Claudia Defrasne
My research focuses on:
• Archaeology of Neolithic rock images combining a systematic and structural analysis, a contextualization of the rupestrian figurations and an interpretive framework inspired by anthropological studies.
• New techniques of digital data recording.
• Uses and knowledge of environment within Neolithic alpine societies of the third millennium B.C.
• Alpine rock images and Neolithic schematic paintings of south-eastern France.
My PhD thesis in Prehistory, jointly supervised by F. Fedele (University of Napoli) and M. Bailly (Aix-Marseille University), considered the possibility to recover the symbolic relations of the Neolithic societies to their environment from the archaeological remains of the ceremonial contexts of the third millennium in the Central Alps, and especially from the iconography of stelae. I wanted consequently to study the structure of the engraved iconography and the morphology of the stelae thanks to systematic and statistical methods. The meaning of the images was then proposed from their reintegration into their cultural and archaeological context and from an interpretive framework derived from studies in cultural anthropology. This methodology allowed to suggest the extreme overlapping of social practices and the environmental components of the human groups, questioning the relevance of the concepts of nature and culture in the interpretation of the collective representations of prehistoric societies. The reinsertion of the rock art images in their cultural context allowed to propose new interpretations of some of them and more broadly of the iconography of the Neolithic stelae of the central Alps.
• In addition to the methodological aspects of the study of prehistoric iconographies, I am interested since 2008 in issues related to the human presence in high mountains and the relation to the rock art iconography.
• From October 2014, I am a post-doctoral researcher of the French Fyssen Fundation and i am studying the Neolithic schematic paintings of south-eastern France.
• Archaeology of Neolithic rock images combining a systematic and structural analysis, a contextualization of the rupestrian figurations and an interpretive framework inspired by anthropological studies.
• New techniques of digital data recording.
• Uses and knowledge of environment within Neolithic alpine societies of the third millennium B.C.
• Alpine rock images and Neolithic schematic paintings of south-eastern France.
My PhD thesis in Prehistory, jointly supervised by F. Fedele (University of Napoli) and M. Bailly (Aix-Marseille University), considered the possibility to recover the symbolic relations of the Neolithic societies to their environment from the archaeological remains of the ceremonial contexts of the third millennium in the Central Alps, and especially from the iconography of stelae. I wanted consequently to study the structure of the engraved iconography and the morphology of the stelae thanks to systematic and statistical methods. The meaning of the images was then proposed from their reintegration into their cultural and archaeological context and from an interpretive framework derived from studies in cultural anthropology. This methodology allowed to suggest the extreme overlapping of social practices and the environmental components of the human groups, questioning the relevance of the concepts of nature and culture in the interpretation of the collective representations of prehistoric societies. The reinsertion of the rock art images in their cultural context allowed to propose new interpretations of some of them and more broadly of the iconography of the Neolithic stelae of the central Alps.
• In addition to the methodological aspects of the study of prehistoric iconographies, I am interested since 2008 in issues related to the human presence in high mountains and the relation to the rock art iconography.
• From October 2014, I am a post-doctoral researcher of the French Fyssen Fundation and i am studying the Neolithic schematic paintings of south-eastern France.
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Il en est ainsi à la Bergerie des Maigres (Signes, Var). Grâce à cette méthode de relevé, l’iconographie de l’abri s’est enrichie de plusieurs personnages de grande taille représentés dans une zone très altérée de la paroi ainsi que d’une thématique inédite pour le corpus schématique de la France méridionale, celle de l’animal monté. La singularité de l’abri, dont les peintures présentent un degré moindre de schématisme que les autres sites du corpus et qui mettent en image des interactions entre humains et non-humains, s’en voit ainsi accentuée. Toutefois, un second abri situé du côté opposé du massif de la Sainte-Baume, l’abri du Pin de Simon II (Gémenos, Bouches-du-Rhône), partage plusieurs des caractéristiques de l’iconographie de la Bergerie des Maigres et invite à interpréter ces deux sites en regard l’un de l’autre.
l’originalité de cet abri. La technique et le thème (un cerf blessé affronté à un autre animal) des peintures schématiques réalisées à l’ocre sur le plafond de l’abri et sur la paroi du fond, mais également les associations présentes, invitent à les attribuer au Néolithique. L’étude de ce site s’inscrit dans le cadre des recherches pluridisciplinaires menées depuis plusieurs années, sous la direction de F. Mocci et K. Walsh, dans les hauts massifs de l’Argentiérois, au coeur du Parc National des Écrins. Ces dernières ont notamment mis en évidence la fréquentation par l’Homme de ces reliefs alpins, au-delà de 2 000 m d’altitude, dès le Mésolithique. Nous présentons dans cet article un état des connaissances relatives à cet abri que nous replaçons dans le contexte plus large des données archéologiques et environnementales établi dans ce secteur des Alpes méridionales françaises.
