The Stone Tidal Fish Weirs of the Mol‘ene Archipelago, Iroise Sea, Brittany, Western France: a long-term tradition with early megalithic origins Henri Gandois, Pierre Stéphan, David Cuisnier, Olivia Hulot, Axel Ehrhold, Marine Paul, Nicolas Le Dantec, Marcaurelio Franzetti To cite this version: Henri Gandois, Pierre Stéphan, David Cuisnier, Olivia Hulot, Axel Ehrhold, et al.. The Stone Tidal Fish Weirs of the Mol‘ene Archipelago, Iroise Sea, Brittany, Western France: a long-term tradition with early megalithic origins. International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, Wiley, 2018, 47 (1), pp.5-27. 10.1111/1095-9270.12277. hal-01654772 HAL Id: hal-01654772 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01654772 Submitted on 4 Dec 2017 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Author Query Form Journal IJNA Article ijna12277 Dear Author, During the copyediting of your manuscript the following queries arose. 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IJNA ijna12277 Dispatch: November 14, 2017 CE: XXX Journal MSP No. No. of pages: 23 PE: XXXX 1 The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology (2017) 00.0: 1–23 2 doi: 10.1111/1095-9270.12277 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 The Stone Tidal Fish Weirs of the Molene` Archipelago, Iroise 10 11 Sea, Brittany, Western France: a long-term tradition with early 12 megalithic origins 13 14 15 Q116 Henri Gandois 17 UMR Trajectoires, Universite´ de Paris I Pantheon´ Sorbonne, Paris, France, research associate at the UMR CReAAH, 18 Universite´ de Rennes 1, Rennes, France, [email protected] 19 20 21 Pierre Stephan´ 22 23 CNRS, UMR LETG, Universite´ de Bretagne Occidentale, Institut Universitaire Europeen´ de la Mer, 29280 Plouzane,´ 24 France. LTSER France, Zone Atelier ‘Brest-Iroise’, [email protected] 25 26 27 David Cuisnier 28 Ferme insulaire de Kemenez, ˆıle de Kemenez, Le Conquet, France, [email protected] 29 30 31 Olivia Hulot 32 33 DRASSM, Ministere` de la Culture et de la Communication, Marseille, France, [email protected] 34 35 36 Axel Ehrhold 37 IFREMER, Geosciences´ Marines, Centre, de Brest, BP70, CS10070, 29280 Plouzane,´ France, 38 [email protected] 39 40 41 Marine Paul 42 43 CNRS, UMR LETG, Universite´ de Bretagne Occidentale, Institut Universitaire Europeen´ de la Mer, 29280 Plouzane,´ 44 France, [email protected] 45 46 47 Nicolas Le Dantec 48 CEREMA, UMR 6538 Geosciences´ Ocean,´ Universite´ de Bretagne Occidentale, Institut Universitaire Europeen´ de la 49 Mer, 29280 Plouzane,´ France 50 51 52 Marcaurelio Franzetti 53 CNRS, UMR 6538 Geosciences´ Ocean,´ Universite´ de Bretagne Occidentale, Institut Universitaire Europeen´ de la Mer, 54 29280 Plouzane,´ France 55 56 57 58 This reports on a project that combined evidence gleaned from aerial photographs, place-names, interviews, topography, LIDAR 59 data, and sonar bathymetry to locate stone tidal fish weirs in the Molene` Archipelago. The results were verified by diver and 60 pedestrian visual surveys. Models of Holocene sea-level change allowed a group of possibly Late Mesolithic–Early Neolithic 61 weirs to be recognized, with a second group broadly dated to the later Neolithic–Early Bronze Age. The construction of these © 2017 The Authors. International Journal of Nautical Archaeology © 2017 The Nautical Archaeology Society. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA. 1 NAUTICAL ARCHAEOLOGY, 00.0 2 3 long megalithic structures is compared to the funerary monuments, for which the Molene` Archipelago is well known, in terms 4 of technique, cost, and societal organization. 5 © 2017 The Authors 6 7 Key words: Tidal weirs, fish traps, Mole`ne Archipelago, megalithic constructions, sea-level change, Mesolithic, Neolithic. 8 9 10 11 he exploitation of marine resources—shellfish, Located at the extreme west of the French Atlantic 12 fish, seaweed, and so on—characterizes human coast, in the Iroise Sea, Brittany, the nine islands 13 T communities living along the coasts. In regions forming the Molene` Archipelago (Fig. 1) represent 14 with significant tidal range, people have used the daily the visible part of a vast shallow-water rocky plateau 15 fluctuations of sea level to trap fish from fixed structures connected to the continent during the Last Glacial 16 installed on the foreshore. These structures, named Maximum, some 20,000 years ago. The upper part 17 barrage de pecherieˆ or ecluses´ a` poissons in French, tidal of the continental shelf was subject to long-term, 18 fish weirs, fish traps or standing fisheries in English, are gradual marine inundation and erosional processes due 19 either made of rows of wooden stakes and wattle, or dry to the Holocene sea-level rise. The Molene` plateau first 20 stone walls, frequently erected between two rocky spurs separated from the continent and formed a single large 21 (Daire and Langouet,¨ 2010: 10–11). Stone fish weirs are island, which gradually fragmented into a multitude of 22 known all over the world, from Australia to Alaska, and smaller islands and islets (Stephan´ et al., 2013: 647– 23 from Polynesia and Japan to Europe (Connaway, 2007; 648). 