Abstract
The site was discovered during a fieldwalking programme in the Eyrein commercial zone (Corrèze). The Champ de Brach site comprises 31 hearths with basal stones, and two fire-pits (which were not reddened by heating) and has been dated to the Early Iron Age. The structures, laid out in row on a north-south axis, present a regular organization. This regular patterning was certainly not random. Indeed, the structures were regularly spaced at a distance of 3 to 3.5 meters between the centre of each one, the average was 3.42 M. Such consistency implies a common measuring unit of c. 3.40 m. This observation suggests that formal surveying and plotting had occurred on the site. A functional interpretation of the structures with heated stones is also considered. Indeed, the homogeneity of these pits (dimensions, form, and the nature of the filling) suggests a similar function for all of the pits. Comparisons with other examples in France and places around the world suggest that these hearths had a culinary vocation, as well as other possible functions. The chromatographic analyses of fat found on the blocks of granite support the idea of food preparation having occurred in the pits. Our observations in the field, along with the anthracological and chromatographic studies, allow is to suggest that the pits at Champ de Brach represent a specific social activity. The technological and topographical characteristics represented here should not be underestimated; they may well have been part of a complex ideological system.