Research

This project aims to develop an ANR application (PRCI) to be submitted in autumn 2021. The project associates French laboratories with the National and Capodistrian University of Athens and the Greek Archaeological Service of Phocis. The project concerns a trans-disciplinary and trans-period study of the relationship between fortification and urban fabric at the contact of the Mediterranean and Balkan areas from Antiquity to the contemporary period. This study will focus on the town of Amphissa, for which the results of research on fortifications and urban fabric will be integrated into a GIS once the field surveys and wood analyses have been completed. This collective study will be published in the Études franco-helléniques series (École française d'Athènes).

Partner(s):

• National and Capodistrian University of Athens

A project is proposed for the direct radiocarbon (14C) dating of paleontological remains of glacial mammalian species from southern France. The geochronological program is based on CEREGE's radiocarbon unit, which has demonstrated its ability to date micro-samples of collagen and purified molecular extracts. The aim of the project is to determine the chronology of disappearance and/or extinction of large steppe mammals, as well as the development of temperate species in a geographical area at the confluence of major Late Pleistocene ecosystems: the tundra-steppe and the Mediterranean world. Based on paleontological remains preserved in several museums in the south of France and in the Principality of Monaco, this project is the first program in France devoted exclusively to direct dating of woolly mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, megaceros deer, cave bears, cave hyenas, cave lions and marmots.) Based on the expected results, a discussion on the causes and rates of extinction of these species will be initiated (climate change, anthropogenic pressure on environments) as well as a comparison with archaeological and paleoclimatic data from other European regions.

Partner(s):

• Requien Museum (Avignon)
• Nîmes Natural History Museum
• Toulouse Natural History Museum
• Musée national de Préhistoire (Les-Eyzies-de-Tayac)
• Bordeaux Natural History Museum
• Angoulême Museum of Fine Arts
• Museum of Prehistoric Anthropology, Monaco
• Archaeomaterials Research Institute (IRAMAT - Bordeaux)
• Center for Research and Studies in Prehistoric Art (CREAP - Toulouse)

AQUEDAIX is an interdisciplinary project combining mineralogy, geochemistry and archaeology, with the ambition of reconstructing the hydro-climatic conditions of the Mediterranean environment in Roman times through the study of carbonate concretions deposited on the walls of aqueducts. The climatic context is one of the key parameters closely associated with the management of water resources in past societies.

AQUEDAIX has two objectives: 1) to gain a better understanding of the modes of deposition of carbonate concretions via material characterization and fine-scale geochemical characterization approaches; 2) to date concretions by comparing absolute geochronology and archaeological knowledge in order to gain a better understanding of how these hydraulic systems functioned. AQUEDAIX will draw on a range of cutting-edge skills from the laboratories of CEREGE, the Centre Camille Jullian, CINaM and the Archaeology and Museum Department of the city of Aix-en-Provence.

The existence of promising preliminary results (150 years of laminated deposits in Roman times), as well as local and Internationally recognized scientific expertise on the mode of deposition and Mediterranean climatic archives, reinforce the feasibility of the AQUEDAIX project.

Partner(s):

• Aix-en-Provence Archaeology & Museum Department

The aim of this project is to carry out geophysical surveys (electrical resistivity, magnetism and ground radar) in the archaeological complex of the Porta Marina Forum in order to detect the presence of earlier structures that could document the early phases of occupation of the coastal sector of the city of Ostia outside the Late-Republican enclosure.

It is part of a wider project of geophysical prospecting and study of the maritime quarter of the city of Ostia, carried out by CCJ and CEREGE, which began in 2018 and is currently underway.

Partner(s):

• Laboratoire Géosciences Paris Sud (GEOPS - Paris)

Part of the archaeological operations conducted by the Centre Camille Jullian since 2019 on the submerged littoral remains of the Olbia-de-Provence site located at the western root of the double tombolo of Giens (Hyères, France), this interdisciplinary project is being carried out jointly with geomorphologists and sedimentologists from CEREGE.

