The exploitation of the quarries at Plancher-les-Mines (Haute-Saône) and, to a lesser extent, that of Réquista (Aveyron) present good examples of the regional production of technical tools, whose diffusion barely exceeds 200 to 250 km as the crow flies, during the 4th and 3rd millennia B.C. They make interesting points of comparison with the production of axes made of Alpine jades, which, on the contrary, can be found over the whole of Western Europe, at distances of up to 1 700 km, during the whole of the 5th and part of the 4th millennia. In the case of Plancher-les-Mines, we will study the diffusion of polished axes in terms of social functioning, testing the models proposed by Colin Renfrew, and in particular the decreasing number of artifacts, the further one gets from their point of origin, using one of the best data-bases in France (more than 30,000 artefacts in pelite-quartz : flakes, roughouts, polished axes, chisels, etc. currently inventoried). Such an interpretative model, in which are involved the populations and means and rhythms of exploiting of the sourcematerial, the relative distances covered by the various products of the chaîne opératoire (rough-outs, hammer-stones, working axes, large polished axes), should provide a better context in which to elucidate the reasons for the transfer of certain axe and adze blades over substantially greater distances than that of classic down-the-line exchanges. This model can then be compared with the distribution across Europe of Alpine jade axes, which extends considerably further than that of polished axe blades manufactured from regional rocks, such as those from Plancher-les-Mines and Réquista.
Les exploitations de Réquista (Aveyron) et de Plancher-les-Mines (Haute-Saône, France). Exemples de diffusion de haches à moyenne distance.