JADE ARCHAEOLOGY

Projet JADE (2006−2010) focused on the long axeheads of Alpine jades which circulated around the whole of Europe during the 5th and 4th millennia BC. The jades were exploited at high altitude in the Italian Alps, on Mont Viso near Turin and on the Beigua massif near Genoa. The project identifiedthe long-distance movement of axeheads, over distances from the source areas of up to 1700 km as the crow flies, reaching the shores of the Atlantic to the west and those of the Black Sea to the east. The impression given by the distribution pattern and by the findspot contexts (at least as far as the Morbihan region of Brittany is concerned) is one of societies that were markedly inegalitarian, where the sphere of exchange practices was controlled by powerful individuals. These people manipulated objects, sacrificing and consecrating them, using them not only for competitive displays of social status but also for religious rituals, the axeheads forming part of the society’s mythology. The new project, JADE 2, seeks to findout more about the various ideological systems that lay behind the movement of these axeheads on a European scale, and to create social and historical interpretations that follow the principles laid down by an anthropological study of past societies.

On the basis of the 502 samples of Alpine rock, collected as raw material specimens or as working debris, that make up the redefine the mineralogical and petrographic signatures that would allow them to identify the origin of the axeheads which circulated around western Europe during the Neolithic.
The work took the form of double-blind tests, featuring on the one hand the results of spectroradiometric analysis, together with the evidence from large petrological thin sections and from the macroscopic and low-magnfication microscopic inspection of polished blocks ; and on the other, the examina-tion of small petrological thin sections and the interpretation of compositional results obtained by XRD analysis.
A series of characteristic features is proposed for the two massifs (Mont Viso and Mont Beigua) which were the most intensively exploited during the Neolithic.
For Mont Viso, the characteristic lithologies would seem to be : massive garnetiferous jadeitites (or eclogite with jadeite) ; pseudomorphs of ‘lawsonite’ in eclogites and omphacitites ; abundant rutile in jadeitites and omphacitites ; laminar eclo-gites with a satin-like surface ; jadeitites, omphacitites and eclogites with atoll garnets or garnets with a hollow center ; massive, dark green omphacitites and fine-grained eclogites ; fine-grained bluish-green jadeitites ; jadeitites and omphacitites with green mica ; and and finally certain jadeitites and om-phacitites with a saccharoidal texture.
In the case of the Mont Beigua massif, there are lami-nar eclogites with jadeite ; jadeitites with spotty epidote inclusions ; quartz- and albite-jadeitites ; glaucophane ja-deitites and omphacitites ; blue-green jadeitites with mid-green veining ; omphacitite- and jadeitite-schists ; and glaucophanitic schists.
However, in spite of the unexpectedly high number of these potential markers, there still remain gaps in the reference collection ; so, among the jadeitite and omphacitite axe-heads, there are some where it is currently impossible to determine whether the material originated in Mont Viso or Mont Beigua. In some of these cases, there is no match with any of the reference samples.
A new analytical method is therefore called for. (See chapter 8, this book, on spectroradiometry.)

SHERIDAN A., PETREQUIN P., PETREQUIN A.M., CASSEN S., ERRERA M., GAUTHIER E. et PRODEO F., 2019.- Fifty shades of green : the irresistible attraction, use and significance of jadeitite and other green Alpine rock types in Neolithic Europe, in : C. Rodriguez-Reillan et al. (ed.), A taste for green. A global perspective on ancient jade, turquoise and variscite exchange. Oxford, Oxbow books : 97-120.

Found right across Europe and into Asia Minor, from Ireland, Brittany and Portugal in the west to Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine and Turkey in the east, and from northern Scotland in the north to Malta (and now Tunisia) in the south, axe- and adze-heads made from jadeitite and from other green rock types from the high Alps in northern Italy are the most extensively-travelled artefacts in prehistoric Europe, their long-distance movement rivalled only by that of Neolithic objects made from Aegean spondylus shell. Individual examples travelled up to 1700 kilometres north-westwards and up to 1800 km eastwards as the crow flies from their sources in the Monte Viso and Monte Beigua massifs. Some are known to have travelled even further, having been modified in the Morbihan region of Brittany before circulating back towards their source area – and even past that, as far as Laterza in southern Italy, which involved a staggering journey of 2800 km. First made around the middle of the sixth millennium BC, axeheads and other artefacts of Alpine green stones went on to cross cultural and linguistic boundaries and to play a key role in the belief systems and ritual practices of diverse groups. The fascination with these ‘green treasures from the magic mountains’ lasted for nearly three millennia. The axeheads’ shapes were imitated across Neolithic Europe, using locally-available rock types and even copper, and their existence may have inspired the widespread exploitation of green stones for making axeheads, as for example in the case of Pyrenean nephrite. Moreover, their association with remote, hard to access montane sources – numinous, liminal locations almost certainly associated with the world of the gods – may well have inspired the exploitation of stones, preferably green, from mountains and other special locations a very long way from the Alps. Thanks to two major recent international research projects funded by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche in France, Projet JADE (2007–2011) and Projet JADE 2 (2013–2017), we are now able to say a very great deal about the history and nature of the exploitation of green Alpine stones, the chaîne opératoire of artefact manufacture and subsequent modification, the circulation and use of the objects and the symbolic and ideological significance both of the object forms and of the choice of material. The project team non-destructively analysed some 2100 large axe- and adze-heads (plus disc-rings) across Europe, along with around 2500 specimens of raw material and working debris, forming a comprehensive reference collection; undertook systematic prospection for source areas and working sites in the Western Alps; excavated and dated several working areas; collated all information about dating, depositional contexts and representations; and reassessed the societies that used these objects.
The results have been published in a series of four substantial volumes totalling nearly 3000 pages.  This contribution attempts to distil the main findings of this research, and to address the question: what was it about these rocks that made them so special, and what meaning and value did they have in Neolithic and early Chalcolithic Europe?

Gates • merCeDes Guinea bueno amanDa Guzmán • ainslie Harrison • máximo Jiménez aCosta briGitte kovaCeviCH • Julie lauFFenburGer • Carlos mayo torné Julia mayo torné • DaviD mora-marín • Juan antonio murro karen o'Day • miCHelle PaWliGer • Juan Pablo quintero Guzmán antHony J. ranere • steWart D. reDWooD • sebastián rivas estraDa Juanita sáenz samPer • silvia salGaDo González • luís a. sánCHez Herrera niCole e. smitH-Guzmán • maría aliCia uribe villeGas

