Search

« La sociologie est sans doute un projet scientifique, mais pour le sociologue elle est avant tout une manière de voir le monde – c’est-à-dire une poétique au sens étymologique du terme, c’est-à-dire au sens où Orphée fait le monde quand il l’énonce ». Présentation Comment la sociologie compose-t-elle avec la Méditerranée ? Telle est la question qui s’est posée lors de l’organisation du soixantième anniversaire du département de sociologie d’Aix-Marseille (1959-2019). En effet, malgré des éch...

International audience; One of the most widely distributed ceramics in the North-eastern Mediterranean during the 13th century CE was the ceramic commonly called ‘Port Saint Symeon ware’, whose iconography reflects multicultural influences and traditions. Samples coming mainly from the archaeological site of Kinet Höyük (Cilicia, Turkey), as well as from several sites in the Mediterranean, enabled us to define the output of two production centres of Port Saint Symeon ware based on archaeological data and wavelength-dispersive Xray fluorescence spectrometry (WD-XRF) analyses of the ceramic bodies. The materials and recipes used for their decoration—glazes, slips and colorants—were investigated by scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS). The results show that the two production centres had very different scales of diffusion, but shared similar decoration techniques that might be considered as standardized. They consisted of the application of a transparent high-Pb glaze on a ‘hybrid’ vitrified clayey slip, rich in angular siliceous inclusions, whose features suggest technical influences of the Islamic tradition. The potters of the Port Saint Symeon ware seem to have selected inclusions and K-rich clays in order to obtain off-white slips which are visually and technically close to synthetic ones.

International audience; The analysis of archaeological textiles is a primary source of knowledge about past societies, and the information it provides is remarkably diverse. However, special preservation conditions are needed to obtain an accurate picture of the use of textiles, particularly in the making of clothing. In Tomb 14 at the site of Burgast (Altai Mountains, Mongolia), excavated in 2016 by the French archaeological mission in Mongolia and the Institute of Archaeology of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences, the particular local conditions favoured the preservation of organic materials, including the complete clothing worn by the mummy of a child belonging to the Bulan-Kobin culture. This paper examines several questions on the origin of the raw material used and the role of these garments in funerary practices. The fibre analysis indicates that the silk and taffeta fabrics used to dress the mummy likely from China. We consider a plurality of sources (historical, archaeological, technical study analysis), as silk could have travelled. Our study of the tailoring shows that some of the textiles were probably re-used and provides new insights into clothing design and know-how. We argue that the deceased was dressed with care, and we propose that specific, non-quotidian garments were used for the funeral ceremony. Together, these findings contribute to describing little-known aspects of the Bulan-Kobin culture and hypotheses about its relations within the Xiongnu confederation.

International audience

Global historical series spanning the last two centuries recently became available for primary energy consumption (PEC) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Based on a thorough analysis of the data, we propose a new, simple macroeconomic model whereby physical power is fueling economic power. From 1820 to 1920, the linearity between global PEC and world GDP justifies basic equations where, originally, PEC incorporates unskilled human labor that consumes and converts energy from food. In a consistent model, both physical capital and human capital are fed by PEC and represent a form of stored energy. In the following century, from 1920 to 2016, GDP grows quicker than PEC. Periods of quasi-linearity of the two variables are separated by distinct jumps, which can be interpreted as radical technology shifts. The GDP to PEC ratio accumulates game-changing innovation, at an average growth rate proportional to PEC. These results seed alternative strategies for modeling and for political management of the climate crisis and the energy transition., Main text: 12 pages, 4 figures, 1 table; Appendices: 18 pages, 8 figures; 57 References

International audience; A recent petrographic study of ceramic jars from Giza imported into Egypt during the 4th Dynasty of the Pyramid Age (c. 2613-2494 BCE) identified the original production zone as the Lebanese coast generally between Beirut and Tripoli, including the region of Byblos. The jars and their contents were imported to Egypt by maritime trade expeditions conducted at the behest of the Egyptian state. This study analyses a selection of these ceramic samples using ICP-AES and-MS for comparison with published data from the region of Byblos. The results not only confirmed the underlying petrography, but together with new evidence from Lebanon suggests the vessels likely belonged to specialised workshop production in the Byblos environs and were made specifically for export to Egypt. The finding sheds new light on the relationship between the Egyptian state and the polity of Byblos in the Early Bronze Age, indicating the presence of standardised local production and commodity procurement mechanisms tailored to the needs of a large trade entity. This relationship in turn delivered significant prestige and status to local elites in an environment of competitive local peer-polity interactions.

In 1991, a 14C ß-counting installation with four proportional CO2 gas counters was tested at the Modane underground laboratory, 1700 m below the summit of Pointe du Fréjus, reducing the muon flux to 4 muons per square meter and per day. With cosmic radiation attenuated by a factor of 2.106, the background level of the counters was reduced by 65 to 85% while its variability was reduced by a factor of 30–80 depending on the type of counter. The dating limit of these counters extends to well beyond 60,000 years.

