Les objets du Bronze moyen récemment découverts à Chalonnes-sur-Loire (Maine-et-Loire). Analyse typologique, environnement culturel et naturel

Among a set of objects accidentally discovered in 2003 at Chalonnessur-Loire (Maine-et-Loire, France), a Middle Bronze Age hoard has been identified. The other objects, including a triangular side scraper, are dated from the Late Bronze Age and will be studied later. These eleven Middle Bronze Age objects (called “ the Belvédère set” in this paper) are two fragments of chisels, a fragment of the handle of another flanged tool, a fragment of the handle of a flanged axe belonging to an eastern type (Porcieu-Amblagneu or Langquaid or some variants), two fluted flanged axes with a rare lateral pattern, two simple undecorated bracelets, and three pieces of bracelets of the Drône type. They were all well prepared after casting. Some of them were strongly used and then thrown away. The fluted flanged axes are nearly new and could still be useful. In total they represent a stock of 1 kg of metal. The objets belong to two functional categories, tools and jewellery. The chronological analysis allows us to date them to the Bronze B2 ; they belong to both the Atlantic and Eastern cultural spheres. This association is quite frequent in the Atlantic sphere, but the Chalonnes-sur-Loire set differs from several points of view : these objects show evidence of cultural links between the lower Loire valley and both the Channel and the North Alpine arc and they are much more fragmented than other hoards associating jewellery and tools. Another set of objects discovered at the same place in 1901 (called “ the Pierre-Cou set”) presents several chronological and cultural similarities with the Belvédère set. It consist of three axes including one fluted flanged axe, eighteen bracelets including two of the Drône type, amber beads and a spearhead. Both sets of objects, Belvédère and Pierre-Cou, constitute a conventional so-called mixed hoard, a type of hoard identified in the 1950s by Wolfgang Kimmig. We can thus propose that the Belvédère set is only part of a bigger hoard of the Middle Bronze Age mixed type. The Chalonnes-sur-Loire hoard would be then one of the most western Middle Bronze Age mixed hoards. This hoard (or hoards) was located in a particular place, from the point of view of the natural environment. The objects were discovered in the middle of an island formed by two branches of the Loire which forms a bend at this place. Tin and copper mineralisations are found in the close neighbourhood of the discoveries. These natural patterns, observed for several other Bronze Age hoards in Europe, seem to be significant social factors.