Go to article Table of Contents.
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http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublication?journalCode=bullsociprehfran
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ABSTRACT | To be interpreted, prehistoric imagery must be evaluated in its archaeological and cultural contexts. The body of material data of which images and effigies are an integral part is particularly important in order to avoid anachronisms and ’anatopisms’ (confusion of geographical contexts). Based on contextualization at different scales, this article proposes a reinterpretation of two frequent motifs characterizing the third millennium BCE statue-menhirs (or ’stelae’, i.e. standing stones) from the Central Alps: the circular figures and the so-called ‘bandoliera’ figures.
During the third millennium BCE, coinciding with Copper Age 2 and 3, ceremonial sites with groups of statue-menhirs appeared in the Central Alps alongside similar developments in other European regions. These Central Alpine monoliths from Valcamonica can be called the Camunnian group, and their rich imagery makes them outstanding. The typology of several artefacts allows this group’s evolution to be divided into three chronological phases (the usual prefix, III, will be omitted): A1 (2900-2500/2400 BCE), A2 (2500/2400-2200 BCE) and A3 (2200-2000 BCE). Only the A1 imagery — the most problematic — will be considered in this article.
At least two subsets of statue-menhirs can be recognized from their engraved images as well as the shape and size of the stone blocks employed. Set 1 bears images of daggers, ’halberds’, axes, belts, animals, and sometimes ploughing. Set 2 is only engraved with body ornaments. This dualistic pattern is also present in the neighbouring regions. Particularly in the Trentino-South Tyrol to the east, monoliths with ornaments also display sculpted breasts, suggesting the existence of a gendered distinction between male and female monoliths. The circle and ‘bandoliera’ images discussed in this article are typical of male iconography.
The Camunnian group shows several distinctive features compared with statue-menhirs of neighbouring regions. The erect boulders have an abstract human shape suggesting a representation of individuals. However, at the same time, anthropomorphism is unclear or absent from the actual imagery. It follows that engraved images, not being directly connected with recognizable body parts, are often difficult to interpret. That is the case with both the motifs we are dealing with in this article, which appear very abstract to present-day observers.
The circular figures are engraved at the top of male statue-menhirs and, until now, have been interpreted as representations of the sun. This intuitive idea rests on the presupposition that the same set of formal attributes — a circle with or without rays — should have a universal meaning, independent of its cultural context. However, various lines of evidence from both the imagery itself and the archaeological context of the Central Alpine Copper Age suggest a different interpretation.
First, there is the large morphological variability of the circular figures, which is inconsistent with a conventional, socially accepted representation of the sun. Secondly, these figures are circles, not discs, i.e. the reverse of the most widespread norm for representing the sun in known ethnographic contexts. Moreover, both a reappraisal of the social and ideological context characterizing the third millennium BCE Central Alps, and a comparison of the Camunnian monoliths with those of the neighbouring regions, strongly indicate that despite their relative abstraction in the Central Alps the statue-menhirs are effigies of individuals. This leads to a third objection: the so-called ‘sun disc’ is absent from all other Alpine regions, although sharing the same broad ideology. In these other regions, it is figurations of necklaces that appear at the top of statue-menhirs.
Finally, dealing with an ideology where manipulation of funerary ‘relics’ is attested at the same ceremonial sites including erect stone bodies, any interpretation of statue-menhirs demands that attention be paid to the funerary context. In the Copper Age Central Alps this context can be equated with the so-called Civate funerary tradition, in which what we may call the ’culture of appearance’ clearly possessed an important social value. Body ornaments, particularly elements from necklaces, indeed predominate among the objects deposited with the dead, characterizing the Civate sites.
