home # store # services # articles # game # app #contact >

Visible feature that made Le Baratin important is a large rubefied (=fire-stained) pebble empierrement
Archaeologists read this as the floor, of at least one sizeable house.

Other domestic features, and two apsidal plans were also recorded
Superstructures were almost certainly made from perishable wattle, branches, reed, and turf though. Not stone. Houses probably had the stone or pebble floors; with frames/roofs of organic materials.

There’s no clear evidence at Le Baratin for a monumental cult building or long-lived stone communal hall
The “big paved surface” is usually interpreted as a domestic floor (possibly a large/dense household or a special communal domestic space), not a temple. Open-air villages like this often cluster several houses rather than revolve around a single stone public building.

Cardial groups in Provence were early farmers. They had cereals (types of wheat and barley), pulses; plus domesticated sheep/goats, pigs and cattle

Hunting and fishing still supplemented diets especially near rivers, springs and the coast
Faunal assemblages from regional sites show mixed herding/hunting economies.

Nearby Courthézon region finds include pottery, lithics and animal bone consistent with this mixed farming economy too

The Cardial expansion along the Mediterranean coast implies seafaring skills (they spread along coasts and islands), and recent neolithic finds elsewhere in the Mediterranean have produced dugout canoe remains
Early wooden boats did exist in the Neolithic. However, no wooden canoe or direct watercraft remains have been reported from Le Baratin itself.

Organic boat parts rarely survive unless waterlogged or specially preserved. So seafaring is plausible for Cardial groups in general, but Courthézon offers no direct canoe find.

Direct evidence for “games” (boards, dice, or toy figurines) at Le Baratin has not been published as a clear find
Many neolithic sites elsewhere do produce small figurines or personal ornaments. Everyday social life probably included shared ritual/communal meals and craft activities.

Feasting or group gatherings can be inferred at similar regional sites from concentrations of animal bones and specialized deposits too
Courthézon had domestic deposits and faunal remains showing routine communal food use. They had group meals and social gatherings, but not a single grand “feast hall” preserved in stone.

Horizontally or verticle stacked log architecture (like full timber cabins) is not reported. The evidence points to lighter, perishable building techniques. Like postholes, wattle/daub, and branch-and-thatch. Sitting on prepared pebble floors
Heavy log construction is more typical in different environments, and later periods.

Le Baratin is comparatively rare and valuable because it is an open-air Cardial village with in-situ dwelling floors. While many other southern France cardial remains are in caves or thin surface scatters. Courthézon gives unusually good information about house plans and domestic layout in early neolithic Provence. And is a good source for neolithic architecture.

Bibliography: Courtin, J. (1972). Quelques nouvelles datations du Néolithique provençal. Bulletin de la Société Préhistorique Française, 69(4), 118–120

Binder, D. (1987). Le Néolithique ancien provençal. Typologie et technologie des outillages lithiques. Gallia Préhistoire, Suppl. XXIV. CNRS Éditions