International audience; This study is based on a set of six tablets dated to the Old-Babylonian period in Mesopotamia, written in cuneiform script, and relating to problems on the areas of squares. Their content is very similar, except for the length measurement of the side of the square. The issue of hypothetical pedagogical issues involved in the choice of numerical values in the statements is addressed by detailing the tasks they imply in the process of problem solving.

International audience; Since 1909, patrol officers, anthropologists and archaeologists have identified evidence of a pre-contact trading network linking New Guinea with the Torres Strait. Current research in the Lower Sepik River Basin reported various ethnographic descriptions relating to cultural material objects stenciled on various rock art sites in Auwim, Upper Karawari-Arafundi region, East Sepik, Papua New Guinea (PNG). In addition to the rock art, the broader area has one of the most environmentally intact freshwater basins with lowland rainforests in Melanesia, and is famous for its architectural carvings and spirit houses. This paper reports new research that articulates local ethnographic knowledge about rock art with the art-work itself. The rock art panels contain a wide range of stencils primarily consisting of hands but, importantly, also several objects. One such object is the kina shell. The kina shell stencils are, among other things, indicative of the remarkable distance over which the shells were traded and traditionally used. The Auwim case study is important because it is one of the relatively few sites across PNG for which we still have ethnography of rock art and therefore provides us with important insight into the past-present rock art practices, and concurrently notions of cultural continuity.

International audience; The field of radiation effects in electronics research includes unknowns for every new device, node size, and technical development. In this study, static and dynamic test methods were used to define the response of a self-refresh DRAM under neutron irradiation. The neutron-induced effects were investigated and characterised by event cross sections, soft-error rate, and bitmaps evaluations, leading to an identification of permanent and temporary stuck cells, single-bit upsets, and block errors. Block errors were identified in different patterns with dependency in the addressing order, leading to up to two thousand faulty words per event, representing a real threat from a user perspective, especially in critical applications. An analysis of the damaged cells’ retention time was performed, showing a difference in the efficiency of the self-refresh mechanism and a read operation. Also, a correlation of the fault mechanism that generates both single-bit upsets and stuck bits is proposed. Post- irradiation high-temperature annealing procedures were applied, showing a recovery behaviour on the damaged cells.

International audience; Objective: Although extant nonhuman primates are not habitual bipeds, they are able to walk bipedally from an early age. In humans, children improve their walking skills through developmental processes and learning experience. In nonhuman primates, infants do not routinely experience bipedalism and their musculoskeletal system gradually specializes for other locomotor modes. The aim of this study is to explore the development of occasional bipedal walking in olive baboon and to test whether the postural adjustments change with age.Materials and Methods: We collected kinematics and spatiotemporal parameters of bipedal gait in an ontogenetic sample of 24 baboons. Data were collected at the primatology station of the CNRS (France) and a total of 47 bipedal strides were extracted for the present analysis.Results: Adults and adolescents walk bipedally in the same way, and the average kinematic pattern is similar across the age-classes. Infants walk bipedally with longer duty factor, they present larger movement amplitude of the thigh and the amplitude of the knee joint decreases with speed. In contrast, older baboons increase the amplitude of the knee and ankle joints with speed.Discussion: In a non-adapted biped, the postural adjustments of bipedal walking vary with age. In infant baboons, the balance requirements are likely to be higher and these are solved by adopting a “blocking strategy”. In older baboons, the postural adjustments are focused on the lower limb and the movements increase with speed. These results may echo, in some respects, the developmental sequence of the intersegmental coordination described in the ontogeny of human locomotion.

International audience; Many archaeologists are still skeptical about a human presence in the Americas during or before the Late Glacial Maximum (LGM), considering that the claim is not yet sustained by hard evidence. Boqueirão da Pedra Furada (Brazil) is one of the most famous pre-LGM claims, but the site has so far been considered ambiguous, and similar concerns have been raised about nearby sites. Nonetheless, for E. Boëda and co-workers, who have been working at these sites, researchers who are still skeptical about the anthropic origin of the assemblages have a psychological barrier and no scientific arguments. Are all skeptics completely blinded by their preconceptions that they cannot see the obvious and unambiguous evidence? To find out, I reviewed the numerous publications of the Piauí sites and the outcome of my analysis is quite simple: the anthropic nature of the LGM/pre-LGM artifacts of the Piauí sites has not been demonstrated.

International audience; This paper aims to investigate the energy efficiency of PCM-concrete wallboards using experimental and numerical approaches. First, a laboratory experimental work was performed to manufacture PCM-concrete mixtures with different proportions of PCMs. Then, an innovative bench test based on the transient plane source theory was used for the thermal analysis of the mixtures. Besides, numerical simulation by finite element method was carried and the confrontation of the numerical results with the experience has showed an excellent agreement. Accordingly, the numerical approach was validated and generalized for the study of PCM-concrete at macro scale under different thermal scenarios and PCM distributions (homogeneous/Bilayer/Matrix-inclusions). The numerical simulations highlighted clearly the role of PCMs in decreasing the indoor temperature of the different PCM-wallboards as well as the thermal fluctuations. Moreover, the time delay in the temperature peaks emphasized the enhancement of the energy efficiency of PCM-wallboards in comparison with a traditional concrete, especially for the case of the bilayer wallboard.