Several large axehead-chisels of nephrite have been identified in a hoard of axeheads and in one of the Carnacean tu-muli in the Morbihan. No plausible source had been proposed for these objects, which are exceptional in Europe, there being only seven further examples known, from Switzerland, France, Germany and Great Britain. We propose to test the hypothesis that the source of the stone is in the Valais, exploring a nephrite outcrop - one of several possible outcrops in this region - at Les Haudères (Swiss Valais, Switzerland), located at 1 950 metres above sea level. This hypothesis is based on the fact that a considerable amount of evidence exists for the sawing of nephrite in the upper Rhône valley around the town of Sion, where the number of large, part-ly-sawn plaques of nephrite has increased in recent years.
But an hypothesis such as this is associated with several problems. The dating of the Neolithic sites in the Valais that have produced plaques or other traces of sawing are relati-vely late, with nothing anterior to 4300-4200 BC, whereas the oldest of the axehead-chisels found in the Carnac area could date as far back as  the mid-5th millennium. Moreover, other sources of nephrite that were exploited during the Neolithic are known to exist, in the Ariège (Pyrénées) and also probably in the Grisons (Swiss Alps). The application of spectroradiometric analysis allows us to clarify the situa-tion, while the question of chronology can be addressed through a systematic study of the archaeological context of finds made outside of the Alpine region : one example is the nephrite axehead from la Baume de Gonvillars (Haute-Saône), attributed to the Rössen Culture around 4500 BC.
Currently the most plausible hypothesis - albeit one that is not yet demonstrated with sufficient rigour from the point of view of petrography - is that nephrite artefacts were made in the Valais, and then fed into the circulation of the large axeheads of Alpine stone made around Mont Viso.

The study of nearly 1,800 large axeheads made of Alpine jades has allowed us to identify their source areas in the Italian Alps and their diffusion over distances up to 1,700 km as the crow flies, above all in a north-westerly direction and towards the Atlantic. Moreover, a Europe-wide typological approach has revealed that the shape of these axeheads - at least as far as the examples made of the rarest and most beautiful rock type (jadeitite) are concerned - had in some cases been transformed several times over, in order to create original objects and hence to en-hance their value in exchanges.
We must, then, ask what was the social meaning of these ‘object-signs’ of jade, and what were the concepts which lay behind their circulation over distances which far exceeded those travelled by most other artefacts. The rarity and preciousness of the raw material is evidently implica-ted in these beliefs, as we can see from other jade objects, be they archaeological or ethnographic, which were used in central America, on the Antilles, in China and in New Zealand by markedly hierarchical societies with religious concepts that buttressed the power of the elites. Nor was the near-ubiquitous choice of the axe as an ‘object-sign’ in any way arbitrary ; rather, it was based on the general value of this tool used by farmers in a forest environment. The axe stood for certain social and politi-cal functions that were dominated by men, representing virility and violence. Likewise, the choice of jades was not random, since this precious stone, remarkably tough and luminous, often seems to have been associated with water, with lightning, with snakes and with eternity.
A fundamental observation to make is that the long polished axeheads of Alpine jade have most frequently been disco-vered in isolation - that is to say, outwith the archaeological context of a settlement or a grave. This absence of a conventional context must, however, be regarded as being of key significance in indicating the idealised value that had been accorded to these ‘object-signs’ of stone. Ancient and more recent discoveries of Alpine jade axeheads (and in-deed of axeheads made from flint or from other rocks from regionally-specificsources) have allowed us to state firmly that these objects had been deliberately deposited in the natural landscape, be it singly, in pairs, or occasionally in larger numbers. The findspot locations are often distinctive, with most axeheads being associated with water (in the form of lakes, ponds, bogs, rivers and waterfalls), and with some others being associated with free-standing blocks of stone, with rock overhangs or with fissures. The choice that is implied in these places of deposition evokes, unequivo-cally, certain sacred sites that are known from archaeology and ethnology : such sites are located at specific points in the landscape where communication with the supernatural Beings who control the fate of the living could take place. The representations of axes and axeheads that are engra-ved on the standing stones in the Morbihan lead us to the same conclusion.
If we accept this interpretation which invokes the domains of mythology, religion and social inequalities, then the spatial distribution of jade ‘object-signs’ in western Europe becomes easier to comprehend, as does the practice of polishing some axeheads made from the finest jadeitites to achieve a mirror-like sheen. Furthermore, the deliberate burning or breaking of some axeheads implies a sacrificial act, in which the objects were consecrated to Otherworldly powers ; the use of fire in this act of destruction echoes its use in the creation of some axeheads, through the use of fire-settingto extract the rock in the high Alps. Thus, the circulation of large Alpine axeheads was closely linked to a belief system that was based on the premise of their being a social inequality, in the func-tioning of the world, between men and the supernatural forces who possessed the ultimate power.
Given this context, it is therefore not surprising to find that the commonly-accepted terms ‘axehead for display’, ‘prestige axehead’ and ‘ceremonial axehead’ can neither explain nor account for the fact that these ‘object-signs’ of jade are virtually absent from settlement contexts (except at the beginning of their currency at the end of the 6th and at the end of their use during the first half of the 4th millennium BC). Similarly, the presence of jade axeheads in funerary contexts is rare : there are some modestly-sized polished Alpine axeheads in certain graves in the source area (North Italy, in the Square-Mouthed Pottery Culture), and some in male graves dating to a late phase in the use of Alpine rock (at the end of the 5th millennium and the first half of the 4th millennium).
The status of the individuals who were interred in the mas-sive mounds in the Carnac area of the Gulf of Morbihan, accompanied by numerous large Alpine axeheads and by other objects imported over long distances, is therefore all the more exceptional and demands to be explained. However, we should not make the common mistake of simply regarding these individuals as ‘Big Man’ chiefs, operating in a system based on conspicuous consumption ; such an interpretation ignores the religious basis of the socio-political organisation. The evidence encourages us to regard this society - which produced the earliest megalithic architecture in Europe around the middle of the 5th millennium, together with a whole repertoire of symbolic imagery (inclu-ding the axe), engraved on extraordinary standing stones- as one which was markedly inegalitarian, with some men having acquired an intermediary status between the elite and the supernatural powers. Such individuals would have been theocrats, ‘divine kings’, akin to those described by ethnographers for certain parts of Africa and Oceania, with the unstable ‘kingdom’ of Tonga being probably the clearest example. Despite the long distance (in time and space) between these societies and the ancient society of the Carnac region, the analogy seems justified.
Our proposed interpretation of the long-distance exchange of jade objects - above all towards north-west Europe - is thus based on our recognition of the idealised function of long axeheads within markedly inegalitarian societies, of which the most extreme version was located around the Gulf of Morbihan. In other words, the control of the exchange of these ‘object-signs’ which were destined to be consecrated or sacrificed would have been wholly in the hands of a small fraction of the elite. These few individuals would have acquired them not so much for making a direct statement of their privileged status within society, but rather to gain and reinforce their prestige, fame and religious power through offering the jade objects to the Otherworldly powers in order to ensure the (conceptual) reproduction of the world.

