La crosse, point d'interrogation ? Poursuite de l'analyse d'un signe néolithique, notamment à Locmariaquer (Morbihan)

In the European corpus of the recent Prehistory, the sign “crosse” or crook is most often limited to its esoteric sense (insignia of power) or in a exoteric sense (shepherd's stick, sickle) without true explicitation of choices, otherwise by an assumption relating to the sociopolitical and economic organisation of the Neolithic society. One will set out to show the complexity of the sign within the representations of Vth and IVth millenniums, notably in Brittany and precisely at La Table des Marchands monumental site. Its synchronous functioning with the hafted axe, itself distracted from its function admitted as a woodcutter's tool translating by habit an agricultural activity, dictates on the contrary a less quiet usage, far from a productive pastoral character. The weapon seems to be a more receivable hypothesis to understand the structural coherence of engravings on steles. The origin of words used since the XIXth century will be discussed; then will be proposed a european inventory of the different true objects included as throwing sticks or boomerangs; others representations out of Brittany will be evoked to help in the resolution of Neolithic signs. So, more cryptic than the stone or metal hafted axe which shows its first usage, more ambiguous than the right stick of the walker or the flail of the farmer, the object “crook” does not end up being reactivated throughout millenniums, as pictures reach us successively.