International audience; During recent excavations of the French Archaeological Mission at Kition-Bamboula, in modern day Larnaka, Cyprus, an infant jar burial was discovered. It was found under a floor layer in a domestic context, and is dated to the beginning of the Late Cypriot IIIB period (end of the 12th– early 11th century BC). This jar burial is part of a series which seems to be attested, at least in the present state of documentation, only in eastern Cyprus (Enkomi, Salamis and, on a lesser scale, Kition) during a period that spans the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age. The Kition-Bamboula jar burial is notable for its wealth (jewellery, vase offerings, and food deposit). This article proposes a detailed and multidisciplinary study of the burial, as well as a comprehensive consideration of the treatment of infants’ dead bodies in Early Iron Age Cyprus.

International audience

International audience; How was missionary knowledge received and interpreted by scholars and church historians in Europe and Russia? Many late nineteenth and early twentieth-century academics utilised knowledge production from Christian missions, notably by way of scholarly Orientalism. However, the history of this knowledge is also a history of representations: while missionary knowledge helped showcase the cultural and religious traditions of Eastern Christianity, what were the underlying motives and especially the consequences? This article examines the formulation and circulation of Eastern Christian knowledge on either side of the Mediterranean, especially on the basis of Catholic missionary archives and academic productions, the study of which is sometimes rooted in non-Anglophone academic traditions. The aim is to shed light on how knowledge relating to Eastern Christianity was assimilated in Europe, as well as the role missions played in this process, especially from the last third of the nineteenth century, when the institutions and instruments for the circulation of knowledge emerged. Another objective is to address the circulations and transformations of this knowledge on either side of the Mediterranean: collected and developed in major European libraries and universities, it was integrated by the governance structures of churches, but quite often also returned to the space it originated from, where it was reappropriated and gave rise to patrimonial processes, notably alongside the sometimes tragic experiences of certain communities during the end of the Ottoman Empire and the establishment of new states. Christian missions, at the intersection of East and West, were at the heart of this dynamic .

International audience; With massive urbanization across the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region over recent decades, research in urban anthropology has intensified. During the 1970s intense population growth (demographic transition) and rural-to-urban migration attracted the attention of many anthropologists who studied the ruralization of the city and its capacity to integrate newcomers. Anthropologists (and geographers) addressed this concern by focusing on urban practices, especially those taking place on the margins of the city. Today, urban anthropology has become one of the most important empirical and analytical prisms for observing MENA societies. The main achievements and paradigms of urban anthropology in the MENA region are structured along three axes: urbanity and urban practices, public spaces, and urban culture.; Avec l'urbanisation massive de la région du Moyen-Orient et de l'Afrique du Nord au cours des dernières décennies, la recherche en anthropologie urbaine s'est intensifiée. Au cours des années 1970, la croissance intense de la population (transition démographique) et l'exode rural ont attiré l'attention de nombreux anthropologues qui ont étudié la ruralisation de la ville et sa capacité à intégrer les nouveaux arrivants. Les anthropologues (et les géographes) ont répondu à cette préoccupation en se concentrant sur les pratiques urbaines, notamment celles qui se déroulent en marge de la ville. Aujourd'hui, l'anthropologie urbaine est devenue l'un des prismes empiriques et analytiques les plus importants pour observer les sociétés de cette région. Les principales réalisations et paradigmes de l'anthropologie urbaine en Afrique du Nord et au Proche-Orient s'articulent autour de trois axes : l'urbanité et les pratiques urbaines, les espaces publics et la culture urbaine.

International audience

International audience

Cet article a pour objectif de proposer une lecture ethnocritique du théâtre de Jean-Luc Lagarce. Il s’agit donc de relire les œuvres de cet écrivain consacré par la Comédie française et l’Institution dans une perspective ethnocritique qui croise poétique des textes littéraires et ethnologie du symbolique pour étudier la singularité de son univers. Nous nous arrêterons en particulier sur son avant-dernière œuvre centrée sur la thématique du retour du fils prodigue : J’étais dans ma maison et j’attendais que la pluie vienne. Notre article abordera quatre axes. Le premier concerne la chronotopie tripartite des espaces dans la pièce et montre comment l’espace domestique s’est ensauvagé par le départ du fils sans que son retour change la situation des femmes de la maison ; le deuxième étudie le personnage masculin marqué par l’italique qui caractérise son état incertain, entre les vivants et les morts ; le troisième questionne la liminarité des personnages féminins au parcours initiatique inachevé. Ces personnages de l’entre-deux mondes nous permettent d’explorer les marges du théâtre hétérotopique lagarcien. Enfin, par cette dramaturgie de l’attente, J.-L. Lagarce renoue avec la choralité antique et retrouve les voi(e)x de l’oralité conteuse. The purpose of this article is to propose an ethnocritical reading of the dramatic works of Jean-Luc Lagarce. It involves rereading the works of a writer consecrated by the Comédie Française and the Institution in an ethnocritical perspective which combines a poetics of literary texts with an ethnology of the symbolic in order to study the singularity of his universe. We will pay particular attention to his penultimate work : J’étais dans ma maison et j’attendais que la pluie vienne. Our article will address four axes. The first concerns the tripartite chronotopy of spaces in the work. The second focuses on the male character marked by italics which characterizes its uncertain state, between the living and the dead. The third questions the liminarity of female characters with an unfinished initiation process. These characters from a liminal space between two worlds allow us to explore the margins of the heterotopic lagarcian theater. Lastly, by this dramaturgy of waiting, J.-L. Lagarce reconnects with ancient chorality and rediscovers the voices of storytelling orality.

