examined by A. Hall : « woody tissue, perhaps roots ; fine rootlets are present in several places(post-depositional ?) ».

Another small fragment, 5267 VII, is made of the same thin woody strips, but the tworemaining elements of one system appear to pass under two and over one element of the other system,like a 2/1 twill.

- Inv. n°1038d, level B1 : fragment of right-angled plaiting in plain weave (3x1,3 cm). The twosystems are made of flat regular strips of fibrous/woody appearance, untwisted, all approximately 1cmwide, 2mm thick.

- Inv. n°1058-I, level B1 : 3 fragments of right-angled plaiting in plain weave (6,2x4,5 cm ;3,8x3 cm ; 3,5x3 cm). The two systems are made of flat regular strips of fibrous/woody appearance,untwisted, all approximately 1 cm wide. In one place (fragment A) a single strand of s-twisted string(diameter 6,5 mm) is taking the place of one strip of one of the two systems.

The imprint of a structure similar to the two preceding references, from the site of Weihernear Thayngen (canton de Schaffhausen) has been published in Vogt 1937, 6, Fig. 1, and twofragments of a similar mat from Meilen (canton of Zürich) are photographed in Ruoff 1981, 164, Fig.20.

- Inv. n°1060, level B1 : 6 fragments of « wicker-basket right-angled plaiting » (Seiler-Baldinger 1979, 29, Fig. 65), weft-faced, in extended plain weave. Passive elements : thin, regularcylindrical strands or sticks, untwisted (diameter 3 mm), apparently regularly spaced (3 mm apart),where visible. Individual active elements, made of thin, untwisted strands (width : 5 mm) arecrossing over and under groups of more than 3 passive elements. They are pushed very closelytogether, making the passive elements nearly invisible, and impossible to count, especially in thepresent, very brittle condition of the fragments. The active elements have been examined by A. Hallwho reported them as « probably herbaceous stem fragments but no diagnostic epidermis present ».

Twined matting/basketry and fabrics

Twined basketry is a very ancient technique : in the Middle East, fragments found on the siteof Netiv Hagdud, North of Jericho (Israel) have been dated from 9000 B.C. (Schick 1989, 51). It isalso quite ancient and very well represented among European Stone Age basketry and fabric remains(Bender-Jorgensen 1992, 02,116). The different variations present in the neolithic finds from Swisslakes having already been classified by E. Vogt (Vogt 1937, 12-32) I shall follow the same order here.

- Inv. n°445, level B1 (Fig. 7) : fragment of mat in open (spaced) simple weft twining, withstarting edge (10x4,1 cm) (Vogt, Category C, var. A). The warp elements turn around a length of s2Zstring (diameter 4 mm). Warp elements : single, loosely s-twisted strands (diameter 6,5-8 mm). 2,3warps/cm. 1,4 cm below the edge-string, the twining wefts enclose warp-units in pairs. Weft : pairs ofs-twisted strands (diameter 3 mm). Stitch slant down to the right = in Z direction.

Fragments of the warp elements have been examined by A. Hall : « thin strands of plant tissueto 15x1 mm, apparently herbaceous rather than woody ». This fragment is nearly identical (samediameters, twist-directions of warps and wefts, stitch slant) with n°2292 of the ancient finds from thelake of Chalain, which also has a starting edge (Masurel 1985, 203, Fig. 12). Both are very similar toa group of fragments from Clairvaux III, including small fragments of strating edge, from a same mator several different ones (Hundt 1986, 234-35, 238-39, Fig. 5, n°1-2, 5-7, Fig. 6, n°3-4, 6-8).

- Inv. n°1058-II, level B1 : fragment of mat in open (spaced) simple weft twining (6x4,1 cm).Warps : single warps, untwisted (diameter 4-5 mm). 2,5 warps/cm. Wefts : pairs of z-twisted elements(diameter 1,5-2 mm). Stitch slant in Z direction. Only one row preserved, but the trace of a secondrow, spaced 1,1 cm apart from the preceding one, is still visible. This fragment is nearly identical(same diameters, twist-directions of warps and wefts, and stitch slant) with n°2295 of the ancient findsfrom the lake of Chalain (Masurel 1985, 203, Fig. 13).

- Inv. n°1039, level B1 : 10 small fragments of fine basketry or fabric in compact weft twining-alternate-pair, also described as diagonal or twill twining (3,15x1,9 cm ; 3,9x1,7 cm ; 2,2x2 cm ;2,25x1,7 cm ; 1,3x1,2 cm ; 3x0,45 cm ; 1,25x1,15 cm ; 2,15x0,5 cm ; 1,1x0,8 cm ; 1,8x0,5 cm) (Emery1994, 202, Fig. 309 ; Schick 1989, 44-45). Warps : s-spun yarns (diameter 0,5-0,6 cm), 16-20warps/cm. Wefts : pairs of s-spun yarns (diameter +/-1 mm). 5 rows/cm, no interval between weftrows. Stitch slant in Z direction.

