During the Neolithic period, the peoples of west-central France built many megalithic monuments, such as burial mounds and dolmens. Although the graves of these towns have stood the test of time, archaeologists have been searching for the homes of these ancient settlers without much success for more than a century.
French archaeologists have found, at last, one of the earliest residential sites belonging to the prehistoric builders of some of Europe’s earliest monumental stone structures. “It has been known for a long time that the oldest European megaliths appeared on the Atlantic coast, but the habitats of their builders remained unknown,” says Dr. Vincent Ard of the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS).
French specialists have been intensively studying the archaeological site of Le Peu since 2011, when it was discovered during aerial reconnaissance. Their work, as they explain in an article published in the Antiquity magazine, has revealed a stockade that surrounded several wooden buildings built more than 6,000 years ago.
This makes them the oldest wooden structures in the region and the first contemporary settlement of the builders of the impressive Neolithic monuments. Excavations revealed at least three houses, each about 13 meters long, clustered near the top of a small hill surrounded by the stockade.
From this elevation located in Charmé, in the Poitou-Charentes region, the nearby Tusson megalithic cemetery was perfectly visible, an alignment of five mounds that occupy a space 139 meters long and is one of the most imposing in Europe.
This raised the possibility that the inhabitants of Le Peu were the ones who built the mounds. To prove this point, French archaeologists carried out radiocarbon dating which revealed that the monuments and the settlement are from the same era, suggesting that the two sites are linked.
While the people of Le Peu may have built monuments to the dead, they also invested a great deal of time and effort in protecting the living. Analysis of the paleosol (ancient soil buried under more modern layers) recovered from the site revealed that it was located on a promontory fringed by swamp.
These natural defenses were reinforced by a palisade wall with ditches that ran around the site. The entrance had particularly heavy defenses, guarded by two monumental structures. These appear to have been later additions, which required part of the defensive ditch to be filled in.
“The works at the site have revealed the existence of unique monumental architecture, probably defensive. This demonstrates an increase in social tensions in that environment during the Neolithic period,” says Dr. Ard.
However, these impressive defenses may have proved insufficient, as all the buildings at Le Peu appear to have been burnt down around 4400 BC. Such destruction wiped out the settlement but instead helped preserve the site.
With these circumstances, Vincent Ard and his team hope that the upcoming campaigns at the site will continue to shed light on the lives of people who are now only known for their memorials to the dead. The little that is known so far already shows that their residences had a monumental scale, never before seen in prehistoric Atlantic society.