Using models derived from our ethno-archaeological work in New Guinea, in 2003 we succeded in finding different sources of Alpine jades, after a dozen years of prospecting in the high Alps between Sesia in the north and Trebbia in the south-east. Analyses by spectroradio-metry and by X-ray diffraction, together with petrographic thin-sectioning, was essential to the identification and characterisation of the raw materials of each region.
In the Monte Viso massif, five very important primary sour-ces (or secondary sources close to these) had been exploited at a height of between 1 500 and 2 400 metres above sea level : Barant, Alpetto-Murel, Bulè, Milanese and Porco.
In the massif of Monte Beigua (or, to adopt the term used by geologists, the Voltri Group), some secondary sources of jades were identified in the west of the area (in the high valley of the Erro), in the centre (high valley of the Orba) and in the east (high valleys of the Lemme and of the Ardana). As for primary sources, these are limited to a few blocks of jadeitite (at Celle Ligure) or to rounded masses of eclogitic rocks (at Urbe) or of amphibolitic rocks, as at Sassello, Chapel of Rocca Colombo (where there are traces of exploitation). In contrast to Monte Viso, the conditions of prospection and the fossilisation of traces of Neolithic exploitation are much less favourable, due to the intensity of the torrent-based ravine formation process.
It is likely that these two regions - which contain the ma-jority of the sources of Alpine jades - were not the only source areas to be exploited during the Neolithic. Other massifs, with more modest supplies, still need to be ex-plored in detail, such as the area around the Val de Suse and the valley of the Orco.
As for the Alpine nephrites that are attested in certain hoards in the Gulf of Morbihan around the middle of the fifth millennium BC, it is in Valais, in the region of Sion (Switzerland), where one of the most likely source areas exists. This lies close to a primary source of calc-amphibolite at Haudères (in the Val de Bagnes, at 1 900 metres), but other sites may yet await discovery.

Spectroradiometry is an analytical technique that is non-destructive, rapid, portable and cheap. As with thin-section petrography or X-rays diffraction analysis, for example, it is based on comparing specimens with re-ference material of known origin. Although petrographic and other reference collections have existed for several decades and have long since been documented fully, the same cannot be said for spectroradiometry. This is mostly due to its extreme sensitivity to numerous para-meters that are not directly related to mineral or chemi-cal composition - an effect termed the ‘matrix effect’. While this might for a long time have seemed to be an inconvenience - it was not until the 1970s that spectroradiometry began to be used (for purposes linked to remote sensing and to the exploration of Mars) - the matrix effect in fact constitutes the method’s principal point of interest since, in certain cases, it allows one to undertake far finercomparisons than those possible using any other method.
Since 1999, spectroradiometry has been used to analyse several thousand Neolithic artefacts (small and large axeheads, beads, bangles and other items of jewellery) and it is often possible, if one has an adequate set of reference material, to pinpoint the source of the raw material. Thanks to the exploration of the Alpine massif by Pierre and Anne-Marie Pétrequin, as part of their research into the origin of jadeitites, a large number of wellprovenanced raw material samples have been collected and analysed. These form the basis of the reference collection of Alpine greenstones which currently comprises almost 2 500 spectra. The success of these prospections in revealing previously unknown sources of European jadeitite has allowed us, through statistical analysis, to assess the representativity of debitage deriving from raw material blocks that had been completely worked out long ago.
In studying the spectra relating to the large European axeheads, it was first necessary to undertake a general synthesis and to define a certain number of representative and characteristic spectrofacies. Each of these then needed to be described and to be attributed, as far as possible, to a probable origin (by comparing them with the reference collection of Alpine greenstones).
Finally, the geographical distribution of all the axe-heads attributed to an individual spectrofacies needed to be studied. In order to achieve this, all the spectra of the large European axeheads were compared using the classic statistical method as used in remote sensing. In this way, some 1 117 spectra have been allocated to 178 ‘endmembers’. These were then described and analysed, and the main results were synthesised into a diagnostic key. Several subsequent regroupings and simplifications led to the definition of the principal spectrofacies. These spectrofacies therefore represent, statistically, the full range of the spectra relating to the large European axeheads and each newly-determined spectrum can be compared with each of these. Some spectrofacies represent raw materials that did not diffuse far from their place of origin, while others have a distribution that extends over much of Europe. Over half of the spectrofacies represent the most abundant varieties of jadeitites - a fact that demonstrates well the sen-sitivity of the method as applied to these rocks. In contrast, the eclogites, omphacitites and basalts, for example, are only represented by a small number of spectrofacies.
It is thus possible, by using spectrofacies, to rifine significantly our picture of the currents of circulation over which certain large axeheads travelled from their raw material extraction zones.

Gates • merCeDes Guinea bueno amanDa Guzmán • ainslie Harrison • máximo Jiménez aCosta briGitte kovaCeviCH • Julie lauFFenburGer • Carlos mayo torné Julia mayo torné • DaviD mora-marín • Juan antonio murro karen o'Day • miCHelle PaWliGer • Juan Pablo quintero Guzmán antHony J. ranere • steWart D. reDWooD • sebastián rivas estraDa Juanita sáenz samPer • silvia salGaDo González • luís a. sánCHez Herrera niCole e. smitH-Guzmán • maría aliCia uribe villeGas

Barely two centuries fter the appearance of the first archaeologi cally-visible elements that served to define the earliest Neolithic in the west of France around 4900 BC – that is, domestic buildings, pottery, a distinctive flint technology, and other aspects of material culture that reproduced the norms that had been established in the Paris Basin and on the middle Loire river – along the southern shores of Brittany there was a sudden and unexpected ‘accu-mulation of concepts’ among the hunter-gatherer-fisher communities who lived there. The emergence of an extremely inegalitarian political structure was expressed in terms of massive standing stones and colossal funerary mounds, architectural constructs that were unique in Europe at this time and which constituted the earliest permanent architecture in the region. These monuments were funerary and symbolic in nature, being associated with the most extraordinary accumulation of objects made from rare and exotic materials. Moreover, the represen-tations of the world that appeared as engraved im-ages on the standing stones constitute visible signs of a divided society. By tacking between two extremes, from symbol to material within the protean phenomenon that we call megalithism, this contribution sets out to capture a sense of the distinction that was being ex-pressed by this élite – a distinction that did not just define inequality in that society, but also differentiated it from contemporary groups elsewhere and from its successors in southern Brittany.

Two different groups of green stones with a distant origin are found together in the Neolithic tombs of the Carnac Region (Brittany, France): Alpine jades (jadeitite, omphacitite, eclogite, nephrite) were used as raw material for polished axes and disc-rings, while the Iberian callaïs (variscite, turquoise) for pendants and beads. The way in which these transfers took place will be the subject of this paper, highlighting the specific features of each geographical area. With such aim in mind, the rows of steles and the iconographic programmes inscribed on the standing stones of the study area will be analyzed to propose a comparison of their respective symbolic systems. While the land routes from the Alps begin to be better traced for the 5th millennium, the sea routes to/from the Iberian Peninsula remain theoretical but very promising. We will offer several arguments in favour of the later hypothesis.