Warp and weft yarns have been examined by A. Hall : « certainly not flax, hemp or nettle -these fibres are too thin-walled, the walls are not visibly pitted and they are not birefringent underpolarised light (the fibres of flax, hemp and nettle have a characterictic birefringence and havesmaller cell lumina and proportionately thicker walls than those seen in this specimen) ».

Alternate-pair weft twining is not as common as simple twining : 4 fabrics in this technique,dated from the VIIth millenium BC, were found in Nahal Hemar, Israel ; they are spaced, notcompact, however (Schick 1989, 49). A fragment of compact twined fabric preserved in the Muséed’Archéologie of Lons-le-Saunier looks very similar to the fragments from Charavines, but is notanalysed (Masurel 1985, 203, Fig. 15).

- Inv. n°2059-A (Fig. 8) and B, level B1 : 2 fragments of mat in simple spaced weft twining with pile (A: 14,5x9 cm ; B : 4,9x7 cm). Warps : untwisted strands (diameter 3,5-4,5 mm). 2,5 warps/cm. Wefts :pairs of s-twisted strands (diameter 3,5 mm). Stitch slant in Z direction. Pile : long (8 cm) loops ofuntwisted strands (diameter 3,5-4,5 cm), doubled in U-shape. Each twining stitch includes theascending and descending parts of two adjacent loops, binding them to the same warp strand (Vogt,Cat. D, var. 2). Both fragments seem to correspond to the inferior edge of the mat, since only two weft-rows, spaced 1,5 cm apart from each other, are visible on the fragment, warp strands and pile loopsthen forming a long fringe, 8 cm long

This is also the case with a fragment of twined mat with pile from Chalain III, level VI, wherethe fringe is of similar length, the space between the last two weft rows also being the same. Stitchslant and the technique of pile-binding are different, however (Delattre 1996, Fig. 4, n°2). Among theancient finds from Chalain, more or less contemporaly with the textiles from Charavines, 2 fragemntsof twined mats with pile (n°2289-2290) show the same stitch slant in Z direction as Charavines 2059.But in the second piece of mat from Chalain, the pile is bound in a different way (Cat. D, var. 1 inVogt 1937, 20, Fig. 31). In Clairvaux III, also contemporary with Charavines, a fragment of twinedmat with pile corresponds to one of the upper corners, including a starting and a side edge. The stitchslant is in Z direction. The pile-binding system is not described (Hundt 1986, 235, 239, Fig. 6, n°1-2).

The pile from fragments 2059 A and 2059 B has been examined by A. Hall : the former isdescribed as « rather homogeneous fibrous tissue ; a few fragments of epidermis which may be relatedto the fibrous tissue ; rootlets present » ; the second as a « compressed clump of plant tissue includinga short fragment of leafy stem of the moss Neckera complanata ; no clear fibres, but some epidermaland ?cortical tissue ; a single grain of Tilia noted ».

Fabrics in knotless netting

This again is a technique appearing in neolithic and even mesolithic sites from Northern andCentral Europe.

- Inv. n°4996 : 5 very poorly preserved, small fragments of loose z yarn (diameter 4-6 mm),twisted upon themselves in a way that might evoke a knotless netting structure with a stopper knot (?).More precise identification is no longer possible.

- Inv. n°1020 A-B : 2 small fragments (1,6x1,2 cm ; 1,3x1,1 cm) corresponding to 2 groups ofone and a half meshes of a fabric in knotless netting : simple looping, crossed in Z direction (right-over-left). S-spun yarn (diameter 1,5-2 mm). Size of meshes : 7x5,5 mm. These fragments do not seemto have any exact equivalent among other european Stone Age textile finds : 3 fragments of a fabric insimple-looping nalebinding, associated with a skeleton found in Bolkilde bog, Denmark, dated 3490-3370 BC, have been published by Lise Bender-Jorgensen (Bennike, Ebbesen and Bender-Jorgensen1986, 204-205), who also mentions a similar fabric from Tybrind Vig, off the west coast of Fyn, dated4200 BC. But the Bolkilde fabric is made of z-spun yarn and the looping is crossed left-over-right, i.e.just the opposite of the spinning and crossing directions in Charavines 1020. Some fragments ofsimple-loop knotless nets from Schötz (canton of Lucerne) (Vogt 1937, 34, Fig. 55-56) and fromMeilen (canton of Zürich) (Ruoff 1981, 259, Fig. 14) are also crossed in the S direction.

