First workshop of the REFIT project (refitproject.com) - Bibracte, March 2016 Exploring integrated approaches to cultural landscapes Current strategies, problems and potential Iron Age oppida as a case study

1. Colloque « paysages culturels » Bibracte
21/13 mars 2016
Intervention Jean-Pierre SYLLA
étude de cas Solutré, Grand site de France
Symposium on "Cultural landscapes",
Bibracte 21/13 March 2016
Presentation by Jean-Pierre SYLLA
Case study of Solutré, one of France's
designated "Grand Sites"

2. Confined boundary: Solutré-Pouilly-Vergisson
Broader boundary: (including Davayé-Fuissé-Prissé and Charnay-les-Mâcon)
Land area: 2,774 hectares designated as protected areas: 582 hectares (21%) landmarked,
530 hectares (19%) Natura 2000: 159 hectares - Density: 50 to 100 inhabitants / km2 -
proximity to Mâcon and communication links: TGV (Loché train station), A6 motorway, N79-
RCEA national highway.
Site management: Grand Site SPV, Joint Site Promotion Agency
France's
"Grand Site":

3. Mollusques – Musée
des confluences - Lyon
A major geological and landscape-driven event, from the picturesque
to the exceptional Beneath a prairie, fossilized sea beds, during the
middle of the Jurassic Period, 200/150 million years Solutré advances
(10 microns a year) towards its future land use.

4. The sea retreats, between the Morvan and Charolais zones to the west
and Bresse to the east, thrusting of the Alps around 30 million years
before the Modern Era produces a series of hilltops oriented north-
northeast / south-southwest shaped into asymmetric figures called
"cuestas". Solutré was born…

5. The rock juts towards the sky offering a geological facies
composed of limestone strata, providing a local landmark
and moreover a soil and growing conditions ideal for
vineyards, particularly the Chardonnay varietal (sedimentary
layers reaching as far as 1,000 m).

6. The archaeological landscapes of the Solutrean Period (circa 24,000 years before the Modern
Era) open onto barren, highly exposed spaces. As the climate warms, the landscape reverts
around -15,000 years with the appearance of forest cover 84% occupied by fir trees and
conifers.

7. Solutré stands out
as a unique
crossroads of
geological, natural
and climatic
systems, revealed as
a mosaic of large
landforms (e.g.
open fields or
plains, prairieland,
hill slopes).

8. Homo sapiens
env. 40 000
Musée
confluences
Lyon
Human activity got
underway here early, as a
sign of the area's appeal
(protection offered by cliffs, abundant fauna,
safe water sources, flint clay outcroppings,
etc.); this was the heyday of
the Prehistoric hunter, the
master stonecutter and
craftsmen working with
materials.

9. Musée ursulines mâcon
9
Musée de Genève
At the base of the mighty Rock, on the banks of the River
Saône, during the 6th or 5th millennium, another
civilization began to emerge, that of the Neolithic,
clearings became more widespread, slash-and-burn
removed forestland, farmers took a liking to barley and
wheat (according to palynology).

10. Carte Cassini-1761
The Medieval period disrupted the landscape
with castles, as Solutré, at the gate to
Burgundy, was key to strategic decisions: a
critical line of defense, a celebrated pilgrimage
site, a holy place for both Christian and pagan
communities, and even a venue for renowned
fairs.

11. 11
St Vincent de
Mâcon
Cluny
By drawing a considerable number of legacy
donations (2,000 property deeds), the
Christianization (emanating from Cluny) and the
communication corridor via the Saône Valley
helped expand the vineyards with vast clearing
(10th / 13th centuries).

12. Doyenné de Mazille
Genealogy of this special territory: A happy outcome
12 - Toponymy, or the science of place names, reveals
the presence of an Ancient land, one where occupation
has been intensive and continuous over the ages (as
suggested by names like clos, condemine, cras, challioux,
belouses, chassagnes).

13. In a subsistence economy, the community is very
keen on preserving its free grazing rights abolished in
1889 with shared herding and the practice of
"swidden" to clear fields around settlements on the
upper slopes of the rock formations.
H Hugrel – Musée de Mâcon

14. Archives 71
Mixed-use farming associating crops with cattle
breeding reached the height of its popularity in
the mid-19th century: the tenant farming model
was being applied to the vineyards, in a capital-
labor association splitting the land use (2
hectares planted with vines, half an hectare in
arable land, 1 hectare used as pasture, and 2
cows for breeding).

15. The post-World War II boom years, from 1950 to
1980, saw the arrival of: mechanization, emphasis
on greater yields by winegrowers, removal of
hedges, imposed forestation appearing in areas
unsuitable for vines, west of the grazing prairies.