Around the middle of the 5th millennium, the elite in the Gulf of Morbihan transformed certain large axeheads made of Alpine rocks, especially those of jadeitite. What they were doing was to create new types of axehead that were original and hard to imitate, which they then deposi-ted in monumental graves or ‘planted’ upright at specific locations in the ritual landscape. These ‘Carnac - type’ axeheads - comprising those of Saint-Michel and Tumiac types (some of the latter having perforations through their butts), with blades that project from the sides to varying degrees - resulted from the re-shaping, through polishing, of larger Alpine axeheads. The latter had been treated as though they were simply roughouts, made from a particularly precious exotic raw material, destined to be re-conceptualised and re-worked.
Several dozen of these Carnac-type axeheads were subsequently ‘injected’ into the system of long-distance exchanges during the second half of the 5th millennium. Some of these ancient Alpine axeheads, having already travelled over several hundred kilometres to Brittany, then travelled similar distances again, ending up in north-west Spain, northern Germany and Italy (with examples from Emilia Romagna and Puglia).
In western Europe, the value of these ‘object-signs’, associated with the religious grammar of the Gulf of Morbihan, was such that the jade Carnac-style axeheads were copied in local rocks, such as flint in the case of the Saint-Michel copies in the Paris Basin and in Denmark, sillimanite in the case of the Cangas-type axeheads in Spain, and serpentinite in the case of the Zug-type in Switzerland.
The date of these imitations allows us to form an idea of the speed at which the originals travelled from Brittany to the interior of the Continent. The axehead found at Laterza was found in a final Serra d’Alto/Diana context, dating towards the end of the 5th millennium. The earliest Zug-type axehead can be assigned to the 43rd/42nd centuries BC. As for Cangas-type axeheads, one could plausibly suggest that they also appeared towards the end of the 5th millennium.
In this chronological context, the circulation of Carnac-type axeheads can be seen to have accompanied the expan-sion of the religious symbolism of the Gulf of Morbihan (as shown in the form of stelae and engravings) along the Atlantic coast and towards the interior of Continental Europe.

Thanks to programme JADE, our research into the fu-nerary assemblages of Catalonia has allowed us to demonstrate that the arrival of Alpine jade axeheads (co-ming mostly from the Mont Viso massif) was probably no earlier than the end of the 5th millennium BC. The peak period of importation was during the first quarter of the 4th millennium BC. At this time, there seems to have been a strong correlation between the presence of these Alpine axeheads and the arrival of cores of heat-treated Bedoulian flint ; both have often been found in the assemblages from the richest graves. It therefore appears that influence from the Chassey culture, and the operation of the network of contacts around which Vaucluse flint circulated, were responsible for the late re-orientation of the circulation pattern of certain Alpine jades across the Pyrenees, in the direction of the people who were mining variscite.
The single Carnac-type axehead found at Collbatò attests to the intrusion of an Alpine jade axehead that had initially been imported to Brittany, and subsequently repolished in the Morbihan, before being exported once again, towards south-west France and as far as Catalonia. It may have constituted an item that had been exchanged for the variscite from Gavà that was being exported northwards to Armorica at this time.
It should also be noted that, among the range of grave goods, polished axeheads of Alpine jade are preferentially found in the richest graves. Even though none of these axeheads is exceptionally large, nor has a remarkable degree of polish, nevertheless they may well have been a material expression of the wealth and importance of certain special individuals (albeit none occupying the extraordinary status of the men who were buried, around the middle of the 5th millennium, around the Gulf of Morbihan or at Varna on the shores of the Black Sea). Only the grave of La Bisbal d’Empordà seems to have been of especial significancewith its unique set of gra-ve goods : a magnificent long axehead (28.5 cm long) of Puy type, very carefully polished. This raises the question of the eminent status of the individual with whom they were buried.
The study of Catalan tombs also permits us to arrive at a more precise date for the use of Puy-type jade axeheads, at least in this region. The example of Bòbila Madurel M5, placed in a circular pit, is attributed to the very beginning of the « Sepulcres de fossa » culture, at the transition of the 5th to the 4th millennia BC. The example from Bòbila Padró is slightly later : it is contemporary with the Auriac phase of the Chassey culture, between 4000 and 3850 BC. The initial diffusion of Puy-type axeheads would therefore seem to be linked with the expansion of the Chasséen (which was contemporary with the earliest copper metallurgy in northern Italy), around the end of the 5th millennium ; the latest examples of Puy-type axe-heads date to the 36th century BC in the lakeside villages of western Switzerland. The Catalan series of Alpine axe-heads includes large specimens in nephrite jade, along with others made from other tough rocks which could come from either the Valais or the Pyrenees; determining which is the case awaits the establishment of a reference collection of ultrabasic rocks in the north Pyrenees. The shapes of these axeheads are the same as those of Al-pine jade axeheads ; they are of Chelles and Puy type. There are also long chisels, which seem to be of specifically Pyrenean type (‘type Lagor’).

Having examined several thousand roughouts, flakes, anvil stones, hammerstones used for flaking and hammerstones used for pecking from the Neolithic quarries of Mont Viso and Mont Beigua and the ‘workshops’ at Rivanazzano, the authors propose an experimental approach to studying the chaînes opératoires used in manu-facturing axeheads and adze-heads of Alpine jades.
The simplest processes seem to be those employed at Rivanazzano, where the rock types used are very defor-med, being markedly schistose. These permit the rapid thinning of roughouts by flaking using the hammer-and-anvil technique. By contrast, with markedly grainy non-schistose rock types, pecking followed by grinding was the preferred technique. The working-up of flakes of rock types whose texture features elongated mineral laths is also attested in the quarries of Mont Viso ; this technique was mostly used to produce small polished blades destined for utilitarian use for felling trees and working wood.
But for making the long, socially valorised axeheads, it was the exploitation of thermal flakes obtained through fire-setting that prevailed. This produced long curving flakes that could then be worked up by direct flaking or hammer-and-anvil flaking.
The technique of sawing, using thin plaques of wood along with sand and water, is attested from the middle of the 5th millennium and was particularly used from the end of that millennium. A specific method has been observed, featu-ring the creation of a narrow groove using the saw, then enlarging it by pecking, and finally sawing again.
The process of polishing - which was laborious, given the extreme toughness of the jadeitites, omphacitites and eclo-gites used - was probably undertaken by alternating phases of grinding successive facets with episodes of pecking. In every case, no more than three grammes could be removed per hour through polishing, the mean amount being esta-blished as around two grammes per hour. This poses a pro-blem, since we know that the transformation of a large, thick, oval-sectioned axehead to a thin Carnac-style axehead could sometimes involve the abrading away of nearly a half a kilo of jadeitite or omphacitite. The length of time taken by this process of thinning through polishing, which is first attested in the Paris Basin, then in Brittany and Germany, cannot yet be estimated accurately, but it must have approached several hundred hours for the longest and thinnest polished blades. It is likely that this long additional investment of effort will have added to the social value of the large polished axeheads.
Finally, by reconstructing the types of haft used, we can see that, during their initial use in Italy, the blades of Alpine rock were hafted as adzes. When they arrived in the Morbihan region of Brittany, their method of hafting, like their polish, was modified so that they became hafted as axeheads, with the blade set at roughly right-angles to the haft. They are depicted as such on monumental standing stones.

Spectroradiometry, macroscopic approaches and the origin of Alpine jades: Viso or Beigua ?

Two principal raw material source areas have been identified for the large axeheads of Alpine jades (jadeitites, omphacitites and eclogites) which circulated from the end of the 5th millennium to the middle of the 3rd millennium BC: the Mont Viso massif, and that of Beigua (Voltri Group), separated from each other by 120 kilometres as the crow flies.

