The NeoArabia project tries to understand how environmental, social, economic and technological factors work in concert to influence settlement and abandonment along a latitudinal transect of 1200 km from UAE to southern Oman. This region was affected by wide north-south variations in the Indo-Arabian monsoon, marine upwelling activity and eustatic variations in the Mid-Holocene. On the local settlement scale, this transect is based on fine stratigraphic excavations and permits the reconstruction of the site formation processes and site catchment analysis. A large number of studies have been conducted on the Ruways-1 site, focusing on a deep stratified sequence corresponding to three millennia of occupation. These studies include on-site climate-environmental signal analysis, local palaeogeography and environmental reconstruction, reservoir effect studies, typo-technological studies, palaeoeconomic strategies, anthropological studies, sclerochronological studies and, finally, site formation processes, the understanding of which makes it possible to explain the potential and limits of the archaeological excavation. The first results confirm the richness of these archaeological archives for documenting the socio-environmental dynamics, but also the richness of its complex sedimentary structure and the importance of conducting fine and multidisciplinary excavations to answer questions about the rhythms and functions of occupations and the causalities of socioenvironmental changes. K E Y W O R D S Coastal Neolithic, geoarcheology, shell midden, site catchment, site formation processes, Sultanate of Oman F I G U R E 8 (a) Map of the Ruways micro-region with the proposed Neolithic extension of a wide open lagoon with mangrove ecosystems (in purple) and the two khors situated on each side of the current village of Ruways, with the position of the four geological cores (yellow stars) and the RWY-1 site (orange area). (b) Electrical resistivity tomography section of the current sabkha located in the western part of the RWY-1 site, with the main superficial sedimentary formations and the location of core 4. (c) Lithological sequence of core 4 with the radiocarbon dating series on shells in BP and in cal. yr BC age [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

This article focusses on an original magnetic survey protocol and its data processing chain. The use of a high sensitive magnetometer combined with a motorized total station permits production of a magnetic map with a high spatial resolution and a high precision of magnetic and positional measurements. The data processing enhances the final magnetic map by the removal and restoring the outlier values, measurement errors and magnetic disturbances. The magnetic survey was undertaken on the Neolithic site of Le Pontet at Saint-Nazaire-sur-Charente (French Atlantic coast, between Bordeaux and La Rochelle). The site was chosen for geographical and archaeological characteristics such as its settlement period, the topography and the presence of different magnetic disturbances (proximity to roads and residential area). The data processing is mainly made on ungridded data and the gridding is the second to last step. The last step is to correct the relative height variation of the sensors between the prospecting lines (tracks) induced by the topography and operators. The use of a motorized total station allows accurate height determination of the sensors and an upward continuation is performed to correct the slight magnetic intensity variation induced by the relative height variation of the sensors. The results of the magnetic map bring out several causewayed enclosures, pits and postholes. This map will serve as a working basis for interdisciplinary studies and future archaeological studies of this site.

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The earliest monumentality in Western Europe is associated with megalithic structures, but where did the builders of these monuments live? Here, the authors focus on west-central France, one of the earliest centres of megalithic building in Atlantic Europe, commencing in the mid fifth millennium BC. They report on an enclosure at Le Peu (Charente), dated to the Middle Neolithic (c. 4400 BC), and defined by a ditch with two ‘crab claw’ entrances and a double timber palisade flanked by two timber structures—possibly defensive bastions. Inside, timber buildings—currently the earliest known in the region—were possibly home to the builders of the nearby Tusson long mounds.

International audienceReconstitution of whole ceramics from fragments is a true priesthood for ceramographers. This activity remains mainly handled by manual sketching and can be very time consuming. However, more and more tools and workflows provide digital solutions, based on 3D technologies, to assist such tasks. In this paper, we present an application of photogrammetry on ceramic fragments from two excavation sites located in Brittany, France. This study was required by two ceramics specialists and conducted in CReAAH, a French research center in archaeology, archaeosciences and history. The 3D restitution by photogrammetry of these different fragments allowed reconstructions of the original shapes of the potteries or at least to get to as close as possible. We furthermore used the resulting 3D models of the ceramics to compute various metrics required by the ceramographers. In collaboration with IRISA, a French research center in computer science, we designed and generated a presentation support using a 3D printer. This work is based on affordable tools and illustrates how 3D technologies can be quite easily integrated in archaeology process with limited financial resources, to obtain useful results for the study and analysis of such artefacts