This contribution attempts to locate the ethnographic practice of Pierre Bourdieu by articulating two perspectives that are distinct but not separate. First of all, it will illustrate the function that ethnography has assumed in the construction of the central concepts of his “theory of practice” (habitus, field, temporality, symbolic capital) in his scientific and biographical trajectory. It will then identify the characteristics of Bourdieu contemporary reception and appropriation in socio-anthropological research contexts. In conclusion, the critical questions will be highlighted that the plural history of the anthropological tradition of research in the field allows raising and extending its critical relevance.

International audience

International audience

International audience; The artificial textile industry employed during almost one century up to several tens of thousands of workers in France. The production relies on artificial fibres produced through a chemical treatment of natural substances like cotton or wood cellulose. There was talk of “artificial silk” until the prohibition of this designation by a 1934 law and its replacement by the term “rayon”. After tracing the dramatic increase of production sites in France during the 1900’s-1920’s, sometimes ephemeral ones because of the Great Depression, this paper studies the largely feminine and migrant recruitment of the working force between the two wars through the population of working-class cities from two factories. The hard sanitary working conditions in those firms are notably at the origin of several important strikes, even if the level conflict appears to be rather weaker than in the whole textile industry.; L’industrie des textiles artificiels a employé pendant près d’un siècle jusqu’à plusieurs dizaines de milliers de personnes en France. La fabrication repose sur des fibres artificiellement produites à partir d’un traitement chimique de matières naturelles comme le coton ou la cellulose de bois. On a parlé de « soie artificielle » avant que la dénomination ne soit interdite par une loi de 1934 et remplacée par celle de « rayonne ». Après avoir retracé la multiplication spectaculaire des implantations, parfois rendues éphémères par la Grande Crise, de cette industrie en France dans les décennies 1900-1920, cet article étudie le recrutement largement féminin et migrant de la main-d’œuvre dans l’entre-deux-guerres à travers la population des cités ouvrières de deux usines. Les dures conditions sanitaires de travail dans ces entreprises sont notamment à l’origine de plusieurs mouvements de grèves importants, même si la conflictualité apparaît plutôt moins forte que dans l’ensemble de l’industrie textile.

Les publications de Rik Ceyssens, anthropologue dont le terrain privilegie est la region du Kasai en Republique democratique du Congo, sont bien connues des historiens qui se sont interesses a la periode de la fin du XIXe siecle, lorsque des structures etatiques sont deconstruites et reconstruites en Afrique centrale, notamment sous l’action des Balungu, pour citer un essai publie par l’auteur en 1998. L’ouvrage dont il est question ici releve lui aussi et de l’histoire et de l’anthropologie,...

The Mas d'Azil cave is a major site for the study of European prehistory, and the evolution of the discipline itself, especially regarding our understanding of the late Upper Paleolithic. In particular, its mobiliary art is one of the richest and the most beautiful known in a Magdalenian context. Lesser known however, is its rock art. Few publications are devoted to these works of prehistoric art, and despite several field work campaigns we still lack a general synthesized study of them at the scale of the entire cave system. A survey of the Mas d’Azil cave system is currently underway, and the aim of this project is to map the archaeological and geoarchaeological organization of the site. Obtaining a reliable topography of the cave, an endeavor begun in the 1980s but never finished, is essential to resituating the archaeological deposits relative to the various natural processes and formations having affected and conditioned their deposition and conservation, as well as the different historical phases of exploitation of the cave. Using this survey approach, we already have a clearer picture of the repartition of Magdalenian areas and circulation spaces of the right bank. Thus, if the residential areas are located on the upper parts of the cave (La Rotonde, Galerie Des Silex), that benefit from more stable and mild temperatures, the lower parts (Salle Piette, Galerie Rouzaud) do not appear to have been residential areas. Our approach also shows that the current entrance of the “Galerie Breuil”, which is located at the end of one of the lower rooms and is the main decorated part of the cave, was likely unknown to the Magdalenians. They could only have entered the Galerie Breuil via a smaller hidden corridor that was blocked after the Magdalenian occupation, as the growth of the speleothem obstructing this passage dates to 13 000 y BP. The clear difficulty encountered by Magdalenian occupants as they attempted to access this gallery may have contributed to a symbolic separation between residential and symbolic, and therefore decorated, spaces, where access to the latter may have been actively limited and/or controlled. In this paper, we propose to describe the palaeotopography of the cave during the Magdalenian period, supported by the analysis of the stratigraphy, new dates, as well as the historical archives from early excavations. By crossing these different lines of evidence we will investigate the question of accessibility and visibility of prehistoric rock art in a cave that have sometimes been considered a Magdalenian “aggregation site”.