The authors have sought to evaluate the relative volume of the jades that are still available today, taking into account all the types of outcrop and deposit. Mont Viso represents by far the most important source, especially in the case of jadeitites, which are but poorly represented in the torrent beds of Beigua. However, the situation today need not necessarily reflect that of the Neolithic. Thus, a second evaluation has been attempted, this time focusing on the number of abandoned roughouts found in the production areas around Viso and  Beigua. This has produced an identical result, with Viso largely dominating axehead production in the Italian Alps, and in particular those made from jadeitites and fine-grained eclogites.

In order to determine the origin of the large Alpine axeheads (Viso vs. Beigua) – a consideration of key importance for reconstructing the axes of movement of polished axeheads across the cultural mosaic of Neolithic Europe – two methods were used, following a ‘double blind’ approach: that of spectroradiometric analysis and that of macroscopic research of characteristics that are particular to one or other of the exploited massifs.

Four hundred and thirty eight large jadeitite axeheads were analysed in order to determine their possible origin. The global results allow us firstly to assess the number of axeheads whose origin cannot be located using one or the other method – an important consideration as it affects the statistical analysis of the results. Secondly, they reveal that divergent results are obtained using each of the methods: with spectroradiometry, the figures are 58% of sourceable axeheads for Viso and 42% for Beigua, whereas with the macroscopic approach, the figures are 87% for Viso and 13% for Beigua.

In fact, the number of axeheads whose origin could be determined using both methods together is low. More generally, one could say that an axehead’s origin can only be identified using one or the other method, and not both together. This bias could account for the differences in the global results obtained through spectroradiometry as opposed to macroscopic examination.

This observation that the diagnostic features differ between different methods of analysis shows the necessity of employing the two approaches conjointly, even though the spectra for omphacitites and eclogites offer too little differentiation to allow one to make comparisons and to suggest an origin using spectroradiometry. For those rock types, the use of the macroscopic approach seems promising and allows us to suggest, on the basis of a sample of 214 large axeheads, that 83% of them could come from Viso, against 17% from Beigua.

This evaluation is consistent with the impression gained from our assessment of currently-available Alpine jades around Viso and Beigua and from the number of abandoned roughouts found in each of these production areas.

Finally, the discovery that the two methods of analysis can produce apparent contradictions (albeit rare) in their results has a positive outcome: these methods can indeed be used fruitfully in sourcing axeheads, but they have to be used in a narrow, systematic manner. Since the diagnostic characteristics differ from one method to another, then each axehead must be approached using both spectroradiometry and macroscopic inspection. This is, in our opinion, the only way to reduce the over-large number of ‘indeterminate origin’ identifications which hinder the traceability of long axeheads in their circulation at a pan-European scale.

La hache-pendeloque d'Ouff et, découverte lors de prospections de surface et donc hors contexte archéologique conventionnel, présente des caractéristiques très particulières : la matière première est un jade-néphrite d'origine alpine, très vraisemblablement du Valais suisse. Du point de vue typologique, la forme est celle d'une hache de la deuxième moitié du V e millénaire, date plausible de son transfert depuis les Alpes suisses jusqu'en Belgique, soit sur près de 500 km à vol d'oiseau. La présence d'une gorge de suspension près du talon pourrait montrer enfi n une réutilisation tardive, pendant le Néolithique fi nal, vers la fi n du IV e millénaire ou le début du III e .

Trois aires de production de haches ont été identifiées dans les Alpes suisses et dans les Pyrénées, en associant l’étude des déchets de fabrication et la prospection sur le terrain :
- la première, dans les Grisons, correspond à l’exploitation de lentilles et de galets dans la vallée de la Julia (Oberhalbstein), avec des villages spécialisés dans la haute vallée du Rhin ;
- la seconde se situe en Valais dans la haute vallée du Rhône aux environs de Sion ; les exploitations de lentilles de néphrite étaient situées en montagne, entre 1 700 et 2 700 m d’altitude ;
- quant à la troisième aire, en Haute Ariège, elle n’est connue que par une production spécialisée dans la grotte de Bédeilhac ; les gisements de néphrite, eux, n’ont pas encore été précisément localisés.

Ces trois aires de production ont alimenté les échanges régionaux probablement dès le début du Ve millénaire et certainement jusqu’au début du IIIe.

Les analyses spectroradiométriques ont permis de construire deux référentiels pour caractériser ces productions et pister leur circulation à longue distance :
- un référentiel d’échantillons naturels,  qui compte 701 spectres ;
- un référentiel d’objets archéologiques, qui regroupe 834 spectres avec présence d’une amphibole dominante.

En dépit d’une forte variabilité interne dans les gîtes de matières premières et de spectres parfois presque semblables dans des gîtes différents, l’approche spectroradiométrique a permis d’identifier l’origine de grandes haches et d’un anneau-disque en néphrite, découverts à plus de 500 km de leur zone d’origine. Parmi celles-ci figurent des lames polies du tumulus géant carnacéen de Tumiac et du dépôt de Bernon à Arzon (Morbihan), dont l’origine alpine (Grisons et Valais) n’est pas douteuse. Il en va de même pour l’anneau-disque de Languidic, qui est le seul objet de ce type mis en forme à partir d’une plaque de néphrite valaisanne.

À l’échelle régionale, c’est-à-dire dans un rayon d’une centaine de kilomètres, les trois centres de production ont injecté des haches et des ciseaux en grand nombre. Les transferts deviennent beaucoup plus discrets au-delà de 100 km et s’estompent complètement passé 200 km à vol d’oiseau. Cependant quelques objets exceptionnels franchissent cette limite et, dans le cas des Grisons et du Valais, ont atteint le golfe du Morbihan à plus de 800 km ; au contraire, les néphrites pyrénéennes ne semblent pas avoir connu une telle dynamique expansive à très longue distance.

Cette différence entre les deux centres alpins et le centre pyrénéen pourrait s’expliquer par leur position respective par rapport aux grands axes de diffusion des jades alpins (jadéitites, omphacitites, éclogites fines) à partir du massif du Mont Viso en direction de l’ouest. Les jades alpins, socialement valorisés dans les dons entre élites, auraient alors entraîné dans leur sillage des anneaux-disques de type alsacien ou alpin et quelques artefacts alpins remarquables en néphrite – une matière première de moindre valeur idéelle – tandis que les lames polies en néphrite pyrénéenne restaient cantonnées à l’aire habituelle de diffusion des outillages techniques en pierre polie.




Abstract :

Alpine and Pyrenaean nephrites. Prospection, reference samples and spectroradiometric reconnaissance

¬¬Three areas of axehead production have been identified in the Swiss Alps and in the Pyrenees, thanks to a study of debitage associated with field prospection :
- The first, in the Grisons, corresponds to the exploitation of lenses and cobbles in the valley of the Julia river (Oberhalbstein), with specialist villages in the high Rhine valley;
- The second is situated in Valais in the high valley of the Rhône around Sion; lenses of nephrite are to be found on the mountainside, between 1700 and 2700 metres above sea level ;
- The third, in Haute Ariège, is only known from a specialist production site in the cave of Bédeilhac;  the actual outcrops of nephrite are not precisely located.

