Documents found
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2711.More information
Until fairly recently, study of the Neolithic in Brittany was principally dedicated to the megalithic monuments due to the numerous sites there. Gradually, research was oriented towards settlement remains, notably through the development of rescue archaeology in the 1980s. This is particularly the case for the Early Neolithic and, for the first time in 1996, an important excavation was carried out on a house dated to the beginning of the fifth millennium in Le Haut-Mée, near Fougères (north-eastern Brittany). A few years later, in 2004, a second site was excavated at Betton, near Rennes, and recently, in 2014, a third one in Lannion not far from the north-western coast. These main settlements are complemented by numerous deposits of archaeological artefacts located by field surveys. However, for the whole region, less than ten sites dating from the beginning of the Neolithic have been discovered and the remains of Quimper Kervouyec, despite their partial preservation, demonstrate that neolithisation had reached the most western point of the Breton peninsula by the early fifth millennium. Prior to work on a road to bypass the town of Quimper (south-western Brittany), a small group of archaeological remains comprising two pits and a few postholes was discovered and excavated in 2005. A few hundred metres further east, a third pit was discovered in 2010 before the development of an urban area. These remains were located on a hillside, facing south-west, overlooking the Steïr river. In this hilly landscape, some natural flat platforms were chosen by the first farmers. The soil is composed of fine clay useful for different functions (covering wooden walls, making pottery). The geological substratum is very complex here and associates various granites and metamorphic rocks used by the Neolithic people. Due to their morphology (shallow depth, irregular contours, silty texture of the substratum) and their contents, the three pits discovered can be interpreted as having been dug for clay extraction and then progressively filled up with domestic waste material. Their contours are irregular and the asymmetrical section shows the direction of the extraction of the clay ; their depth is shallow and extraction stopped when the granite bedrock was reached. These excavations are similar to the lateral pits of houses in Early Neolithic hamlets. The preservation of a few postholes nearby and the type of waste found confirm the domestic nature of these structures. The archaeological material, quite abundant despite the small volume of remains preserved, is characteristic of the Early Neolithic and the Villeneuve-Saint-Germain culture. Four radiocarbon analyses, two of which were made on calcinated ceramic material, confirm the dating of the site to the first quarter of the fifth millennium. Pottery represents the principal component with around thirty pots identified from over five hundred potsherds. Petrographic analysis of the components reveals a local manufacture for most of the pottery. However, some rare pieces imported from beyond the Armorican massif are distinguished by the use of exogenous clay and the introduction of the ‘ chamotte’ technique. The morphological and decorative characteristics indicate a middle phase or the beginning of a recent phase of the Villeneuve-Saint-Germain culture. Spherical shapes and impressed decors are predominant, the applied cord typical of the recent phase almost absent. The lithic industry is mostly manufactured on flint of various origins with however a small preference for local and coastal resources. Long-distance importations came from central and western France. In spite of the small number of pieces, the lithic series indicates the maintaining of blade production on imported flint by means of a complex technical system. The presence and the nature of broken schist bracelets, typical artefacts of this culture, and the macro-tools mostly made on granite, reveal the Neolithic population’s good knowledge of their environment. The functional diversity of the macro-tools found on the site reveals that both domestic and craft activities were carried out, a characteristic of Neolithic settlements. The anthracological study of the charcoal highlights a progressive exploitation of the local forest, on the hill slopes and the bottom of surrounding valleys. Wood selection with oak dominant is typical of Early Neolithic sites. These settlement remains represent at present the most western traces of neolithisation in the Armorican Peninsula at the beginning of the fifth millennium, in addition to the few regional excavated sites. Detailed analysis of the archaeological artefacts – ceramics, lithics, stone bracelets, macro-tools, anthracology, petrography – reveals both local supply and long-distance relationships, in particular with the Loire valley and Touraine.