International audience; Historical charcoal production is one of the significant factors affecting today’s forest dynamics. A key challenge is to develop tools to investigate historical charcoal production over large areas, allowing a more comprehensive understanding of past impacts and history of charcoal production over a given landscape. In this study, high-resolution remote-sensing airborne LiDAR images over a large woodland area were used to compare manual on-screen versus algorithm-based automatic methods to inventory charcoal kilns with inputs of field-validated data. The results revealed that (1) the on-screen detection method provided less false-positives, (2) the automatic method detects a higher number of kilns and (3) kiln distribution seemed to be connected mostly to land ownership rather than to environmental variables. This study validates a new method of charcoal kilns’ inventory and spatial analysis that can be applied to other areas to better understand the effect of past biomass harvesting for charcoal production on forest dynamics.

International audience

Personal ornaments have become a key cultural proxy to investigate cognitive evolution, modern human dispersal, and population dynamics. Here, we reassess personal ornaments found at Zhoukoudian Upper Cave and compare them with those from other Late Paleolithic Northern Chinese sites. We reappraise the information provided by Pei Wen Chung on Upper Cave personal ornaments lost during World War II and analyze casts of 17 of them, along with two unpublished objects displayed at the Zhoukoudian Site Museum and three original perforated teeth rediscovered at the Zhoukoudian Site Museum. We apply archeozoological, technological and use-wear analyses to document variation in ornamental practices and their change throughout the site stratigraphy. Badger, fox, red deer, sika deer, marten, and tiger teeth as well as carp bone, bird bone, Anadara shell, limestone beads, and perforated pebble appear to have been the preferred objects used as ornaments by Upper Cave visitors. Multivariate analysis of technological data highlights a correspondence between cultural layers and perforation techniques, with radial incising being typical of layer L2 and bidirectional incising of L4. The three rediscovered badger canines display features suggesting they were sewed on clothing rather than suspended from necklaces or bracelets. Elemental scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive X-ray spectromety and mineralogical (μ-Raman) analyses of red residues adhering to the rediscovered teeth indicate these objects were originally coated with ochre and identify variations that match differences in technology. The two ornaments exhibited at the Zhoukoudian Site Museum are ancient teeth that were recently perforated and should be excluded from the Upper Cave assemblage. A seriation of Late Paleolithic ornaments found at Northern Chinese sites identifies a clear-cut difference in preferred ornament types between western and eastern sites, interpreted as reflecting two long-lasting traditions in garment symbolic codes. acceptedVersion

National audience; The suite of derived human traits, including enlarged brains, elevated fertility rates, and long developmental periods and life spans, imposes extraordinarily high energetic costs relative to other great apes. How do human subsistence strategies accommodate our expanded energy budgets? We found that relative to other great apes, human hunter-gatherers and subsistence farmers spend more energy but less time on subsistence, acquire substantially more energy per hour, and achieve similar energy efficiencies. These findings revise our understanding of human energetic evolution by indicating that humans afford expanded energy budgets primarily by increasing rates of energy acquisition, not through energy-saving adaptations such as economical bipedalism or sophisticated tool use that decrease subsistence costs and improve the energetic efficiency of subsistence. We argue that the time saved by human subsistence strategies provides more leisure time for social interaction and social learning in central-place locations and would have been critical for cumulative cultural evolution.

International audience; Based on a variety of primary sources, ranging from academic publications to grey literature to interviews, this article tells the story of Emme, a traffic forecasting software package. Designed as a prototype within the University of Montreal in the late 1970s/early 1980s and regularly enhanced by the Canadian firm INRO since then, Emme has been massively used as a commercial product for urban transport planning throughout the world. Bringing to the fore a much neglected, albeit crucial, theme in transport and mobility studies, i.e., the various mathematical tools (models) – and the actors involved in their production – conceived and utilized for designing transport infrastructures and mobility programs and policies, this article may also be of interest to scholars working in fields other than transport and interested in a series of topics ranging from the increasing commercialization of academic knowledge to the organization of knowledge intensive firms.

This study conducts a historical analysis of global policies on refugees within typewritten and digitally born documents (c. 55,000 pages) from international and national archives. The data originate from the 1970s and are stored in archives from the UK and US governments, plus the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The overarching theme is to analyse the involvement of the UK, the USA, and the UNHCR in different refugee cases that occurred during the 1970s. To do so, we (1) identify the main topics in each document; (2) investigate the transmission of topics horizontally (between organizations) and vertically (through time); and (3) suggest targeted areas of the document set for further close reading by historians. Standard Optical Character Recognition and object detection are used to extract information from documents and categorize them. Then, natural language processing (NLP) methods like topic modelling and clustering are used to identify topics and the relationships between them across time. The results identify several main themes covered by different organizations and how the focus of each organization changes diachronically. Besides its academic contribution, this study also demonstrates how, through the use of existing techniques with limited customization, digital technologies in the hands of the historian can augment and complement qualitative methods in bringing to light the themes and trends demonstrated in large bodies of historical documents.

