Abstract
I Stantari di u Frati è a Sora is a Bronze Age hilltop settlement located 5.6 km east of the current coastline of the Gulf of Valincu, in south-west Corsica. Discovered in 2014, it was excavated between 2019 and 2020 by Inrap Méditerranée. The site sits on a rounded hill of sandy substrate (maximum altitude 49 m) that dominates the lower part of the middle valley of the River Rizzanesi. The summit is partly covered by a layer of pebbles from an ancient alluvial deposit. These geological aspects have had a major influence on how the domestic features were organised.Defensive features bound the settlement with its houses and other constructions. Buildings are also located outside the boundaries. Initially, up to four or five juxtaposed and sub-parallel palisades delimited the settlement. This system was then replaced by a V-shaped ditch and a palisaded earth rampart. The last construction phase that superimposed on the previous two includes the construction of a double dry-stone rampart with a typical south Corsican architecture. An entrance is located in the southern part of the rampart, around the eroded interfluve ridge linking the relief to the rocky massifs of Ghjumenta Grossa. The site has three dwellings, contour terraces and isolated pits. The excavated surface, around 3,000 m², is estimated to cover almost a quarter of the settlement.The chronology of these supposedly continuous occupations ranges from the end of the Early Bronze Age 1a (2200-2000 BC) to the end of the Middle Bronze Age 2 (1550-1450 BC), according to Corsican chronology. Severe erosion of the soft soils caused the disappearance of most of the floors and occupation layers, with the exception of dwelling 1027, partly preserved by its elliptic sidewall. The other levels in place are the fills of the dugout features (pits, ditches, palisade trenches, foundation trenches and postholes).In this paper, we aim to present the artefacts and ecofacts relating to economic and craft activities at I Stantari di u Frati è a Sora in the Early and Middle Bronze Age, if possible from an evolutionary and cultural perspective. The material from Early Bronze Age 1, contemporary with the first installation, is rare. The best-preserved occupation phase dates to Early Bronze 2b (1750-1650 BC) / Middle Bronze 1 (1650-1550 BC).The pottery assemblage includes rare elements dated to Early Bronze Age 1, such as vessels with aligned sublabial perforations. Most of the wares are typical of Early Bronze / Middle Bronze Age transition contexts in the south of the island: high carinated jars, soft angled handles, large vessels with long flared necks, etc. As always in the south of the Rizzanesi, there is no influence from Italic productions. From a functional point of view, the presence of table, kitchen and storage vessels is a typical configuration for Corsican Bronze Age settlements.The stone tools attest to a form of pebble percussion, but also to the presence of Sardinian flint flakes in the early phase. Some grindstones and mortars, sometimes of particularly large dimensions, provide information about diet. Special objects (smoother, pendant, weight) enhance our perception of the use of lithic resources. Finally, we should mention the presence of some faceted and polished haematite nodules, the function of which remains undetermined.Although there are no metal objects, some slag and fragments of terracotta moulds seem to indicate that Cu-As alloy tools were made on site. Tin is absent from the XRF spectra. In Corsica, these trends (arsenic copper and use of non-permanent moulds) generally characterise the Early Bronze Age and the beginning of Middle Bronze Age and our results confirm the dates.To conclude, we present the results of the studies of the organic remains that point to a landscape a priori dominated by Erica sp, Arbutus unedo and Quercus ilex/coccifera, while the plant diet refers only to balanophagy.Putting all the data into perspective highlights an occupation that sees a gradual and non-synchronous change in the mobilised resources, the chaines opératoires and the repertoires. They reveal economic transformations linked to Tyrrhenian dynamics and networks, but also micro-regional phenomena of exclusion the consequence of specific alliances systems. In parallel to the innovations observed in the settlement, these material developments define the specifics of the Bronze Age in Corsica, an island where mechanisms of social structuring were constrained by a physical and cultural geography conducive to the development of particular forms of compartmentalisation.