Keywords: West Brittany, radiocarbon dates, petrography, anthracology, macro-tools, stone bracelets, lithic, ceramics, dwelling, VSG Culture, Early Neolithic, parure, Bretagne ouest, Néolithique ancien, Villeneuve-Saint-Germain, habitat, céramique, lithique, macro-outillage, anthracologie, pétrographie, datations 14C
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2712.More information
Even though stone slab burials are well known in archaeological literature since the beginning of the 20th century (mostly thanks to J. Vilaró, then M. Cura, J. Castany and Ll. Guerrero), they have been largely overlooked during this last decade. Even so, numerous graves have been discovered with parallels with other contemporary -or sub-contemporary-Neolithic burials in southern France, northern Italy or Switzerland. The scarce or null visibility of the burials, their deficient state of conservation, the lack of surveying projects and the alterations caused by soil movements in agro-pastoral areas can be the reason for the few discoveries of this kind of burial during the last few years. Neolithic communities selected specific spaces and territories to bury their dead and in particular at locations between 589 m and 747 m above sea level. They used stone slabs to build two types of tombs : (1) cistas, which are cist tombs, buried and sealed tightly by the four slabs that make up the sides and the top. They can be accessed by moving the upper slab (vertical access) ; (2) megalithic chambers whose fundamental difference is that they are accessed from the side (horizontal access). There is an additional 20% of graves in a poor state of preservation that could not be classified. There is little osteological information as many of the graves were excavated several decades ago. Frequently a substantial part of the skeleton was not collected or the appropriate techniques were not used for optimal data recording. Most graves contain only one individual, occasionally two, and rarely three or more. The majority are adult males, but due to the poor excavation procedures described above and the loss of certain remains over time, because of the changes and transfers of the archaeological material between museums, this information is unreliable. The aim of this paper is to present the latest work carried out on the burials by a large team of scholars. We will describe the characteristics that define these burials (from the typology of the structures and buried individuals to the type of grave goods) and our analysis of these characteristics. This includes the study of the dental morphology that has allowed us to determine that the Neolithic communities of the interior of Catalonia had a greater affinity with those of southern France and perhaps even a common origin. In addition, the recent advances in biomolecular techniques (δ13C and δ15N isotope analysis) have given access to information on diet, which mainly consisted of vegetables (cereals) and, in some cases, animal proteins. This contradicts the initial idea that the economy of these groups in the interior of Catalonia relied on animal husbandry. We have made important advances in the study of the grave goods with research into the geographic origin of the raw materials used to make the bone, malacological and lithic tools and ornaments, the technical systems implemented during their preparation and the tools’ use-wear before being deposited in the burial. The lithic raw materials are comprised of flint from south-eastern France and the Ebro Basin, variscite from the Gavà Mines and ornaments made with various marine species originating in the Mediterranean coast. This demonstrates the wide and complex network of inter-group contacts that existed at this time. As for the function of lithic and bone tools (knapped and polished), they show us that Neolithic societies had a double attitude when selecting grave goods : while some tools are unused and appear to have been prepared to be deposited ex profeso together, others were chosen among previously used tools. These objects show traces of use but were maintained in a perfect state of use. The tools include flint blades for harvesting (cutting) cereals or scraping hide, geometric unused microlithic projectiles, polished axes for wood and hide work, and bone awls for the transformation of soft materials. We still have to determine the function of the schist awls, which may have come from workshops located in the Pyrenees. From an experimental perspective, the current hypothesis is that they were probably used as projectile points. Finally, we will present the available radiocarbon dates as well as the statistical analysis regarding their chronological distribution and duration. Before our dating program, the chronology of stone slabs burials was based on a small number of dates, some of which were obtained from " long life" samples. Today we know that this type of burial was in use for between 510 and 865 years, during the period 4230-4000 cal. BC and 3490-3180 cal. BC. This indicates that these funerary practices were largely contemporary with others in Catalonia (located in the territories near the Mediterranean coast), as well as in France, Italy and Switzerland. Within the framework of this ongoing project, we aim to work on the more recently excavated burials (it is the case of Camp de la Bruna), as well as undertaking new analysis aimed at discovering the origin of certain tools and ornaments. Our priority will be to initiate a series of Zooms analyses to determine the species of bone used to make the numerous tools found in these graves.