International audience

The site of ‘Ubeidiya is one of the earliest and best-known manifestations of the Acheulian Technocomplex outside Africa. Through the archaeological remains excavated in its numerous layers, it provides a wealth of information about the technological tradition and behavior of its occupants. This study applies a morpho-technological methodological approach, combining 3D geometric morphometric and traditional technological analyses to the large cutting tools component sampled from two assemblages at the site. Our results reflect high morphological and technological variability and shed light on the manner in which the morphological patterns are related to technological decisions and preferences of the ancient knappers. The results support the notion that while the final form of the large cutting tools was substantially affected by the morphological characteristics of the selected raw materials, it was not deterministically dictated by environmental factors, but purposefully chosen by the knappers during raw material selection. This notion reflects the advanced planning capacities of the Early Acheulian hominins at the site. Furthermore, it demonstrates how a division of the large cutting tools category into two morphotypes through a decision taken at an early stage of production was already established at ‘Ubeidiya. This appears to be one of the earliest expressions of this behavioral pattern, typical of substantially later Acheulian assemblages.

International audience

International audience

The energy storage technology offers an energy balance by saving energy production for periods of higher customer demand. The present study concerns the development of a numerical model to simulate the trigeneration micro advanced adiabatic compressed air energy storage system (AA-CAES) coupled to building model and energy grids. Different design parameters are grouped and therefore an ideal prototype is proposed based on a global numerical sizing tool which in turn based on solving energy balance and heat transfer equations for each components (photovoltaic panels, wind turbines, compressor, turbine, reservoir). This study proposed two modes of operation depending on the electrical grid connection to the building (Autonomous and connected mode operation). From energy coverage point of view, it was noted that the connected mode operation scored more advantage points than the autonomous mode operation in most of the geographical scenarios. In best energetic case configuration the electrical coverage ratio scored 25.52%, the hot coverage ratio was equal to 20% and the cold coverage ratio scored 8% The trigeneration system efficiency was noticed to be a compromise between electrical coverage ratio, hot coverage ratio and cold coverage ratio.

International audience; This article addresses the assumption that the mortuary record of Prepalatial and Protopalatial Crete (3000-1800 BC) is dominated by secondary burials and its corollary that the Minoans practiced double funerals. First, ethnographic and historical data are employed to examine the diverse types of funerary, post-funerary and non-funerary manipulations that produce secondary bone deposits. Then, the Sissi cemetery, located in northern Crete and used from Early Minoan IIA (2650-2450 BC) until Middle Minoan IIB (1850-1800 BC), is analyzed following the epistemological process of archaeothanatology, which makes it possible to test a whole range of potential scenarios rather than only one predetermined hypothesis. We argue that, at Sissi, secondary bone deposits are mostly the product of pragmatic gestures linked to the management of the sepulchral space. Such gestures are conducted with due respect for the community’s forbears while contributing to their memorialization, but they must not be confused with double funerals and their associated set of funerary, social and economic correlates.

International audience; Prehispanic sites of the Canary Islands (ca. 2nd-15th centuries CE), fuel gathering strategies have traditionally been interpreted as the result of a taxonomic selection based on the physical properties of each woody species, while little attention has been paid to other criteria such as the soundness of the wood used, a parameter which could have significantly weighed on indigenous firewood selection, hearth functions and supply areas. To explore this possibility, we created a new experimental dataset of microscopic decay features in charcoal of Pinus canariensis, one of the most valued Prehispanic fuels. Following a previous experimental protocol, our results confirm the correlation between the macroscopic and microscopic state of the wood, with a gradual trend from healthy to rotten according to varying proportions of low to high micromorphological alteration features within each charcoal assemblage. It now becomes possible to assess the state of the wood ante combustion on archeological samples as a marker of fuel gathering strategies. New experimental results were also obtained regarding charcoal vitrification, although the origin of this phenomenon remains unclear. High proportions of vitrified fragments found in a batch composed of resinous heartwood (pitch wood) with highly degraded sapwood raise the hypothesis of a possible relationship between vitrification and the combustion of high resin contents.

The remains of 61 individuals buried in the cemetery of Jebel Sahaba (site 117) offer unique and substantial evidence to the emergence of violence in the Nile Valley at the end of the Late Pleistocene. Excavated and assessed in the 1960s, some of the original findings and interpretations are disputed. A full reanalysis of the timing, nature and extent of the violence was conducted through the microscopic characterization of the nature of each osseous lesion, and the reassessment of the archaeological data. Over 100 previously undocumented healed and unhealed lesions were identified on both new and/or previously identified victims, including several embedded lithic artefacts. Most trauma appears to be the result of projectile weapons and new analyses confirm for the first time the repetitive nature of the interpersonal acts of violence. Indeed, a quarter of the skeletons with lesions exhibit both healed and unhealed trauma. We dismiss the hypothesis that Jebel Sahaba reflects a single warfare event, with the new data supporting sporadic and recurrent episodes of inter-personal violence, probably triggered by major climatic and environmental changes. At least 13.4 ka old, Jebel Sahaba is one of the earliest sites displaying interpersonal violence in the world.

