This collection of papers by an international cohort of contributors explores the nature of the maritime connections that appear to have existed in the Transmanche/English Channel Zone during later prehistory. Organised into three themes, Movement and Identity in the Transmanche Zone ; Travel and exchange ; Identity and landscape ; the papers seek to articulate notions of frontier, mobility and identity from the end of the 3rd to the beginning of the 1st millennium BC, a time when the archaeological evidence suggests that the sea facilitated connections between peoples on both sides of the Channel rather than acting as a barrier as it is so often perceived today. Recent decades have since seen a massive increase in large-scale excavation programmes on either side of the Channel in advance of major infra-structure and urban development, resulting in the acqusition of huge, complex new datasets enabling new insights into later prehistoric life in this crucially important region. Papers consider the role of several key archaeologists in transforming our appreciation of the connectivity of the sea in prehistory ; discuss the extent to which the Channel zone developed into a closely unified cultural zone during later Bronze Age in terms of communities that serviced the movement of artefacts across the Channel with both sides sharing widely in the same artefacts and social practices ; examine funerary practices and settlement evidence and the relationship between communities in social, cultural and ideological terms ; and consider mechanisms for the transmission of ideas and how they may be reflected in the archaeological record.

Movement, Exchange an Identity in Europe in the 2nd and 1st Millennia BC - Beyond Frontiers

Les cultures de l'âge du Bronze ont longtemps été ardues à déterminer pour les archéologues tant leurs manifestations sont diverses et leurs vestiges ténus. Il aura fallu plus de 25 ans de recherche archéologique préventive pour comprendre que l'âge du Bronze constitue très probablement une période clé dans l'émergence des sociétés hiérarchisées pré-étatiques et dans la construction de notre environnement. Cet ouvrage est une première synthèse à l'échelle nationale, région par région, d'un programme de recherche toujours en cours, l'enquête nationale Bronze. Ce travail d'exploitation et d'interprétation des données archéologiques et paléo-environnementales a permis d'apprécier le statut des installations rurales, de mesurer les liens qui unissent ces espaces pour former des réseaux de peuplement et de systématiser l'appropriation symbolique des lieux par ces populations. Il révèle également la place de milieux naturels souvent considérés, à tort, comme marginaux, dans les débuts de la diversification des systèmes socio-économiques.

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