- Inv. n° 4598-4597 : 4 isolated meshes of fabric in knotless netting and 4 fragments of knottedfringe. Knotless netting : loop-and-twist, with 1 S-twist (crossed left-over-right) (Emery 1994, 31;Seiler-Baldinger 1979, 8, Fig. 11a). Z-spun yarn (diameter 2-3,5 mm). It has been examined by A.Hall : « woody tissue with rootlets present ; apparently having ray-like structures suggesting an originin the bast of a woody stem or twig, not a herbaceous plant, but not amture tree bast (it is too fine-structured and the cells are too thin-walled ». Knots are overhand knots Z (Wendrich 1991, 40, Fig.14). These fragments are quite probably parts of the same fabrics as Charavines n°5060 alreadypublished in Desrosiers 1989, 130-131).

The nearest equivalents to this structure I have been able to find in the litterature are thefragments of neolithic nalebinding from Ordrup Mose, in Denmark (Vogt 1937, 34, Fig. 58 andHald 1980, 127, Fig. 118), and from Erlenbach, canton of Zürich (Ruoff 1981, 260, Fig. 15). Inboth cases, they are made of z-spun yarn, but have 2 S-twists, not one only, like the piece fromCharavines. The regular knotter fringe ending this piece of fabric must have looked quitedecorative, and it might be considered as bringing further strength to Lise Bender-Jorgensen’sremarks that this type of fabric may - at least occasionnally - have been used for clothing or closingdecoration, since Bolkilde bog, it was lying by one of the skeletons and later on, in the DanishBronze Age, it was used as an ornament for the collar of the Skrydstrup tunic (Vogt 1948, 516).

Woven textile (s) : one, two, three ?

- Inv n°4606, level B1 : 2 fragments of fine cloth in plain weave, already published inDesrosiers 1989, 134-135, 138-139. By steeping the fragments in distilled water and cleaning some ofthem, under the microscope, from the fragments of earth and algae that had been deposited, Imanaged to complete S. Desrosiers’ analysis and to count the number of yarns in the second system :17 z2S threads/cm, as opposed to 5,3 threads/cm in the other system). A. Hall has examined the yarnfrom this fragments and found it to be « apparently the same » as the z2S yarns from yarn ballsn°3279 and 4600 : « afew twisted fragments, up to 0,3 mm diameter... again, no birefringence underpolarised light : they cannot be flax, hemp or nettle ».

- Inv. n°4299, level B1 : 6 fragments of fine plain-weave cloth, one with part of a « Turkishknot » (fragment A6 : 0,8x0,7 cm) (Fig. 9). Warp and weft yarns z2S, diameters 0,6-0,8 mm thread-counts : 16-18/cm in one system ; 6 threads/cm in the other. Pile : dark (blackish), untwisted single

yarn, diameter 1,2 mm, wrapped above 2 ? warp threads, turning round the second one to reappearonto the face of the cloth.

Discussion : neolithic woven textiles with a « knotted pile » are extremely rare ; apart fromthe example from Charavines (Inv. n°4587) previously published in Desrosiers 1989, 131-134, 137-138, Fig. 29, the only other known instance, also from the Corded Ware period, has been found inZürich-Mythenquai (Rast-Eicher 1990, 57-61). It is therefore most surprising to find two examples ofsuch type of textile on the same site. I must add that, because of the different inventory numbers, Inever expected this group of textile fragments, obviously in plain weave, to include one with part of aknot. But this discovery evidently raised the question : could this group of fragments be parts of thesame textile as fragments n°4587 ? Considering the places where they have been respectivelydiscovered, it is not impossible : fragments n°4587 come from the small triangle 23 35 in the bigtriangle 311 315 513 ; fragments n°4299 come from the small triangle 27 28 in 311 509 513 : thesesmall triangles are adjacent on the plan of the site. Moreover, fragments n°4606 also come fromanother adjacent triangle : 23 36 in 311 315 513. The only three groups of woven textile fragmentsfound on the site have thus all been found within a distance of 3 meters, more or less. The difference inthread-counts in one of the two systems (the presumed warp) between n°4587 and the two others mustbe taken into account, however (Table 2).

My hypothesis is that the fragments of woven textiles n°4299, 4587 and 4606 might perhapsbelong to the same piece of material thus implies that this piece of textile would have had a lessclose warp (lower warp-count) in the parts decorated with knotted pile (may be the centre of thepiece) and a closer warp (higher warp-count) in the parts woven in plain weave without pile(possibly the sides) ; fragment 4299 A6, with its single knot, would then have been situated on theborder line between these different « fields ». It is to be noted that thread-counts in the other system(the presumed weft) are similar for the three groups.

But again, this is only one of the possible hypotheses : up to 3 different textiles may also havebeen discovered on the site, close to each other. In any case, the marked difference between warp andweft counts, common to the three groups of fragments from Charavines, has no equivalent in the twogroups of fragments of plain weave cloth found in Clairvaux III (thread-counts : 9-12/10 ; 16/10)(Hundt 1986, 234, 236, Fig. 3, n°1-5, n°6) ; and only one out of the 7 pieces of plain weave clothpreserved in the Musée d’Archéologie of Lons-le-Saunier is comparable with the woven textiles fromCharavines, with thread-counts of 15 threads/cm in system 1/7,5 threads/cm in system 2 (Masurel1985, 205-206).

