The aim of this book is to study forms of territorial patterning and resource management in the middle Neolithic I and II, between 4500 and 3800 BC in the Paris basin.
Using a database of middle Neolithic occupation, integrated in a geographic information system, a multiscalar spatial analysis was undertaken.
First, a macro-regional and diachronic approach to territorial patterning was conducted through hierarchical ordering of all the occupation evidence.
A micro-regional approach was then applied to two study zones, the Vaudreuil bend (at the Seine-Eure confluence) and the Aisne valley.
Predictive modelling of preferred environmental contexts of sites, together with mapping of the reliability and confidence of the archaeological evidence, enabled site distribution to be considered in a critical manner.
It seems that even in sectors which are relatively well documented through archaeological fieldwork, our vision of settlement is still biased.
The models of occupation that have been produced show diversity in forms of territorial patterning, derived from regional development processes, between the middle of the 5th and the beginning of the 4th millennium.
The diversification and densification of enclosures in some territories, around 4000 BC, reflect complexity in the organisation of communities.
Yet other territories seem less highly structured and more sparsely occupied.
The explanatory factors for these regional phenomena are linked to flint procurement systems, with their varying degrees of complexity, to control of communication routes, to demographic pressure and to competition between communities.
Furthermore, there may be some logic behind the forms of site location in the highly-structured territories, based on the management of arable land.
French description: Territoires et ressources des societes neolithiques du Bassin parisien a pour objectif d'etudier les modalites de structuration des territoires et de gestion des ressources au Neolithique moyen I et II, entre 4500 et 3800 av.
J-.C., dans le Bassin parisien. A partir d'une base de donnees des occupations du Neolithique moyen, integree dans un systeme d'information geographique, une analyse spatiale multiscalaire a ete menee.
Dans un premier temps, une approche macroregionale et diachronique de la structuration des territoires, est basee sur la hierarchisation de l'ensemble des occupations.
Dans un deuxieme temps, une approche micro-regionale est menee au sein de deux fenetres d'analyse, dans la boucle du Vaudreuil (a la confluence de la Seine et de l'Eure) et dans la vallee de l'Aisne.
La modelisation predictive des contextes environnementaux preferentiels des sites, et l'elaboration des cartes de fiabilite et de confiance dans la documentation archeologique, permettent de developper une reflexion critique sur la distribution des sites.
Il apparait que meme dans des secteurs relativement bien evalues archeologiquement, la vision que l'on a du peuplement reste biaisee.
L'elaboration des modeles d'occupation, montrent une diversite des formes de structuration des territoires, issues de processus de developpement regionaux, entre le milieu du Ve et le debut du IVe millenaire.
