Life and death of the longhouse : daily life during and after the early Neolithic in the river valleys of the Paris Basin
This thesis discusses the social and architectural changes from the early Neolithic (just before 5000 cal BC the RRBP: Rubane Recent du Bassin parisien and the VSG: Villeneuve-Saint-Germain cultures) to the middle Neolithic (4700 cal BC the Cerny and Michelsberg/Chasseen cultures) in the Paris Basin, France. Commencing with a characterisation of daily life, the thesis considers the dwelling perspective, which underpins the theoretical approach taken here, and then debates different approaches to the study of houses found in anthropology and archaeology. It is concluded that daily life in the early Neolithic of the Paris Basin can be illuminated through consideration of different practices of inhabitation, and how materials and tasks provided particular constructions of time. Thus an approach to archaeology and prehistoric architectures that envisions social life as creative, tactical and performative is advocated. The longhouse is considered as a suite of practices that provided daily life with a particular temporality and it is argued that this temporality was increasingly challenged throughout the VSG period. The archaeological data is discussed in two case studies. The first is based around the early and
Bickle, Penny
Life and death of the longhouse : daily life during and after the early Neolithic in the river valleys of the Paris Basin. This thesis discusses the social and architectural changes from the early Neolithic (just before 5000 cal BC the RRBP: Rubane Recent du Bassin parisien and the VSG: Villeneuve-Saint-Germain cultures) to the middle Neolithic (4700 cal BC the Cerny and Michelsberg/Chasseen cultures) in the Paris Basin, France. Commencing with a characterisation of daily life, the thesis considers the dwelling perspective, which underpins the theoretical approach taken here, and then debates different approaches to the study of houses found in anthropology and archaeology. It is concluded that daily life in the early Neolithic of the Paris Basin can be illuminated through consideration of different practices of inhabitation, and how materials and tasks provided particular constructions of time. Thus an approach to archaeology and prehistoric architectures that envisions social life as creative, tactical and performative is advocated. The longhouse is considered as a suite of practices that provided daily life with a particular temporality and it is argued that this temporality was increasingly challenged throughout the VSG period. The archaeological data is discussed in two case studies. The first is based around the early and
life_death daily_life early_neolithic river_valley paris basin discuss social architectural change early_neolithic cal recent saint culture middle_neolithic cal person culture paris basin france characterisation daily_life considers dwell perspective underpin theoretical take debate different_approach study house find anthropology archaeology conclude daily_life early_neolithic paris basin illuminate consideration different practice inhabitation material task provide particular construction time thus archaeology prehistoric architecture social_life creative tactical performative advocate consider suite practice provide daily_life particular temporality argue temporality increasingly challenge throughout period archaeological_data discuss two_case study first base_around early