Grant for scientific culture projects (co-funding)

The project revolves around the valorization of the excavations we carried out in Pompeii in two potters' workshops that were in operation at the time of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius at the end of the 1st century A.D. This field research enabled us to reconstruct the entire chain of operations involved in the potter's work, from the identification of the clay extraction quarries to the distribution of the finished product. The excavations were accompanied not only by archival research, analysis of iconography depicting the work of the potters, study of the vases and chemical analysis, but also by an experimental archaeology trial involving the reconstruction to scale of one of the potter's wheels in the Pompeian workshop.

The virtual tour will be accompanied by an excavation workshop for a Pompeian potter's wheel: a digging trough - already available - that reproduces the remains we discovered on site. Depending on the event, the workshop activity can also be developed with the presence of a potter who offers an introduction to vase turning (with her electric lathes) for each participant.

This educational program is dedicated to the discovery of daily life in Roman Gaul for schoolchildren (CP to CM2). Its aim is to make various aspects of ancient society accessible to children through their teachers. Based on 5 main themes (food, clothing, architecture, education, entertainment) and drawing on the collections of the Musée départemental Arles antique and the monuments of Arles, teachers will be provided with educational kits designed by researchers and their partners. These will include mediation tools such as models, facsimiles and various digital media (images, 3D, films, videos, interviews, etc.). These tools will draw on the expertise of AMU's laboratories in the field of experimental archaeology, with students invited to carry out a number of experiments themselves, in the classroom, relating to crafts and daily life in the Roman world.

The Archéo'EnvieS project is part of the A*MIDEX PATHWAy 2020-2022 program (Protohistoric to Medieval pastoralism in the Western Alps: the origins and development of long-distance transhumance), which is developing proven (archaeozoology, sedimentology, palynology) or innovative (isotopes, sedimentary DNA) tools for a systemic approach to the evolution of socio-ecosystems through the co-construction of pastoral practices and landscapes, over nearly 3,000 years, on both sides of the Western Alps. It proposes to create a set of games to raise public awareness of the evolution of agro-pastoral practices and the eating habits of societies from the Neolithic to the Middle Ages.

With the installation of exhibition panels on the Thaenae archaeological site (Sfax, Tunisia), combined with additional information on the web (GIS, virtual tour), this tour will enable visitors to discover the most remarkable Roman monuments on this major site, which is still little known to the general public (baths, houses, ramparts, towers, city gates and necropolises). An open day will inaugurate this interactive itinerary, and will feature a number of workshops (excavation tank, amphora reassembly, mosaic workshop...) and guided tours to introduce visitors to the site, as well as to the various professions involved in archaeology, and to highlight our recent scientific discoveries. Finally, a round-table discussion will bring together the various players in Research and civil society to inaugurate the virtual tour and discuss the site's future development.