Research

The wreck of Zambratija (Istria, Croatia) is, to date, the archaeological evidence of the oldest sewn ship in the Mediterranean, without comparison in ancient Adriatic and Mediterranean shipbuilding.

The ZADIG project aims to combine the skills of the Centre Camille Jullian and the Institut méditerranéen de biodiversité et d'écologie marine et continentale to answer the chronological questions posed by the Zambratija wreck; to test the vulnerability of this archaeological heritage; to experiment with a non-destructive method of acquiring dendrochronological data on waterlogged wood using a resistograph.

Partner(s):

• Centro di fisica applicata, datazione e diagnostica (CEDAD - Brindisi, Italy)
• Center de datation par le radiocarbone (CDRC) of the Archéologie et archéométrie laboratory (ArAr - Lyon)

The project aims to establish a chronological and methodological framework for studying the relationships between societies and water in the upper reaches of the Argens River (Var), in an area exceptional for the chronological longevity and spatial continuity of travertine formations and associated wetlands. It will combine a geomorphological approach, archaeological synthesis and surveys from the Upper Palaeolithic to the Middle Ages, archival studies, characterization of the recording potential of the environmental variability of the travertines using sedimentological, paleoecological, geochemical and isotopic methods, and tests of 14C and U/Th dating methods. In this way, it will seek to reconstruct the interweaving of societal and natural factors in the construction of landscapes, the increasing weight of uses and developments of alluvial bottoms, and the resilience to environmental change of the resulting socio-hydrosystems.

Partner(s):

• Laboratoire Temps, espaces, langages, Europe méridionale, Méditerranée (TELEMMe - Aix-en-Provence)
• Center archéologique du Var (Toulon)
• Maison régionale de l'eau (Barjols)
• Syndicat mixte de l'Argens
• Municipality of Saint-Maximin

As part of the SyLitMéd program coordinated by LA3M, the SigLitMéd project aims to develop a team tool for recording and producing cartographic data at different scales, and to strengthen interdisciplinary cross-disciplinary approaches to the "historical geography" of medieval coastal areas in the north-western Mediterranean in the 8th-12th centuries. This tool will take the form of a geographic database (GIS)
based on the open-source QGIS software and accessible to all SyLitMed program participants.

The project will involve the compilation of historiographic data (coastal paleoenvironments, cartographic, cadastral, archaeological and historical sources). The operation of the GIS prototype will be tested in two privileged survey windows in Provence (Gulf of Fos / Martigues) and Roussillon (Argelès-sur-Mer / Collioure coastal area).

The ambition of the NOFUN project is to bring together an interdisciplinary team to consider the causes, modalities and archaeological manifestations of non-funerary treatments of the deceased, by studying on the one hand those deceased who did not benefit from funerary rites, and on the other those who benefited from funerals but whose remains were the subject of positive or negative post-funerary treatments - two types of situation that risk being confused in an archaeological context.

It comprises five problematic axes that question the articulation between the treatment of the corpse and the consideration given to individuals: 1. non-funerary deposits within funerary ensembles; 2. rituals for transforming a non-funerary burial site into a sepulchre; 3. delayed funerary calendars; 4. Funeral treatment in the absence of a body; 5. Post-funeral treatments. The aim here is to mobilize all the criteria and methods developed by archaeothanatology, which will be confronted with historical and anthropological sources to propose new interpretative reading keys. Eventually, an ANR project will be submitted.

Partner(s):

• Institut national de recherches archéologiques préventives (French national institute for preventive archaeological research)
• Laboratoire d'archéologie médiévale et moderne en Méditerranée (LA3M - Aix-en-Provence, France)
• Archaeology of Mediterranean Societies Laboratory (ASM - Montpellier)
• Laboratoire De la Préhistoire à l'actuel : culture, environnement et anthropologie (PACEA - Bordeaux)
• Interdisciplinary Research Center for Human and Social Sciences (CRISES - Montpellier)

Contrary to traditional accounts, animal sacrifice did not disappear at the end of Late Antiquity. While in Western Europe the Church finally succeeded, not without difficulty, in putting an end to bloody sacrifice during the Middle Ages, many Christian traditions in the Balkans, the Caucasus, the Near East, Egypt and Ethiopia never ceased to practice animal sacrifice, which remains a living practice. A comprehensive overview of this phenomenon in the various Christian groups has yet to be offered. Our team of historians and anthropologists aims to fill this gap, using an interdisciplinary and comparative approach to analyze various phenomena linked to animal sacrifice in Christian societies over the long term: perception and criticism, ideological transformations and reinterpretations, persistence and continuity of sacrifice. Our analysis will focus on the Balkans and Greece on the one hand, and the Caucasus (Georgia and Armenia) on the other.