It consists of a campaign to sample and analyze sedimentary cores from one of the landscape features that adjoins one of the structures (ensemble 1) of the submerged littoral remains of the Olbia colony, midway along its length to the west. This is an "indurated barrier beach", uncovered in the late 2000s, lying between -3 m and -0.20 m depth.

The FCGM project, funded by the Institut d'archéologie méditerranéenne in 2020, has enabled us to establish fruitful collaborations and a large corpus on the scale of Gaul, Spain and Italy concerning the quarries of origin of granite shafts used in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. While the Narbonnaise region accounts for 100% of casks imported from the shores of the Mediterranean (Egypt, Turkey, western Mediterranean islands), this is no longer the case as we move further north or west: other (probably) local sources have been identified in Betica, Lyon, Javols, Trier, Aachen and probably Prague. The aim is to better characterize these sources and to reflect, in the light of historical documents, on the circumstances and motivations that led to the choice of local or imported sources, particularly in the Middle Ages, when most of the columns in the northern corpus were implemented.

We propose to characterize and differentiate in a semi-quantitative (statistical) way the ancient building materials of the Orange theater or part of it, according to their facies (lithology, granulometry, structure, fossils...), their quality (induration, anisotropy...) and their age, by studying them on site and in identified or presumed extraction sites in the vicinity. Sampling will be carried out in the field. It will complement the existing collection of rocks and thin sections used for the study. We will also seek to refine the stratigraphic provenance and outcrop availability of building stones, and thereby better understand the choice of regional materials and their use in the theater.

Partner(s):

• Interdisciplinary Center for Heritage Conservation and Restoration (CICRP - Marseille)

This project focuses on the mechanical and acoustic characterization of archaeo-paleontological bone samples. There is an extensive literature on the identification of the physical properties of different elements and portions of recent human or animal bones. The aim of the project is to adapt and test new ultrasonic methods to modern and fossil bone samples, and to propose a protocol for measuring physical properties such as moduli of elasticity, micro-hardness or density.

Partner(s):

• Laboratoire Cultures et environnements : Prehistory, Antiquity, Middle Ages (CEPAM - Nice)
• Dracénie Provence Verdon agglomération - Archaeology and Heritage Unit (Draguignan)

The RESTARCHI project aims to restore a seaside villa and a large amphora workshop in their coastal environment (Santa Marina and Loron sites in Croatia, Istria), based on the combined use of planimetry, surveys and photogrammetry of the buildings and the processing of a LiDAR survey. The project will contribute to finalizing the architectural study (model and 3D view). Restitution of the environment will be based on the results of Research in spatial analysis and archaeobotany. Finally, the CCJ-IRAA partnership will develop a collaboration with EDIKOM, a private company specializing in the creation of digital media, to produce a digital 3D visualization of the workshop and villa within an area that in ancient times corresponded to a large imperial seaside estate.

Partners:

• EDIKOM (Aix-en-Provence)
• IntelEspace platform (Clermont-Ferrand)
• Center for Research and Teaching in Environmental Geosciences (CEREGE - Aix-en-Provence)

This Amorce project is a continuation of an interdisciplinary project (2021) led by CCJ and CEREGE, which experimented with the use of 3D microtomography on various small Teleost bones (bony fish). The technique used offers precise virtual restitution of the bones, making it possible to obtain information (bone density, age and season of capture) difficult to detect otherwise, and necessary for the development of studies on the exploitation of fishery resources over the long term. The production of 3D models (CEREGE) of various skeletal elements has enabled us to move on to the phase of creating an interactive database, serving as an osteological atlas of various small Mediterranean and Black Sea species that receive little media coverage because they are modest and difficult to identify. Nevertheless, they are often on the list of species consumed by different communities over time, and can characterize the diet of certain social categories. The aim of the project is to create a didactic tool for students and researchers, and to increase the number of data sets of interest in several fields of archaeo-ichthyology and, more broadly, biology (anatomy, histology of skeletal tissues). It also enables us to validate a high-performance technique for replicating bones, whether they belong to a current repository or come from archaeological sites, if these have to be destroyed to carry out bio-chemical analyses.