Editorial [Archaeology without borders]
- Cet article est une traduction de :
- Éditorial [Archéologie sans frontières] [fr]
- Autre(s) traduction(s) de cet article :
- Editorial [Arqueólogía sin fronteras] [es]
Texte intégral
1The international conference “The prehistory of the others – how archaeology and anthropology approach the past of non-western societies (La Préhistoire des autres – comment l’archéologie et l’anthropologie abordent le passé des sociétés non occidentales)”, organised by the Quai Branly museum and Inrap in January 2011 and in which a dozen Inrap archaeologists took part, gives us the opportunity to showcase the international activities of our institute in this special issue of Archéopages. This work is indeed part and parcel of our mission: to investigate archaeological remains threatened by development (in metropolitan France and in overseas departments or DOMs), to research them and disseminate the results to the scientific community as well as the general public. These actions derive from both the individual initiative of Inrap’s researchers and the institute’s vocation to share its expertise in the study and protection of the archaeological heritage wherever it is located.
2Already before Inrap was founded, some archaeologists of the Association pour les fouilles archéologiques nationales (Afan) had sought to broaden their research interests and to confront their way of operating with the practices of other archaeologists. Their engagement was in part motivated by the fruitful comparison between data obtained far afield and those from more familiar sites, and in part by the convergence of the technical and scientific approaches applied. It was also founded on the will to see preventive archaeology emerge in the countries of the southern hemisphere following the example of this discipline’s development in Europe; the Malta Convention had strongly endorsed it in Europe since 1992, and in the process supported the militant approach of archaeologists. But already before the 1990s archaeologists from Afan had participated, most often on a voluntary basis and in their own time but also within agreements passed between Afan and archaeological expeditions abroad – for example in Egypt and Ethiopia – to campaigns where the competence of Afan’s archaeologists was gradually becoming recognised, appreciated and sought out. Inrap’s foundation in 2002 has enabled us to strengthen collaborative links with French and foreign projects (CNRS, universities, etc.) and to conclude bilateral agreements with certain overseas institutions (Centre Français d’Études Éthiopiennes, École Française de Rome, École Française d’Extrême-Orient) and even with some large French commercial developers such as the Vinci group at the Angkor airport site. In this way the number of initiatives designed to share competences and increase archaeological awareness (e.g. seminars, in Algiers in collaboration with UNESCO in 2004, and in Albania in 2008, evaluation of the route of the Algiers underground in 2009) has increased. Within a few years these collaborative ventures have grown, Inrap’s presence among European and international bodies concerned with archaeology and the heritage (e.g. the European Association of Archaeologists, Europae Archaeologiae Consilium, the International Committee on Archaeological Heritage Management [ICAHM], UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee) has strengthened and international links with organisations whose mission is similar to that of Inrap, such as the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig or the Israel Antiquities Authority have been forged. Awareness and training programmes have been set up: among them let us note the organisation of an international conference at Nouakchott in 2007 dedicated to the perspectives offered by African preventive archaeology and the hosting, with support from the French embassies and the French and European Foreign Affairs ministries, of Albanian, Azerbaijani, Cambodian and North African archaeologists on archaeological excavations in advance of development in France. Finally Inrap has initiated – and directed until 2012 – the “Archaeology in Contemporary Europe” programme supported by the European Commission, which links thirteen European research institutions in a project dedicated to “explore the impact of archaeology on the contemporary world, compare archaeological practices, contribute to the recognition of the professional status of archaeological practitioners and develop public outreach”.
