Nouvelles données sur le début du Néolithique dans la Haute vallée du Rhône

Almost 40 years after excavations at Place de la Planta, the project to build an underground warehouse for the cantonal archives in front of the former cantonal arsenal in Sion (Valais, Switzerland) provided an opportunity to gather new information about the Neolithic period in the upper Rhône valley. This article focuses on the first two stratigraphic complexes of the site, both of which yield important new insights into the earliest Neolithic settlement of Valais. The older of the two corresponds to occupations from the end of the sixth millennium (complex N1). The site then appears to have been cultivated before being used for domestic activities again at the beginning of the fifth millennium (complex N2). The pottery from the site confirms cultural links with the Po Valley, as previously suggested on the basis of the series from Sion-Place de la Planta and Sion-Plateau de Tourbillon, but also indicates contacts with the Rhine basin. This complexity is also evident in other aspects of material culture (lithic industry, adornment). The study of faunal and carpological remains shows that the economy was based on caprine husbandry and cereal cultivation at the end of the sixth millennium, with hunting and gathering only playing a marginal role. These discoveries make an important contribution to our knowledge of the early Neolithic period in Valais.