16. As pastureland was
relinquished, unique
ecological zones (chalk
grasslands, 128 hectares
growing many families of
orchids, etc.) were
threatened by being overrun
by bushes (loss of
biodiversity, a landscape with
fewer vistas).

17. Initial warning signals over the
period 1980-2000! Real estate
pressures, soil engineering,
adverse impacts of tourist
traffic, agricultural
specialization, soil erosion,
loss of fertile land use, limited
wood harvesting of forested
parcels.
Gis sol 2010

18. Despite it all, the site has been
"under protection" since 1909
and has garnered an increasing
number of designations and
labels (for its rock formations,
villages, etc.), biotope
preservation in 1991
encompassing 35 hectares, 159
hectares classified under Natura
2000, vineyards awarded the
AOC distinction as of 1936,
culminating in 2013 with
bestowal of the "Grand Site de
France" label.

19. Finding balance in the environment:
Generating wealth
19 - The relationship between nature and
agriculture, shaped by changing uses, led to
a sort of "virtuous" economic model
characterized as comprehensive, extensive
and highly qualitative.

20. This "social production" to quote H. Mendras
offered by the landscape proceeds from a
construct, an ordering: villages and vines climbing
halfway up the slope topped by uncultivated moors
and forested ridges, dotted with prairies or
cropland on the valley floors.

21. This "social production" to quote H. Mendras offered
by the landscape proceeds from a construct, an
ordering: villages and vines climbing halfway up the
slope topped by uncultivated moors and forested
ridges, dotted with prairies or cropland on the valley
floors.

22. This remolded
landscape, bearing
man's imprint, is a
testimonial to the
efforts undertaken to
influence physical
surroundings; it
constitutes a valuable
source for interpreting
all sorts of uses, be
they human, economic,
agrarian or habitat-
related.

23. Solutré vividly displays rural society stigmas, a place
"where time stands still" shielded from the
industrial civilization as if the spectator was
contemplating a landscape from a different era!

24. Photos©
Grand site
The sensorial, aesthetic or pictorial
approach proves pertinent in
drawing sharp contrasts: mineral /
plant, wild / transformed by man,
overgrown / cultivated / unbounded
grassland / enclosed forests, abrupt
rocky outcroppings, the uneven
slant of hillsides.

25. The evocative interface
elements, winegrowers'
homes with balconies, stone
field huts, low walls, kilns,
washhouses, stone buildings,
the isolated tree, copses,
country paths, all form a
vernacular tying the area's
disparate components.

26. The state of the local landscape
reveals a kind of "finalized
relationship" within an equilibrium
achieved to benefit a stable
ecosystem, brought to a point of
diversification and sustainability!

27. All landscapes display an overview, a decor, a way of looking at the
region from above, which in fact merely represents the "tip of the
iceberg" JR Pitte.

28. The region signifies "a place,
while the landscape projects its
image" (F Dogonet). Behind this
"universal" landscape are
intimate locales where life goes
on, contrasting the singular with
the generic, the specific with the
general, the local with the global.

29. La chasse à l’abîme – A Arcellin
Beyond the visible depictions lies the mental sphere, the inner sanctum of
history, based on representations and built up through imagination and at
times legend… like the hunt forcing horses to leap into the abyss.

30. Media attention remains fixated on the reality
experienced to produce a "crystallized history" of
key dates, cultural artifacts, symbolic references
and heritage values, a type of "holy repository" JP
Ferrier. Lamartine, who from his solitude in
Montceau, cast his sights on the "two petrified
ships atop a sea of vines" or the ritualized outing
by President Mitterrand, who said: "from the top, I
get a better view of what's going out, what's
coming in and especially what's staying still."

31. A veritable icon, emblem and archetype of this land,
the "Grand site" rises like an observatory and
laboratory in a perpetual quest to be exemplary and
demonstrative of best practices in rehabilitating
dried stones, reintroducing pasture, recording
residents' living memories, learning from the site.

32. Wouldn't the increasing
harmonization of
landscapes and
proliferation of "non-
descript" scenery justify
this search for
"differentiating" places,
unique and perhaps
exceptional! (1.40% of
the French territory).

33. Musée de mâcon
33
Encapsulating
human sciences,
earth sciences and
life sciences, Solutré
addresses our most
deeply-rooted
history; it is a
"tome", recounting
the permanence of
Man, who instills
meaning and the key
to deciphering such
a complex site, in
grasping what's
known as "the spirit
of the place".