These three production areas provided material for exchange at a regional scale, probably from the beginning of the fifth millennium, and certainly until the beginning of the third.

Spectroradiometric analyses have allowed us to create two reference collections of spectra in order to characterise these productions and to trace the long-distance circulation of their products, namely:

- A raw material reference collection, comprising 701 spectra;
- A reference collection of archaeological objects, which comprises 834 spectra, with a dominant presence of amphibole.

Despite the facts that there is a marked variability within the source areas, and that nephrites from different sources can sometimes produce the same spectra, the application of spectroradiometry has enabled us to identify the origin of large axeheads and of one ring-disc of nephrite, found over 500 km from their place of origin. These include the polished axeheads found in the gigantic Carnac-type mound at Tumiac and in the hoard found at Bernon, Arzon (Morbihan). The Alpine (Grisons and Valais) origin of these axeheads is not in doubt. The same is true of the ring-disc from Languidic, which is the only object of this type known to have been made from a plaque of Valais nephrite.

At the regional level – that is, within a radius of a hundred kilometres – large numbers of axeheads and chisels circulated from the three production centres. The numbers show a steep fall-off beyond 100 km and drop to virtually nothing at distances beyond 200 km. However, certain exceptional objects travelled further than this and, in the case of objects from Grisons and Valais, reached the Gulf of Morbihan over 800 km away. By contrast, objects made from the Pyrenaean nephrites do not seem to have travelled over long distances.

This difference between the two Alpine centres and the Pyrenaean centre could be explained by their respective positions with regard to the main axes of travel of objects made from Alpine jades (jadeitites, omphacitites and fine eclogites), moving from Mont Viso in a westerly direction. The flow of Alpine jades, which had a high social value in gift exchanges between elites, would also have brought in its train some ring-discs of Alpine or Alsacian types, and also several remarkable Alpine artefacts made of nephrite – a raw material of lesser social value. In contrast, the distribution of polished axeheads made from Pyrenaean nephrite remained limited to the normal distribution area for polished stone tools.

At the same time as large axes made of Alpine jade (i.e. jadeitite, eclogite, omphacitite and other rock types) were circulating around much of western and central Europe, early metallurgy was undergoing a major development in south-east Europe. Heavy copper shafthole tools and abundant artefacts of gold played a significant role in the social and ritual life of the Chalcolithic populations there, just as the Alpine jade axes did at the opposite end of Europe. Even though the distribution areas of these two groups of artefacts are generally separated by a zone, several hundred kilometres wide, that is devoid of any finds of the categories in question, nevertheless various kinds of contact, both direct and indirect, between the two areas be can observed. This paper discusses these relations through an investigation of artefacts that were exchanged, in either direction, between the two groups. These may include a few copper and gold objects found in France as well as a comparatively large group of Alpine axes found in south-east Europe, especially Bulgaria.
The paper also deals with imitations of Alpine jade axes in copper. These are extremely rare and are only known from Denmark and Italy. Direct imitations of early metal tools in Alpine rock are unknown, but several types of Alpine jade axes show clear typological influences from early metal artefacts. The same is true the other way around, as a comparatively large number of copper flat axes from central Germany, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia and northern and central Italy are clearly inspired by the shape of Alpine jade axes, without being true imitations.
In the final part of the paper these observations are interpreted in an attempt, on one hand, to describe the role of Alpine jade axes in the early history of metallurgy in Europe, and on the other, to understand the importance of early metallurgy in the European perception of jade.

Chapter 21 : Social mechanisms: the ideological interpretations of Alpine jade artefacts

From the end of the sixth millennium to the beginning of the third, jades – extremely rare precious rocks – were exploited in the Mont Viso and Mont Beigua massifs in order to produce axe- and adze-heads that circulated around a vast network, travelling up to 1700 km as the crow flies from the source areas. During the main period of this circulation around western Europe – that is, the fifth to the beginning of the fourth millennium – a different system of ‘object-signs’ was functioning in central and south-east Europe: here, the objects that were most highly valued were those made of copper and of gold. However, this ‘mirror effect’ between a ‘jade Europe’ in the west and a ‘copper Europe’ in the east does not explain the very sharp eastern boundary that can be seen in the distribution of jade artefacts that extends from Denmark to the Piedmont region of Italy; nor does it account for the large geographical lacuna between the distribution of artefacts made of jade and of copper during the fifth millennium.

In this chapter, the authors attempt to synthesise the conclusions from the three preceding sections of this volume, in tracing the biography of polished axe- and adze-heads made of Alpine jades as they travelled from their two areas of production in Piedmont and in the northern part of the French Alps to the outermost limits of their distribution. Above and beyond considering the technical aspects of their production and the social function of the exchanges – aspects that are relevant to our understanding of the economy of that period – our research has focused on the ideological value of these jade artefacts. It has done this by examining their contexts of discovery and has traced the way in which their ideological value changed as the objects travelled away from their source areas. It contrasts the gradual change that can be discerned within the ‘Europe of jade’ with the more rapid change beyond this area, in Iberia, in southern Italy, in central Europe and in the Balkans.

Thus, we should consider the ‘Europe of jade’ as being founded on socio-cultural ideals that were, to a great extent, shared across western Europe, despite the existence of certain regional variations in the ways in which objects, humans and unusual creatures were represented. As far as we can tell, jade artefacts participated in a system of signs that were conceived and used not only for ritual purposes but also as a way of illustrating certain mythological and religious concepts. The role of the Gulf of Morbihan – a secondary centre for the distribution of jade artefacts – will have been of fundamental importance in the spread of a set of religious beliefs where masculine principles (as expressed in the phallus, the polished axe- or adze-head, the hunting-crook, and in standing stones) were manipulated in order to establish and reinforce the power of individual leaders who combined political power with religious power.

At the same time in the rest of Europe it was, above all, feminine representations that constituted the basis of religious beliefs about the cycle of life, about prosperity and about death – even though male symbolism and the accumulation of wealth was used to express the identity of individuals belonging to the most powerful lineages, as we can see for example in the cemeteries of Alsónyék and Varna.

These two complementary ways in which male and female signs were manipulated, as part of the religious life of these Neolithic communities, constitutes a key theme of research that can help to account for the rise of the ‘Europe of jade’, and also for the limits of its spatial expansion. Thus, we may be able to account for the eastern limit of the ‘Europe of jade’ if we consider the religious concepts that developed between the fifth millennium and the beginning of the fourth in the geographical ‘no-man’s-land’ between the ‘Europe of jade’ and the ‘Europe of copper’.