When all the above lines of evidence are brought together, the Camunnian circular figures emerge as elements of the material culture of the groups involved, and more specifically necklaces.
The second ambiguous image examined, the ‘bandoliera’ figure, is systematically engraved on two contiguous faces of the statue-menhir. In spite of this, it has been commonly interpreted as the representation in plan of a megalithic enclosure, based on comparison with dwelling or ceremonial sites far away from the Central Alps (including southern France, Portugal, or even Stonehenge). This motif is considered to be part of so-called ‘topographic’ imagery. However, such an interpretation is problematic on methodological grounds, being divorced from both its medium (a stone effigy of an individual) and its cultural context. No megalithic enclosures have so far been found in the Central Alps.
Depending on the same body of data summarised above in connection with the circular figures, we propose to interpret the ‘bandoliera’ motif as a male body ornament — or part of equipment — worn on the shoulder.
Contextualization of imagery enables a more robust body of evidence to be built in order to identify and interpret the motifs. In Alpine cases, notably from the Copper Age of Valcamonica, the interpretation of engraved imagery — and especially of ambiguous figures — needs to take into account the ontology of the erected monoliths and the cultural and archaeological context. There is always a risk, in the archaeology of ideological phenomena, of producing discourses or theories disconnected from the archaeological contextual base. We must not ascribe to the monoliths a meaning patently unsupported by the material evidence, be it universal sun images or megalithic plans. Contextualization on different scales is essential for an ’archaeology of images’ and is equally valuable to avoid misinterpretations. This paper has allowed new interpretations to be proposed for the Camunnian circular and ‘bandoliera’ motifs: images that, accordingly, belong in the social enhancement of bodily symbolic display — or the ‘culture of appearance’ — of the Copper Age groups involved.
Keywords | Central Alps, Val Camonica, statue-menhirs, imagery, archaeological context
pictographs. It is now widely used in the world since a decade but have thus far rarely been used in
French and African rock art studies. Among all the software tools currently available to rock art
specialists, it is one of the most efficient to decipher faint paintings and sometimes engravings, while
being cheap, fast and easy to use, particularly in harsh or remote environments. Moreover, the
enhancement of digital images with DStretch is almost operator-independent and reproducible thanks
to pre-recorded settings, thus improving objectivity. We provide several examples of the benefit of using
this tool on various sites, from African prehistoric pictographs to Alpine paintings and petroglyphs, and
propose a method for recording rock art panels with DStretch. But, in spite of these advantages, we
have to keep in mind that the final tracings are always subjective and biased by personal perceptions, as
demonstrated here by a simple but significant experience.
software proved to be equally useful for the visualization of linear engravings and scratchings. This unexpected function of DStretch, created for the study of rupestrian paintings, made it possible to clarify
and correct the previous recordings of an incised Iron Age warrior and to facilitate the digital tracing of a modern maritime scene. Even if such convincing results are determined by particular local geological
conditions in this case, this function could facilitate the study of engravings in other contexts where the lithology of smooth rock surfaces produces a sharp contrast with incised images.
rockshelter, located in a narrow zone at 2390 m a.s.l. along a route to the Piedmont in Italy, is overhung by
a rock face painted and engraved with images dating back several millennia. Amongst them are engravings of Remedello type
daggers dated to 2900–2400 BC evidence of a Neolithic north Italian influence. The iconographic study was made with
an image processing software (DStretch) making it possible to specify painted or engravings invisible for the naked eye or partially worn
off. Thus the delimitations of schematic paintings predating the Late Neolithic were clarified and completed. The contextualization
of these images reveals a site which is crucial for the understanding of mobility in high mountain environments and
transalpine cultural influences. The vertical walls and the microtopography suggest that the site of Les Oullas was a “site of
passage” or liminal site.
Finally, in addition to convey information about social structures, these figured Neolithic bodies appear directly conditioned by the way of being in the world and relationships with the environment. Male bodies are engraved with animals and defined by a structural opposition between red deer and ibex. Animal species are used to distinguish male effigies. Moreover, the spatial structure of the male iconography, and consequently of the male body, could evoke a more general structure of the world. From these observations, it seems that Neolithic bodies are much more than biological organisms. They are at the intersection of social constructions and ontology of the prehistoric groups.