3On their part, Inrap’s archaeological collaborators, acting as individuals, have focused their efforts on four main aspects: increasing awareness of the challenges posed by preventive archaeology in countries where it is still in its infancy; training foreign archaeologist in the methods used by Inrap, either at the latter’s own request or in response to requests by their employers; providing scientific expertise in research projects or in site management; and finally participating in, co-directing or directing excavations. This special issue of Archéopages reviews some significant experiences in which Inrap’s researchers have been involved in various capacities. Such collaboration to international projects is indeed extremely multifaceted, as much in the various expert domains as in the geographical areas covered: from Mongolia to Mauretania, and from South Africa to Quebec; from the first hominins to the Bronze Age, and from Classical antiquity to modern times. The diversity of research questions is testimony to the richness presented here –from the oldest to the most recent sites. In brief: a geomorphological analysis of the site of Sterkfontein in South Africa which contained dozens of hominin remains; a technological and experimental study of lithics from the site of Blombos Cave (South Africa) which demonstrates that pressure flaking was mastered there some 50 000 years earlier than in Europe; excavations at the site of Umm el Tlel in Syria; investigations of the Pre Pottery Neolithic site of Beïsamoun in the Jordan valley (Israel); a geomorphological study of the Neolithic salt mines of Lunca and Tolici in Rumania; excavations of sites threatened by agricultural development in Predynastic Egypt; an analysis of funerary urns from the Bronze Age cemetery of Tell Shiukh (Syria); excavations at Gongying in China’s Henan province; a research project on the tell site of Senghol in India’s Punjab; an anthropological examination of the Hellenistic cemetery of Plinthine to the west of Alexandria; excavations at Petra (Jordan); a study of a village fortified in antiquity at Shaara (Syria); re-investigations of the Roman baths site at Jebel Ous in Tunisia; excavations of a Coptic monastery at Saqqarah in Egypt; archaeozoological analysis of the cemeteries of Egiin Gol and Gol Mod in Mongolia; excavations of a multiple burial complex in the catacombs of SS Peter and Marcellinus in Rome; a project to conserve and manage the site of Paharpur (Bangladesh); a topographic analysis of the monolithic churches of Lalibela (Ethiopia) and geomorphological investigation of the site; a survey of the medieval fortifications of Caesarea north of Tel Aviv; an examination of medieval Islamic funerary practices at Mértola in southern Portugal; an analysis of the medieval metal production of Dinat and Bouvignes in Belgium; a study of the distribution of French ceramics in North America in the modern period; excavations of the mid 18th-century remains of makeshift dwellings erected by Madagascan slaves shipwrecked from the cargo vessel “L’Utile” of the French East India Company on the island of Tromelin in the Indian Ocean; and more. To these examples – most featuring in this issue – we should add the programmes developed in Albania, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Ethiopia, North Africa and Russia, in conjunction with local and French overseas institutions, aimed at increasing awareness of preventive archaeology and training its professionals.
4As is evident, Inrap has become an important player within metropolitan France and beyond, enhancing, alongside the CNRS, the universities and the Ministry of Culture and Communication, France’s reputation for excellence. The institute is a major asset for the development of international collaborative projects in the scientific, cultural and even economic spheres. But above all, dedicated as it is to the safeguard of the archaeological heritage wherever it occurs, Inrap and its researchers cannot conceive of their interventions outside France as anything but a sharing of experiences with foreign colleagues. In this capacity they can act as a spearhead for the emergence of preventive archaeology in many countries of the southern hemisphere, where economic development, urban growth and the construction of large infrastructure projects are threatening the archaeological heritage; furthermore it may be possible there to avoid repeating the mistakes made for decades on the European continent.
Table des illustrations
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Titre | Inrap collaboration in archaeological missions abroad. |
Crédits | CAD: Fleur Lauga. |
URL | http://0-journals-openedition-org.catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/archeopages/docannexe/image/17794/img-1.jpg |
Fichier | image/jpeg, 342k |
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Référence papier
Jean-Paul Jacob, « Editorial [Archaeology without borders] », Archéopages, Hors-série 2 | 2010, 2-4.
Référence électronique
Jean-Paul Jacob, « Editorial [Archaeology without borders] », Archéopages [En ligne], Hors-série 2 | 2010, mis en ligne le 10 avril 2024, consulté le 13 février 2025. URL : http://0-journals-openedition-org.catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/archeopages/17794 ; DOI : https://0-doi-org.catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/10.4000/archeopages.17794
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