International audience; In this paper, we examine the international criminal trial of Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi, a Malian Islamist who appeared before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, charged with the destruction of Islamic shrines during the 2012 jihadist occupation of Timbuktu. Our objective is to analyze the so-called 'al-Mahdi case' as a dialogical network (the destructions occurred in the context of an asynchronous translocal press-mediated exchange between jihadists and the international community) and as an event unfolding at a dialogical site (when the commander responsible for the destructions was referred to the ICC four years later). These two dialogical orders exist largely independent of each other, but are at crucial points also partly entangled. We conclude by pointing out the relevance of this 'doubly-dialogical' approach to the broader field of sociolegal studies of international criminal justice.

International audience; Historiography has almost always emphasized the extreme behaviours of populations in times of epidemics, such as terror, flight, and abandonment. A reading of the judicial procedures produced during the plague in Marseille in 1720–1722, however, provides nuance to this characterization. These documents show how people dealt with bodies and the infection in a variety of ways, developing tactics to ensure they could continue living with plague victims while avoiding contracting the disease. Although physical distancing modified ordinary sociability, care continued throughout the quarantine, both on the part of the carers and the relatives of the sick.; L’historiographie a presque toujours souligné les comportements extrêmes des populations en temps d’épidémie, tels que terreur, fuite et abandon. Toutefois, la lecture des procédures judiciaires produites pendant la peste de Marseille en 1720-1722 nuance cette caractéristique. Les comportements face au corps et à la contagion sont multiples, et les habitants mettent en place des tactiques visant à continuer à vivre auprès des pestiférés tout en évitant de contracter la maladie. Si la prise de distance et l’éloignement modifient les sociabilités ordinaires, le soin perdure pendant toute la quarantaine, tant de la part des soignants que de celle des proches des malades.

International audience; Abstract Over the past decade, the increasing wealth of new archaeological data on the Middle Stone Age (MSA) in Senegal and Mali has broadened our understanding of West Africa’s contributions to cultural developments. Within the West African sequence, the phase of Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3, ca. 59-24 ka) yielded so far the best known and extensive archaeological information. The site of Toumboura III encompasses an occupation dated by optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) to between 40 ± 3 ka and 30 ± 3 ka. It provides the largest, well-dated, and stratified lithic assemblage in West Africa for the MSA and sheds light on an unprecedented cultural expression for this period, adding to the notable diversity of the late MSA in this region. We conducted a technological analysis of the lithic components following the chaîne opératoire approach. The lithic assemblage features a prevalence of bifacial technology and the exploitation of flakes as blanks for tool production. The craftspeople manufactured distinct types of bifacial tools, including small bifacial points shaped by pressure technique. The new data from Toumboura III demonstrate behavioral patterns that are entirely new in the region. By revealing behavioral innovations and technological particularities, these results on the techno-cultural dynamics during the MIS 3 phase of the MSA enhance our understanding of the complex Pleistocene population history in this part of Africa.; Résumé Au cours de la dernière décennie, la multiplication des nouvelles données archéologiques sur le Middle Stone Age (MSA) au Sénégal et au Mali a mené à une meilleure introduction de l’Afrique de l’Ouest dans la discussion sur les développements culturels. Dans la séquence ouest-africaine, la phase relative au stade isotopique marin 3 (MIS 3, ~ 59 - 24 ka) est à ce jour la mieux documentée du point de vue archéologique. Le site de Toumboura III représente une occupation humaine datée entre 40 ± 3 ka et 30 ± 3 ka par luminescence stimulée optiquement (OSL). Il a fourni l’assemblage lithique stratifié MSA le plus abondant d’Afrique de l’Ouest et met en lumière une expression culturelle inédite pour cette période, ajoutant ainsi une industrie unique à la diversité considérable déjà reconnue pour le MSA tardif de cette région. Nous avons mené une analyse technologique des artefacts lithiques selon une approche des chaînes opératoires. L’assemblage lithique est caractérisé par une prévalence du façonnage bifacial et par l’exploitation d’éclats de façonnage comme supports d’outils. Les artisans ont confectionné différents types d’outils bifaciaux, dont des petites pointes bifaciales montrant la mise en oeuvre de la technique de façonnage par pression. Les nouvelles données obtenues à Toumboura III montrent des comportements jusque-là inconnus dans la région. Par la mise en évidence d’innovations comportementales et de particularités technologiques, ces résultats sur les dynamiques techno-culturelles au MSA au cours du MIS 3 contribuent à mieux comprendre l’histoire complexe du peuplement dans cette région.

Nicole Grandin nous a quittes, a l’âge de quatre-vingt-dix ans, le 27 decembre 2020, jour de la Saint Jean d’hiver – fete qui, dans le calendrier chretien, est comme Noel, associee au solstice d’hiver et symbolise le passage de ce bas monde vers une eternite de lumiere. Il n’est pas aise de faire la biographie d’une personne tres discrete, qui nous a laisse peu de reperes. Elle etait nee a Quimper le 16 juillet 1930. Elle mentionnait une enfance et une adolescence itinerantes : son pere trava...

