The Seine-Oise-Marne culture is the name given by archaeologists to the final culture of the Neolithic and first culture of the Chalcolithic in northern France and southern Belgium. The Seine-Oise-Marne culture has been named because of the numerous archaeological discoveries made in the Seine, Oise and Marne basins. but this crop has spread far beyond, throughout northwestern France and southern Belgium.
It lasted from around 3100 to 2000 BC and is most famous for its gallery grave megalithic tombs which incorporate a port-hole slab separating the entrance from the main burial chamber. In the chalk valley of the River Marne rock-cut tombs were dug to a similar design. Some have examples of megalithic art with images of axes, breasts and necklaces carved on their walls.
The culture of Seine-Oise-Marne is characterized by the use of a thick pottery, rather coarse style, whose typical shape is called "pot-de-fleur" because of its resemblance with this contemporary object. This ceramic is poorly decorated, the patterns being limited to incisions or patterns scored by printing.
Diagnostic artefacts include transverse arrowheads, antler sleeves and crude, flat-based cylindrical and bucket-shaped pottery decorated with appliqué cordons. The Seine-Oise-Marne culture had trade links with neighbouring cultures enabling the use of Callaïs and Grand Pressingy flint imported from Brittany and the Loire and later, the use of copper.
The trepanation was widespread in the Paris Basin. Treated skulls were found in almost all of Allées couvertes, and many bones were found among the burial objects. Even more mysterious than the skull bore are T-shaped signs, which were dug into a number of female skulls during their lifetime. They resemble the double ax shown in a rock tomb on the Marne.
The culture seems to have had strong links with other areas and may have arisen from a composite of influences as indicated by the gallery grave design common across Europe and the pottery types which have comparators in Western France from 2600 BC and also in Brittany, Switzerland and Denmark.
The Seine-Oise-Marne culture is contemporary with the culture of corded ceramics stretching from the East of France to Russia, with which it shares enough common cultural elements so that we can consider the first as a subset of the second.