Archeology, Earth, History, Societies
The ARTEHIS laboratory (Archeology, Earth, History and Societies) is multidisciplinary: archeology, history, art history and earth sciences are the fields that allow us to analyze territories and societies from the Neolithic to the end of the Middle Ages. This multidisciplinarity allows us to conduct research combining soil and land analysis and their anthropization over the long term. Experiments conducted during the 2012-2017 contract have shown that the confrontation of the two “worlds” yielded very interesting results, allowed the practice of new research methodologies, and considerably enriched the team by giving it its own identity, almost unique in the national landscape.
The present 2017-2022 contract has further highlighted the links between the fields, within the framework of 5 axes grouping various themes: Manufacturing the landscape. Man as actor and heir of his environment over time; Powers and societies. Dynamics, relations, construction of communities; Dynamics of material production. Constructions, productions and circulations of goods and objects of consumption; Ritualizing, believing and showing it. Ritual, religious and funerary practices of the past.
Various projects are common to several axes, in particular those concerning the excavations of emblematic sites in and around Burgundy: the sites of Vix, Bibracte, the Aeduan oppidum for the late period of the Second Iron Age that on the crucial period of transition between the Gallic world and the Roman world, the marshes of Saint-Gond, with 120 collective burials, 17 flint mines, a hundred or so Neolithic carving workshops, a concentration unique in Europe, Autun, an Aeduan city founded by Augustus, where the urban center is becoming better known, Alesia, with research on the sanctuary of Apollo Moritasgus. For the Middle Ages, the laboratory has been developing for several years an important research on religious buildings and monasteries up to the Romanesque period through archeological excavations and studies of the archeology of the building, such as in Cluny, Vézelay, Luxeuil, Osor (in Croatia) …. Other researchers are still specialized in the underwater archeology of the rivers of France, in medieval musicology, in the history of the duchy of Burgundy (ducal court as well as castles, thus the palace of the dukes in Dijon…).
In addition to this work carried out in the region, ARTEHIS is also involved in more distant projects. This is the case of an important research program carried out on the ecclesiastical sites and island monasteries of the Kvarner archipelago in Croatia, in collaboration with the University of Franche-Comté and the Ecole française de Rome. Other research focuses on the Iberian Peninsula, Italy, North Africa, Mongolia, etc.
Another strength is our concern to promote the work accomplished, in order to make the results of the research available to the general public. In this context, the laboratory has participated in the organization of the following exhibitions: ‘Necropolis. Les morts de l’antique Divio’ at the Archeological Museum de Dijon in 2013 ; ‘Pax Romana. Scenes of everyday life in Roman Gaul’ at the Archeological Museum of Dijon in 2015; ‘Bric-à-brac for the gods?’ in Lons-le-Saunier in 2017; ‘Antiquity of design, design of antiquity’ at the Museum of the country of Chatillonais-Vix in 2017; the exhibition on the Senons in 2018 in Sens and Troyes. In Luxeuil, an interpretation center for the archeological site excavated between 2008 and 2015 is under construction for which we provide, in addition to the research work, scientific assistance to the contracting authority.