24 Daire and Langouet,¨ 2008, 2010; Iwabuchi, 2014). Over the past 10 years, an extensive programme of 25 Along the coast of north-western Europe, a high density archaeological research has been conducted on these 26 of tidal weirs has been observed (Daire and Langouet,¨ islands, coupled with the construction of a model of 27 2008, 2010). These structures show a great diversity Holocene palaeogeographic changes (Pailler et al., 28 in morpho-sedimentary contexts, in the construction 2014), which highlights significant coastal variations 29 materials used, and in general morphology. Wooden over the past 8000–7000 years. An exceptional 30 traps have been thoroughly studied, partly as a result of concentration of archaeological remains has provided 31 their organic materials allowing precise dating, but little a detailed overview of the island communities whose 32 work has been done on the stone structures because subsistence was based on intensive exploitation of 33 of the difficulties of dating them and thus establishing marine resources in an environment characterized 34 links with adjacent archaeological remains. by a great biodiversity. Issues surrounding strategies 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 Figure 1. Location map of the study area, west of Brittany, France (CAD: P. Stephan).´ 2 © 2017 The Authors. International Journal of Nautical Archaeology © 2017 The Nautical Archaeology Society. 1 H. GANDOIS ET AL.: THE MEGALITHIC STONE TIDAL WEIRS OF THE MOLENE` ARCHIPELAGO 2 3 developed by the past insular communities in response waves are predominantly westerly to north-westerly 4 to the evolution of: i) coastal environments; ii) (270–310°). These waves are the most energetic and 5 climate; and iii) natural resources is at the heart of the represent roughly 60% of the annual regime (Fichaut 6 discussions initiated about these islands (Stephan´ et al., and Suanez, 2011). As recorded in recent years by 7 2013; Pailler et al., 2014). The several shell middens, topo-morphological surveys, the most violent storms 8 funerary monuments and domestic sites excavated have caused significant coastal erosion (Suanez et al., 9 have delivered a large quantity of skeletal remains of 2009, 2011; Blaise et al., 2015). After each episode of 10 ichthyofauna (Dreano´ et al., 2013; Pailler et al., 2014; shoreline retreat, many archaeological sites (Bronze 11 Gandois et al., 2015a, 2015b, 2017a, 2017b). Almost Age stone cist, Early Bronze Age necropolis, Middle 12 10,000 fish skeletal remains were identified. This work Neolithic I long barrow and settlement, Neolithic and 13 represents a reference for Late Prehistory of the French Bronze Age shell middens, and so on) were uncovered 14 Atlantic coast. The abundance of fish remains and (Gandois et al., 2013b, 2015a, 2015b, 2017a, 2017b). 15 the types of species found in the shell middens raise 16 many questions about the mid Neolithic–Bronze Age Relative sea-level history 17 groups’ fishing techniques and trapping strategies. The Molene` plateau was connected to the continent 18 No archaeological surveys had been undertaken during the low sea-level stand of the Last Glacial 19 of the intertidal and subtidal zones of the Molene` Maximum. During the Holocene period, this coastal 20 Archipelago until an extensive project was initiated area has recorded major palaeogeographic changes 21 in 2009 to research remains such as stone tidal weirs related to the post glacial sea-level rise leading to 22 (Gandois et al., 2011, 2015a). The purpose of this the drowning of a large part of the continental shelf, 23 study is to produce the first inventory of confirmed the formation of islands and a gradual reduction of 24 fishing structures discovered on the foreshore, from their land surface (Pailler et al., 2014). In the western 25 underwater observations, and from a preliminary part of Brittany, the Holocene RSL rise has recently 26 analysis of recent bathymetric surveys.