One approach to interpreting the evidence – based on the perception of Neolithic people about their jade objects – foregrounds the widespread sharing of imaginary religious constructs which, in the authors’ opinion, allows us to account for the spread of sacred object-signs over considerable distances, crossing numerous cultural groups until different concepts and religious systems were encountered. Within such a scenario, the acceptance of a small number of jade axe- and adze-heads beyond the limits of this shared system of thought was only possible because the shape, value and significance of the artefacts were modified to make them confirm to these other systems of value. In the Iberian peninsula, this transformation took the form of copying the jade artefact forms in local rocks, while in southern Italy and Malta, small jade axeheads were transformed into pendants reserved for use with the dead. In contrast, in central and south-east Europe, most jade axe- and adze-heads were reserved for powerful people and for use in richly-furnished graves, with all vestiges of their religious significance having been lost.

The progressive decline of the ‘Europe of jade’ from the second quarter of the fourth millennium – a phenomenon previously explained in terms of the rise of copper use – can now be conceptualised in a different way: namely, in terms of a profound change in religious beliefs. We should cease to underestimate the significance of the progressive yet explicit introduction of female symbolism and of the warrior ideology into the ‘Europe of jade’, even though it is true that votive hoards of Alpine stone axe- and adze-heads were being progressively replaced by offerings of metal objects.

The choice of Alpine jades

Up to the present, superlatives have always been used to describe Neolithic axeheads made of jade: the toughest rock, the finest-grained, the most luminous green colour that catches the light of the sun, the extraordinary polish, the longest blades, etc. It is assumed that all these characteristics, deemed to be indissociable, are what explain the success of these polished axeheads in Europe over three millennia. Behind these enthusiastic descriptions lie a number of criteria that are currently used by gemmologists to determine the market value of jades used for jewellery and for art objects.

The modern definition of jade that the gemmologists use – which covers only jade-jadeite and jade-nephrite – is different from, and much more restrictive than the archaeological (and Neolithic?) definition of ‘Alpine jades’, which encompasses jadeitites, omphacitites, eclogites and some amphibolites, while nephrites are excluded. We should therefore define each one of the qualities of Alpine jades individually, in seeking to rank them in order to understand their relative value during the Neolithic and their respective influence on the long-distance circulation of polished axeheads.

This chapter starts by considering the ways in which jades would have been recognised at or near the sources of the raw material, then goes on to discuss their variability in texture and colour, the investment of time in creating axeheads of different lengths and in using different manufacturing techniques, and finally the different levels of polish.

What emerges from this review is that the essential characteristics that would have conditioned the choice of Alpine jades when producing socially-valorised polished axeheads were the toughness and fineness of grain, which would have given the cutting edge a resistance that was incomparably higher than that achieved by other types of rock in the region.

As for the structure, the colour, the length and the degree of polish of the axeheads, these appear to be ‘secondary levels of the fact’ (to use André Leroi-Gourhan’s phrase), which could be modified and reinterpreted according to the ideological conceptions of the societies around which they circulated. However, the preference accorded to certain jadeitites in the Paris Basin, Brittany, Germany and Great Britain allow us to suggest that the producers and consumers of these axeheads shared in common the use of reproducible (and thus scientific) criteria to identify jade-jadeitites, which allowed them to select the most beautiful jades, not only at the source areas but also from among the range of Alpine axeheads as they travelled around.
The conclusion of this study is therefore nuanced, pointing out that while all the users of Alpine jade axeheads were united in using the same raw materials and physical properties, their social interpretation of these artefacts varied along the three main axes of circulation – towards north-west Europe, towards southern Italy and towards the Balkans.
excluded. We should therefore define each one of the qualities of Alpine jades individually, in seeking to rank them in order to understand their relative value during the Neolithic and their respective influence on the long-distance circulation of polished axeheads.

This chapter starts by considering the ways in which jades would have been recognised at or near the sources of the raw material, then goes on to discuss their variability in texture and colour, the investment of time in creating axeheads of different lengths and in using different manufacturing techniques, and finally the different levels of polish.

What emerges from this review is that the essential characteristics that would have conditioned the choice of Alpine jades when producing socially-valorised polished axeheads were the toughness and fineness of grain, which would have given the cutting edge a resistance that was incomparably higher than that achieved by other types of rock in the region.

As for the structure, the colour, the length and the degree of polish of the axeheads, these appear to be ‘secondary levels of the fact’ (to use André Leroi-Gourhan’s phrase), which could be modified and reinterpreted according to the ideological conceptions of the societies around which they circulated. However, the preference accorded to certain jadeitites in the Paris Basin, Brittany, Germany and Great Britain allow us to suggest that the producers and consumers of these axeheads shared in common the use of reproducible (and thus scientific) criteria to identify jade-jadeitites, which allowed them to select the most beautiful jades, not only at the source areas but also from among the range of Alpine axeheads as they travelled around.

The conclusion of this study is therefore nuanced, pointing out that while all the users of Alpine jade axeheads were united in using the same raw materials and physical properties, their social interpretation of these artefacts varied along the three main axes of circulation – towards north-west Europe, towards southern Italy and towards the Balkans.

During the 5th millennium, polished jadeite axeheads circulated from the Italian Alps to Northern Europe, to Brittany, Catalonia, Sicily and even as far as Bulgaria. However, in the Alps, the source of the raw material was unknown to geologists, except for some rolled cobbles that had been transported by rivers. Working on a European scale and using ethnoarcheological models developed in New Guinea, in 2002 we hypothesised that the reason why these axeheads made from Alpine rocks spread so far, among very diverse cultural groups, might be the high altitude of the quarries, far from permanent settlements.In May 2003, after a dozen years of prospecting, two of us (A.-M. P. and P. P.) discovered several Neolithic working sites on the foothills south of Monviso, between 2100-2400m in altitude. The first three AMS radiocarbon dates that we obtained, of 5210 – 4916, 4883 – 4598, and 4671 – 4389 cal BCcal., accord well with the appearance of small polished axeheads of eclogite or jadeite in VSG contexts in the Paris Basin and with the major growth in exports to Brittany, dated to 4684 – 4380 cal BC at the Tumulus Saint-Michel at Carnac.

Avant d’étudier les grandes séries de jades alpins du Piémont – témoins d’une production intensive qui a circulé en Europe occidentale pendant près de trois millénaires – les auteurs proposent une typologie fonctionnelle des différentes catégories de témoins archéologiques représentés dans les exploitations, les campements et les habitats permanents.

L’approche typologique est fondée à la fois sur des observations ethnoarchéologiques en Nouvelle-Guinée – où les mêmes catégories d’outillage ont pu être observées en action, dans des situations actuelles – et sur des expérimentations, pour confirmer le bien-fondé des hypothèses et des interprétations, en vérifiant que les rejets et les stigmates sont bien identiques à ceux des pièces archéologiques.

La présentation des différents outils mis en œuvre et des rejets de production suit l’ordre logique des chaînes opératoires mises en évidence (extraction par le feu, mise en forme par taille au percuteur dur ou par sciage), finition par bouchardage et par polissage, production d’outils de substitution (grattoirs emmanchés), utilisation des lames polies, entretien des outillages polis, bris, réutilisation et recyclage des fragments.

