Abstract
In this synthesis, we propose alternative conclusions relative to the chronology and architectural forms discovered on the site of the north beltway boulevard périphérique nord of Lyon. Four archaeological surfaces, from the Middle and Final Neolithic, and the Early and Final 1 Bronze Age, were revealed. The architecture comprises a model, probably associated with a restricted family unit, which included a principal habitation building and a secondary storage building. The Néolithique moyen bourguignon has yielded only one of these ensembles. Only the Bell-Beaker occupation, with a single edifice, departs from this scheme. In the Early Bronze Age, underground storage seems to be partly at the origin of the constitution of a group of buildings on a pre-established plan and according to a symbolic framework whose meaning is unknown. This situation recalls similar observations realized in the middle Rhône Valley. We again remark the importance of the agricultural economy for the populations of the beginning of the Bronze Age in the Rhodanian axis, in a sort of “Neolithic optimum”. The architectural forms differ from the farm-cattlesheds that constitute a common model north of the Alps. In the Final Bronze Age, as in the preceding period, three architectural ensembles were identified, but seem to benefit from a larger spatial autonomy according to the distribution and nature of the enclosures. The function of this group of buildings no longer seems to be principally oriented toward a concentration of agricultural products.