Chasséen culture

Chasséen culture is the name given to the archaeological culture of prehistoric France of the late Neolithic (Stone Age), which dates to roughly between 4500 BC and 3500 BC. The name "Chasséen" derives from the type site near Chassey-le-Camp (Saône-et-Loire).

Chasséen culture spread throughout the plains and plateaux of France, including the Seine basin and the upper Loire valleys, and extended to the present-day départments of Haute-Saône, Vaucluse, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Pas-de-Calais and Eure-et-Loir. Excavations at Bercy (in Paris) have revealed a Chasséen village (4000 BC - 3800BC) on the right bank of the Seine; artifacts include wood canoes, pottery, bows and arrows, wood and stone tools.

Chasséens were sedentary farmers (rye, panic grass, millet, apples, pears, prunes) and herders (sheep, goats, oxen, pigs). They lived in huts organized into small villages (100-400 people). Their pottery was little decorated. They had no metal technology (which appeared later), but mastered the use of flint.

By roughly 3500 BC, the Chasséen culture in France gave way to the late Neolithic transitional Seine-Oise-Marne culture (3100BC - 2000 BC) in Northern France and to a series of archaeological cultures in Southern France.

Time line[]

Stone axes

4000: Chasséen village of Bercy near Paris
4400: Chasséen village of near Toulouse.
4400: Appearance of Rössen culture at in Haute-Saône.
3190: Chasséen culture in Calvados.
3530: Chasséen culture in Pas-de-Calais.
3450: End of Chasséen culture in Eure-et-Loir.
3400: End of Chasséen culture in (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence).

v t Neolithic Europe (including the Chalcolithic)
↑ Mesolithic Europe ↑
Horizons	Cardium pottery Corded Ware culture First Temperate Neolithic Linear Pottery culture (LBK)
Cultures	Baden Beaker Boian Butmir Cernavodă Cerny Chasséen Cortaillod Coțofeni Cucuteni–Trypillia Decea Mureşului Dudești Funnelbeaker Gaudo Globular Amphora Gorneşti Gumelnița–Karanovo Hamangia Horgen Kakanj Karanovo Lengyel Narva Petreşti Pit–Comb Ware Pitted Ware Pfyn Rössen Seine–Oise–Marne Sesklo Sredny Stog Starčevo–Körös–Criș Starčevo Körös Criş Tisza Tiszapolgár Varna Vinča Vučedol Wartberg Windmill Hill
Monumental architecture	Bank barrow Causewayed enclosure Cist Cursus Dolmen Great dolmen Guardian stones Henge Long barrow Megalith Megalithic entrance Menhir Passage grave Polygonal dolmen Rectangular dolmen Rondel Round barrow Simple dolmen Statue menhir Stone circle Stone row Timber circle Tor enclosure Unchambered long barrow
Technology	Grooved ware Lithic industries Metallurgy Neolithic long house Unstan ware
Concepts	Danubian culture Secondary products revolution Old Europe Proto-Indo-Europeans
↓ Bronze Age Europe ↓

Chasséen culture

Time line[]

Notes[]

See also[]

Holocene Epoch
Preceded by the Pleistocene
ICS stages/ages (official) Greenlandian (11.7–8.236 ka) Northgrippian (8.236–4.2† ka) Meghalayan (4.2 ka–present)
Blytt–Sernander stages/ages Preboreal (10.3†–9† ka) Boreal (9–7.5† ka) Atlantic (7.5–5† ka) Subboreal (5–2.5† ka) Subatlantic (2.5 ka–present) *Relative to year 2000 (b2k). †Relative to year 1950 (BP/Before "Present").
v t