Partner(s):

• Yerevan State University (Armenia)
• Lyon 2 Lumière University
• Ilia State University (Tbilisi, Georgia)
• Groupe Sociétés, Religions, Laïcités (GSRL, - Paris)

The ACCTOr project has two main objectives:

• To improve the tools and methods used to characterize and identify the origins of the various limestone materials used in the ancient theater of Orange, in order to achieve convincing results for the publication of the monument. The results of this emblematic case study will subsequently be disseminated and exploited by the entire archaeological community for the study of other ancient or medieval stone constructions.
• Undertake prospective research into the automated recognition of limestone facies geometry, both in quarries and in the materials used, based on digital photogrammetry of monument elevations. This prospective research, based on the findings of artificial intelligence research, could yield significant results both in terms of characterizing and identifying the provenance of materials, and in terms of reconstructing the construction techniques used on the theater.

This project focuses on the mechanical and acoustic characterization of bone samples. Following an initial preliminary study of bone properties using ultrasonic analysis (ARCHé-US project, on deer tibias), demonstrating the relevance of this innovative approach, an extension is proposed which will focus on long ox bones and/or fossil bones, in order to both i) compare with previous results and ii) provide a new benchmark and iii) specify and adapt the measurement protocol for physical properties such as moduli of elasticity and modulus of elasticity.
previous results, ii) provide a new reference frame and iii) refine and adapt the protocol for measuring physical properties such as moduli of elasticity, micro-hardness or density.

Ultimately, the data will be used to test taphonomic questions of differential preservation on bone assemblages of archaeopaleontological origin. It's worth pointing out that this project reflects the interdisciplinary nature of our business. Finally, a Master 2 and a BUT (Bachelor of Technology) student are involved in this study (2022-2023).

The FCGM project, funded by the Institute for Mediterranean archaeology (ARKAIA) in 2020 and 2022, has enabled us to establish fruitful collaborations and build up a large corpus on the scale of France, Germany, Spain and continental Italy on the quarries of origin of granite drums used in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and the distribution of drums during and after Antiquity. 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, local sources have been identified for casks now preserved in Betica, Lyon, Javols, Trier, Aachen and Prague. We propose to characterize the sources of barrels used in Sicily, a crossroads between east-west and north-south trade, and a possible "semi-local" outlet for Calabrian granites.

Partner(s):

• Università di Catania (Italy)
• Consiglio nazionale delle ricerche (Pisa, Italy)
• Istituto nazionale di geofisica e vulcanologia (Rome, Italy)
• Università degli studi di Palermo (Italy)

The project presented here is part of Émilie Mannocci's PhD thesis (CCJ) and benefits from the expertise in applied physics of Daniel Borschneck (CEREGE) and in ceramology of Laetitia Cavassa (CCJ). The Research project involves 270 portable XRF analyses of 132 ceramics with molded decorations from northern Italy found at the Butte Saint-Antoine site in Fréjus. The aim is to distinguish different production groups within this batch of material through chemical characterization of the ceramics. Indeed, as the north-Italian ceramic workshops of the Change of Era period are not yet archaeologically known, the use of archaeometric analyses is essential to understanding their organization and functioning.

This project aims to produce a risk monitoring and prediction tool in the form of a geographic information system (GIS) for the Kerkennah coastline (Tunisia), based on an interdisciplinary approach: archaeological, architectural and photogrammetric study, archaeological and audiovisual documentation, drone survey and geographic expertise.

The archipelago is home to the archaeological remains of the important Punic and Roman port city of Cercina, which have only been briefly excavated. In view of the archipelago's dramatic maritime erosion (the coastline has receded by 7m in 10 years), there is an urgent need to identify, record and monitor the evolution of archaeological and architectural structures.

By ensuring the convergence of data from a wide range of scientific fields and techniques, RECALISKE will provide the basis for a more ambitious project on the challenges and issues facing the Mediterranean coastline in the face of climate change. The Kerkennah Islands will provide a prime study ground, including work on salt exploitation, that currently being carried out by a PhD on coastal evolution, and others to come, with a view to an ANR.

Partner(s):

• Tunisian National Heritage Institute (INP)