干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

Recent archaeological research undertaken in the Monte Revincu area (the Desert of the Agriate, NW Corsica) revealed the existence of fifty structured installations with domestic or funerary vocation dispatched on over ten hectares. Most of them are dated to the last third of the Vth millennium BC (4350-3950 BC). Data collected during nine archaeological excavations allowed to provide new information on the activities of this Neolithic occupation (4 350-3 950 BC) and its relationships with the "pre-megalithic" monuments. The pioneer work that we propose to present in this article is based on the study of four stratigraphic sections, located in the valleys and slopes adjacent to the archaeological site of Monte Revincu. Grain size measurements, organic matter content and magnetic susceptibility measurements (Lf = 958 Hz, Bartington MS2EI) show a heterometric sediment accretion characterized by alternating layers composed by coarse and fine material. The 12 C-14 dating performed on charcoal can trace the chronology of these deposits and provide a chronostratigraphy of reference since the end of the VIth millennium BC for the North of Corsica. Two main phases of detrital contribution are documented during middle Neolithic-early Chalcolithic (between 5 000 and 3 100 BC) and from the Middle Ages (similar to 1 100 AD). This geoarchaeological study reveals, for the first time, significant hydro-sedimentary changes in valleys of the eastern part of the Agriate which can be correlated to the history of the occupation of the Monte Revincu archaeological site. These studies, realized in the vicinity of the archaeological settlement of the Monte Revincu will be compared to the more regional study of the water catchments of the Agriate.