From archeological layers to schematic rock art? Integrated study of the Neolithic pigments and pigmented rocks at the R
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ORIGINAL PAPER
From archeological layers to schematic rock art? Integrated study of the Neolithic pigments and pigmented rocks at the Rocher du Château (Western Alps, Savoie, France) Claudia Defrasne 1,2
&
Emilie Chalmin 3 & Ludovic Bellot-Gurlet 4 & Eric Thirault 5 & Guy André 1,2
Received: 13 August 2018 / Accepted: 13 June 2019 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2019
Abstract Post-glacial schematic rock paintings extend across the Iberian Peninsula to the Italian Piedmont. The Rocher du Château is one of the few Alpine sites with such painted figurations, located on a main transalpine route at 1750 m.a.s.l. in the Vallée de la Maurienne (Savoie, France). Archeological excavations in front of the painted panels revealed pigments and pigmented pebbles in archaeological levels attributed to the Neolithic Square Mouthed Pottery culture (SMP culture, 4600 –4000 BC). The coexistence of pigments from archeological soils and rock paintings is rare in European prehistory and exceptional for the Neolithic period. The integrated study of these materials, barely attempted before, combined non-invasive in situ methods (digital microscopy and Raman spectroscopy) and analytical studies of micro-samples (SEM-EDX, XRD). The weathering process on the rock surface before and after the layer of paint was studied, and the mineralogical identification of the pigments was analyzed. Complementary physico-chemical analyses were conducted at several scales of observation to identify the composition of the excavated pigments and pigmented materials. Some of them proved to be anthropogenic blends combining hematite and charcoal of plant origin. This association has never before been identified in other prehistoric European archeological sites. Based on these data, the potential links between the pebbles, the production of pigments, and the rock paintings are discussed. Keywords Rock art . Neolithic . Schematic paintings . Raman spectroscopy . Pigment analysis
Introduction Schematic prehistoric rock paintings in rock shelters or caves are spread across the Iberian Peninsula as far as the Italian Piedmont. This transcultural graphic expression is composed of recognizable elements like human figures, deer and caprinae, and of a geometric and abstract figures (ramiforms, grids, dots, U-shaped figures…). These rock paintings, which share common location
criteria and themes on a huge Mediterranean area, are mainly attributed to the Neolithic period from the archeological context when present and from comparisons between material culture and painted figures. However, the chronological issue remains difficult to address in the absence of absolute dating. One of the western Alps sites with such rock paintings, called the Rocher du Château (Bessans, Savoie, France), appeared as a key site to address this issue, as dated pigments and pigmented materials
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-019-00882-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to au