Cet article discute l’interpretation des statues d’entrecolonnement du tombeau d’Arbinas de Xanthos (vers 390-380 avant J.-C.). Apres avoir detaille les caracteristiques stylistiques et iconographiques des statues, l’auteur rappelle l’histoire de leur reception depuis le xixe siecle et la naissance du nom « monument des Nereides ». Si des paralleles stylistiques avec la sculpture grecque sont evidents, les ecarts iconographiques avec les images grecques de Nereides et une serie d’inscriptions conduisent l’auteur a defendre l’idee de la representation des divinites lyciennes nommees Eliyana, qui revele la permanence d’un substrat anatolien. Cette lecture est etayee par une proximite avec les iconographies hittite et neo-hittite.

Chez les Enata de l’île de Hiva Oa, dans l’archipel des Marquises, en Polynésie française, les pratiques éducatives en milieu domestique sont déterminées par des idéologies qui se matérialisent dans des styles éducatifs, des priorités de formation et des conceptions de réussite sociale qui sont liées non seulement à l’histoire (précoloniale, coloniale et postcoloniale) des Mers du Sud mais aussi à l’environnement naturel de l’archipel. Cet article présente les réflexions issues des observations menées sur le terrain entre 2014 et 2015, dans le cadre d’une mission ethnographique qui a montré que les dynamiques d’intégration nationale et globale ont modifié les idéologies éducatives locales – liées à l’écosystème insulaire océanien – en introduisant des nouveaux critères de réussite et en assignant un rôle prépondérant à une instruction scolaire qui reste, cependant, incapable de s’adapter aux spécificités locales et de contextualiser les programmes et les didactiques. Among Enata families in Hiva Oa island, in the southern sector of the Marquesas archipelago, in French Polynesia, domestic practices are determined by ideologies that materialize in educational styles, training priorities, and conceptions of social success that are related not only to the pre-colonial, colonial, and postcolonial history of the South Seas but also to the natural environment of the archipelago. This article presents some reflections about the results of an ethnographic survey (2014-2015) demonstrating that the dynamics of national and global integration have succeeded in modifying local educational ideologies - related to the Pacific islands ecosystem - by introducing new criteria for success and assigning a leading role to a school education system unable to adapt to local peculiarities and to contextualize curricula and didactics.

International audience; In the hinterland of the Rai Coast, technical gardening practice is also ritually and spiritually charged daily activity to ensure the movement of foods and deities from the garden to the village. To approach this 'art of gardening' we attend to process and transformation and to how garden produce becomes the matter of beautiful forms. With reference to new pencil drawings of gardens we explore the aesthetic of the garden's embodiment of myth and history. The drawings and text provide a detailed documentation of lowland taro cultivation. The processes illustrated are at one and the same time attending to plant and human wellbeing. The notion of 'grace' from Gregory Bateson's writings is introduced. Highlighting the connections drawn between spirits and people and plants, we consider an immanence of life in mythic, human, and vegetable reproduction.

International audience; A partir de l’expérience d’accompagnement de personnes en demande d’asile, particulièrement de la préparation à l’entretien à l’OFPRA, cet article cherche à comprendre pourquoi certains récits restent inaudibles. En plus des constats déjà établis que le récit de l’asile est contraint et empêché par de nombreux obstacles, je montre qu’un corpus de savoir est constitué en amont de la formation du récit de l’asile et parle avant et à sa place. Celui-ci représente une violence épistémique qui dépossède certaines personnes en demande d’asile de leur parole et en fait des subalternes ne pouvant être entendus. L’existence d’une violence épistémique doit questionner nos pratiques de recherche : en effet, la formation d’un savoir hégémonique met les chercheur·es en position de surplomb qui en plus de reproduire les rapports de domination dans les enquêtes conduites, et donc l’ordre établi, pose des biais dans la perception des réalités sociales.

International audience; This paper focuses on the new approach studying variations in city size and the impact that the Silk Road had on the structure of cities, demonstrated through the study of economic aspects of the Bukhara oasis. We use archaeological data, compare the ancient economy to modern ones, use modern economic theory and methods to understand ancient society, and use what we have learned about the ancient economy to understand modern economies better. In sum, we explore the past through the present and the latter through the former. Our main finding is the generation of models able to answer to the city-size distribution in different territories, comparing them between the past and the present. This study first revealed that, through Zipf's Law, we found similarities between modern post-Industrial Revolution and medieval economics. Secondly, we also found that in ancient times the structure of the city was linked with the local economic demand. We have demonstrated this through the study of cities along the Silk Road.

International audience; Drawing on fieldwork carried out among different South African poor people's movements, this article explores what is played out on the fringes of this type of mobilization. Away from the noise of demonstrations, we can observe the particularities of a commitment that links together the cause being defended, the immediate socio-spatial environment of the activists, and their everyday worlds-a commitment that is rooted in the 'regime of the near'. The space of activism thus coincides with the spaces in which the daily lives of these women and men unfold. I argue that this approach helps us better understand how mobilization spreads and how it can be sustained. It also makes it possible to measure more precisely that on which the legitimacy claimed by the movement and its visibility are based, as well as the persistence of commitment.