Conclusion

A. Bocquet had rightly stressed the importance of textile tools on the site of Charavines ; S.Desrosiers had further demonstrated that some of its last dwellers had been able to amke fine and raretextiles.

The present study has now brought some more information : on the early standardization andsubsequent permanency of the techniques of string and yarn fabrication in the village, during bothperiods of occupation ; and about the variety of basketry and textile techniques mastered by thevillagers, and the comparatively wide range of their productions. Through the indispensable research

for pertinent comparisons, frequent and - in some instances - very close similarities between theseproducts and those of the Jurassian lake-dwellers of Chalain and Clairvaux have emerged.

It was very tempting to go a step further by comparing the textile products of these villagers,settled on the western slopes of the Alps and in the valleys of the Jura mountains, with those of themore eastern inhabitants of the Swiss lakes. In order to do that, I have adopted A. Rast-Eicher’sinteresting diagram of the occurrences of basketry and textile techniques in neolithic sites of theZürich area, and adapted it to the more limited chronological sequence for which the french lakeshave provided useful evidence (Fig. 10).

Assuming that the pictures they present are not too biased by the chances of textilesdiscoveries and conservation, an impression one could get from a comparison of these two diagramsis that, within the Corded Ware Culture, the westerners go on using techniques their easternneighbours seem to have abandoned : knotless netting, coiled basketry, weft twining with pile, right-angled plaiting in plain weave. On the other hand, no knotted net nor right-angled twill matting hasbeen found among the remains of their production. A. Rast-Eicher’s comment that a change in thebasketry and textile techniques practised appeared to have occured between the Horgen and theCorded Ware Cultures is less easy to verify for the three western sites, since Chalain III is the onlyavailable source of evidence for the earlier period. But it tends at least to show on definite change inthe west, with the dawn of the Corder Ware : a shift from S to Z in the stitch slant of various forms ofthe popular weft-twining technique.

My own final comment, however, would be that, even though such comparisons do providestimulating prospects and help researchers look up with hope from the tedious scrutinizing of oftenunpromising textile fragments, we still need to discover, study and publish much more material, notonly from these regions, but from many other places in Europe, before we can fully realize how richand varied the Stone Age basketry and textile technology must have been, in this part of the worldas in many others.

Acknowledgements

I am very grateful to Aimé Bocquet and to Sophie Desrosiers for entrusting me with thestudy of this groupe of textile, cordage and matting fragments from Charavines-les Baigneurs. ToA. Bocquet again and Françoise Vin, of the Centre de Documentation de la Préhistoire Alpine, forkindly providing me with all kinds of documents, and some of the photos illustrating this paper. ToNathalie Delattre and Pierre Pétrequin for generously letting me read and use the report on thetextile finds from Chalain 3 before its publication. To Hubert Masurel and Jacques Reinhard, fortheir valuable advice and information. And, last but not least, to Allan Hall for trying very hard toidentify the mysterious - or terribly deteriorated - fibres used for the Charavines textiles and forpatiently answering my numerous questions and suggestions. I also thank Jane Robertson-Vernhesvery much for reading and correcting this text.

_______________________________________________

1Centre de Documentation de la Préhistoire Alpine, 53 rue du Drac, 38000 Grenoble, France. Thetextile material is still preserved there.

2During the underwater excavations, the site was divided by metallic frames into equilateral trianglesof 5 meters sides. Each one of these big triangles was divided into 25 smaller triangles of 1 metersides (superficy 0,43 m²) by strings (not the Neolithic ones published in this paper) (Bocquet 1994,93).

3A. Hall, report of 20/04/1996, unpublished but largely quoted throughout the present study.

4The recent excavations that have been conducted by P. Pétrequin on the neolithic sites of lakeChalain have allowed him to find and date the levels of the textiles during the last century, and nowpreserved in the Musée d’Archéologie of Lons-le-Saunier. Personnal communication, for which I amvery grateful to Pierre Pétrequin.

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ETUDE D'UNE PERLE DU NÉOLITHIQUE FINAL, DU SUD-EST DE LA FRANCE

J. AMOSSE, A. BOCQUET, F. REVERCHON, M.-B. EYRAUD-SELE, R. BOUCHEZ,

C. DISANT, J. DIEBOLT et A. CORNU

Présentée au IXème CONGRÈS

UNION INTERNATIONALE DES SCIENCES PRÉHISTORIQUES ET

PROTOHISTORIQUES

NICE – 13-18 septembre 1976

Etude jamais publiée

Laboratoire de Recherche Archéologique

GRENOBLE