Le large panorama proposé couvre donc toutes les successions techniques depuis l’extraction et la première mise en forme des ébauches sur les gîtes de matière première jusqu’à la finition des lames polies et leur utilisation dans les villages de vallée. Dans ce contexte, les outils sont montrés en action dans des systèmes techniques où chaque étape a des conséquences sur les suivantes.

Finalement, c’est une véritable grille de lecture des outillages, des produits et des rejets qui est proposée. Son application aux sites néolithiques producteurs et consommateurs en Piémont devrait permettre d’approcher les questions fondamentales de l’origine des fabricants de lames, de la segmentation des chaînes opératoires dans l’espace, du contexte social de production, de la spécialisation et des conditions de transfert des matières premières, des ébauches et des outils.

Cette approche fonctionnelle est donc le préliminaire indispensable à la comparaison des sites archéologiques piémontais entre eux, à la restitution des fonctionnements économiques à l’intégration des techniques dans les organisations sociales et aux idées imaginaires que les producteurs d’ébauches et de lames se font de leur industrie et de leurs outillages.


Typology of Alpine jade products: questions of vocabulary

Abstract

Before examining the range of industries based on exploitation of the Alpine jades from the Piedmont – the source of the polished axeheads that had circulated around western Europe for nearly three millennia – the authors present a new functional typology for the various kinds of archaeological evidence left behind by these activities at the extraction areas, in the camp sites and in the permanent settlements.

The approach is based on ethnoarchaeological observations in New Guinea (where the same categories of tools can be observed in present-day situations) and on experimental work, undertaken to assess the validity of the interpretative hypotheses and to check whether the manufacturing traces that are thus produced on finished items and on rejected roughouts and flakes are identical to those seen on archaeological specimens.

The presentation of the scheme for the various tools and production waste follows the logical order of the chaînes opératoires involved in manufacture: fragmentation of blocks through fire-setting (and hence thermal shock) or by hammering with a heavy hammer, treatment of the core, roughing-out using hard-hammer percussion or by sawing, evaluation of the quality of the raw materials, advanced roughing-out by pecking, and finishing by grinding and polishing; production of substitute tools (hafted scrapers) ; and the relative intensity of the polish, the maintenance of polished tools, and the breakage, re-use and recycling of fragments.

Within this context – which describes a veritable economy of the raw material – tools are shown in action, in technical systems where each stage in the manufacturing process has a consequence for the following stages.

Finally, what we are proposing to create is a technical key for enabling people to recognize and understand the manufacturing tools, the products and the waste material from production. Its application to the Neolithic sites in Piedmont where the producers and consumers lived should therefore help us to approach the fundamental questions concerning the origin of the people who made the axe- and adze-heads; their movements between their permanent villages and the sources of the Alpine jades; the spatial segmentation of the chaînes opératoires; the social context of production; individual and regional specialisation; and the conditions under which raw material blocks, roughouts and finished objects moved around.

This functional approach thus provides the indispensible basis for undertaking site-by-site comparisons within the Piedmont, for reconstructing how part of the communities’ economy functioned and how exchanges were carried out, and for integrating techonology within social organisation. It also gives us an insight into the mental constructs dreamed by the people who engaged in the specialised activities of producing roughouts and finished axe- and adze-heads.

The jadeitites of Syros (Cyclades, Greece)

In 2005, M. D. Higgins proposed that the source of the polished axeheads of jadeitite that had been found in Greece may have been the island of Syros. This was based solely on macroscopic inspection and comparison.

As part of the JADE 2 Project, prospection was undertaken on Syros, Tinos and Sifnos, the three Cycladic islands where geologists had mentioned the presence of jadeitites or rocks containing jadeite, within the Cycladic Blueschists Unit. This fieldwork rapidly showed that Tinos and Sifnos could be eliminated and that it was only within the ophiolitic mixture of Kambos, at the north of Syros, that genuine ‘boudins’ – bulbous, free-standing blocks – of jadeitite, retromorphosed to varying degrees, and of sufficient size to have been exploited during the Neolithic, are to be found.

On Syros, the primary outcrop of jadeitite is strictly localised within two narrow bands around 100 metres long; the rock also occurs in the form of secondary deposits, in the stream bed between Kambos and the bay of Lia. All the blocks had been tested, to varying degrees, using a hard hammer; however, the small number of debitage flakes, of hammerstones and of roughouts suggests a production that was episodic and of very secondary importance. Elsewhere on the island of Syros, the local jadeitite seems to have been little used during the Neolithic, probably because of its mediocre quality for flaking and polishing.

The jadeite is represented in 120 raw material samples among the totality of samples analysed using diffuse-reflectance spectroradiometry. The comparison of the spectra of the Syros jadeitites with Alpine specimens in the reference collection allows us to argue that the chance of confusion between Syros and Alpine jadeitites is low, and always below 20%. Moreover, the comparison between the Syros raw material spectra and those obtained for jade axeheads found in Bulgaria and Rumania reveals that there are no convincing grounds for claiming Syros as the source area for these Balkan polished axeheads.

Variable degrees of albitization and chloritization, small presence of white mica and rutile in titanite, in some cases also occurrence of retrograde analcime seems to be characteristic petrological signs for the jadeitites or rocks megascopically resembling those from Syros island. Titanite and zircon represent typical accesory minerals. Very low contents of P2O5 seem to be a characteristic quality from the geochemical point of view.

The arguments – as much archaeological as spectroradiometric – are thus strong for proposing an Alpine source for the polished jade axeheads found in south-east Europe, and for a production on Syros that was limited or negligible. The Syros material shows evidence for testing the stone to see how it could be shaped, rather than for the large-scale production of axeheads for long-distance exchange.

An axehead of schistose pelite and a long lint pick were discovered in an inhumation grave dated to 4906–4709 cal BC. From its cultural context and its radiocarbon date, this grave has been assigned to the Villeneuve-Saint-Germain culture. The typological study of this axehead allows us to suggest that it was an imitation, in a non-Alpine rock, of a long polished axehead of Bégude type, whose centres of production are situated around Mont Viso and Mont Beigua in the Italian Alps, around 500 kilometres away as the crow lies. The revision of the chronology of Alpine rock axeheads has revealed that their very earliest importation into the Paris Basin and eastern France took place at the beginning of the 5th millennium. These axeheads of Bégude type, which in north Italy were used as classic workaday axeheads, were socially reinterpreted beyond the Alps, gaining in value and becoming associated with the realm of the gods, or being used as prestige items to demonstrate the supremacy of certain men. The impact of these symbols was such that it triggered the regional production of axeheads made of Fontainebleau sandstone and of pelite-quartz from the Vosges prior to the mid-ifth millennium. The axehead from Buthiers-Boulancourt thus seems to offer us one of the earliest pieces of evidence demonstrating the consequences of the circulation of prestigious artefacts from the Alps at the time of the Fiorano culture and its counterparts. This phenomenon – the circulation of prestigious Alpine artefacts  – can also explain the origin of the fashion for making ring-discs in the Villeneuve-Saint-Germain culture, and the exploitation of local rock types for manufacturing polished stone workaday axeheads that imitated the shape of the large exotic Alpine axeheads.