Protected for millennia by the forest, a fortified Neolithic site of 25 hectares was the subject of the first excavations in Pas-de-Calais after its recent discovery, Agence France Presse learned on Friday.
The site, located in the national forest of Ohlain, could be protected as historical monuments, one year after its discovery in the town of Fresnicourt-le-Dolmen.
According to Gilles Leroy, study engineer at the Hauts-de-France Regional Archeology Service and responsible for the operation, the site would be
“a kind of time capsule
”.
Long hidden by the depths of its forest, this discovery would have been made "
purely by chance
", in 2019, during a lidar imaging campaign - a technique for measuring distances with laser - carried out to clarify the topography. of the forest floor.
The images were interpreted by the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research on behalf of the Office National des Forêts (ONF).
The lidar surveys carried out in 2019 revealed Neolithic remains, identifiable their circular enclosure.
National Forestry Office
Dated to the beginning of the 4th millennium BC.
J.-C. around but never reoccupied after the Neolithic, the site is
“in a unique state of conservation”,
even if in the absence of later inhabitants,
“the forest also damaged it”
, underlined Gilles Leroy.
Other sites of the same type found in France or more generally in western Europe suffered more damage, he said.
Its development, with a fortified belt 50 meters wide composed of several rows of ditches and embankments, punctuated by entrances, mobilized a large community, estimates the archaeologist.
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Flint and fortifications
If its
“defensive function is not much debated”
, the use made of it by Neolithic populations
“remains a bit nebulous”
, at a time when men
“were no longer hunters and collectors and began to settle down”
, in a context of waves of migratory settlements and numerous conflicts.
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The first characterization excavations led to the discovery of archaeological furniture, carved flints, ceramics and sandstone objects, and numerous dating elements.
In the immediate future, pending its protection as a historic monument to sanctuary it, the ONF has already taken a series of measures to avoid any degradation of the site linked to the exploitation of wood.
Lidar surveys are particularly useful for identifying anthropogenic structures that would have escaped any identification during conventional aerial surveys or ground surveys.
In America, technology has in particular made it possible to multiply the discoveries in the jungles of Amazonia, from new pre-Columbian pyramids to the lineaments of vanished civilizations.