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The Neolithic Quarries of Mont Viso, Piedmont, Italy: Initial Radiocarbon Dates

Laboratoire de Chrono-écologie, UMR 6565, Besançon, France, archeo.petrequin{at}free.fr

Michel Errera

Musée royal de l'Afrique centrale, Tervuren, Belgium,michel.errera{at}africamuseum.be

Anne-Marie Pétrequin

Centre de Recherche Archéologique de la Vallée de l'Ain, France, annemarie.petrequin{at}free.fr

Pierre Allard

Préhistoire et Technologie, UMR 7055, Nanterre, France, pierre.allard{at}mae.u-paris10.fr

Two groups of quarries (Mont Viso and Mont Beigua, Italy) were the source of the Alpine axeheads that circulated throughout western Europe during the Neolithic. The quarries on Mont Viso (Oncino: Porco, Bulè and Milanese), discovered in 2003, have been radiocarbon-dated, and this has revealed that the exploitation of jadeites, omphacitites and eclogites at high altitude (2000—2400 m above sea level) seems to have reached its apogee in the centuries around 5000 BC. The products, in the form of small axe- and adze-heads, were distributed beyond the Alps from the beginning of the fifth millennium, a few being found as far away as the Paris Basin, 550 km from their source as the crow flies. However, it was not until the mid-fifth millennium BC that long axeheads from Mont Viso appeared in the hoards and monumental tombs of the Morbihan, 800 km from the quarries. Production continued until the beginning of the third millennium BC, but at this time the distribution of the products was less extensive, and the process of distribution operated in a different way: tools made from jadeite and eclogite are still found in the French Jura, but the extraction sites at the south-east foot of Mont Viso no longer seem to have been used. The variability in the geographical extent of the distribution at different times seems to be related to the social context of exploitation of the high-altitude quarries, which were only ever accessible for a few months each year.

Key Words: Europe • Italy • jadeite • Neolithic • polished axeheads • quarries

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