Keywords: statistical analysis., Neolithic, Northeast of the Iberian Peninsula, stone slabs burials, Solsonià, radiocarbon dates, Néolithique, nord-est de la péninsule Ibérique, tombes à dalles, Solsonià, radiocarbone, analyses statistiques.
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2713.More information
Since 1991, users of in-home services have been eligible for a tax refund equal to50% of their spending on these services. The tax reductionwas turned into a tax credit in 2007, but only for economically active households. This condition greatly limited the impact of the policy change : in 2008, the tax credit covered 1.9% of the total € 7.8 bn annual expenditure, against 34% for the earlier tax reduction. We evaluate the impact of the reform using an exhaustive panel database of tax returns available for 2006-2008, and combining difference-in-differences andmatchingmethods. Our results suggest that the reform induced an additional 86,000 to 120,000 households to use declared in-home services.
Keywords: matching, in-home services, tax reduction, tax credit, public policy evaluation, difference-in-differences, JEL Classifications D13 - H23 - H31, évaluation de politiques publiques, différence de différences, appariement Classifications, JEL D13 - H23 - H31, services à domicile, réduction fiscale, crédit d’impôt
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2714.More information
Entrepreneur managers and entrepreneurial support professionals seek to better understand the role of entrepreneurial support structures in anchoring technology startups within their ecosystem. This article examines the feasibility of actions to be implemented from their perspective. The research objective is to identify common action representations, as well as distinct perceptions regarding action convergences and divergences, between entrepreneur managers and entrepreneurial support professionals, regarding their feasibility in support of technology startups anchoring in the ecosystem. Differences in conceptualization and perception between these ecosystem stake-holders were determined using the group concept mapping (GCM) approach. Results help identify and understand actions to be promoted and implemented by entrepreneurial support professionals and institutional actors in support of technology startups anchoring, value creation and sustainable development in the ecosystem.
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2715.More information
ABSTRACTThe method of ARIMA forecasting with benchmarks developed in this paper allows the production of univariate forecasts which take into account the historical information of a series, captured by an ARIMA model (Box and Jenkins, 1970), as well as partial prior information on the future behaviour of the series. The prior information, or benchmarks, stems from the conclusions of a study on the phenomenon to be extrapolated, from forecasts of an annual econometric model or simply from pessimistic, realistic or optimistic scenarios contemplated by the current economic analyst. It may take the form of annual levels to be achieved, of neighbourhoods to be reached for a given time period, of movements to be displayed or more generally of any linear criteria to be satisfied by the forecasted values. By means of this method, the forecaster may then exercize his current economic evaluation and judgement to the fullest extent in deriving the forecasts, since the labouriousness and the "trial and errors" experienced without a systematic method are avoided.
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2716.More information
Many instruments claiming to assess the level of social participation of persons with disabilities actually assess autonomy. This article presents preliminary data obtained with a new questionnaire, focused on social inclusion and participation of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Fifty parents agreed to take part in our study. Participants answered a telephone interview outlining barriers and accommodations to inclusion and social participation in school, home and the community. Results show that all these families are confronted with a wide array of structural and social barriers, especially when intellectual impairment is compounded with motor impairment. Our discussion emphasizes the need for the collaboration of service providers to ensure greater social inclusion and participation of children with IDD in their communities.
Keywords: Déficience intellectuelle, trouble envahissant du développement, inclusion sociale, participation sociale, instrumentation, évaluation
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2717.More information
The author describes the new insurance communication networks RINET (Reinsurance and Insurance Network) and LIMNET (London Insurance Market Network). Designed to promote better ties between insurers throughout the world, these new tools are a boon to their operations and strategies as they may contribute to reducing costs, accelerating electronic exchanges and the decision-making process, facilitating the placement of international risks and improving work methods. These new computerized systems will be developed to an even greater extent in the future. The article provides an overview of the context, how these networks came to be and what is at stake.
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2720.