The chapter presents an account of the development of archaeology in France, from the early sixteenth century until the early twenty-first century.
The Origin of Archaeological Study in France
An interest in France’s past began in the early sixteenth century, when certain learned individuals assembled collections of ancient Gallo-Roman objects. One of the earliest recorded collectors of antiquities was Claude de Bellièvre, who was born in Lyon in 1487. A member of a distinguished family, Bellièvre had received legal training at the University of Toulouse before becoming an advocate for King François I. He became a leader of the civic government in Lyon and subsequently the first president of the Parlement du Dauphiné at Grenoble. In later life, Bellièvre focused on the study of the history of Lyon and displayed his collection of Roman inscriptions in his “Jardin des antiquités,” which was open to other antiquarians for study.
The most renowned object associated with Bellièvre is a bronze plaque known as the Table Claudienne. Measuring 193 centimeters by 139 centimeters, it has Latin text inscribed in two columns. The inscription is a proclamation made in AD 48 by the Roman emperor Claudius to the Senate, outlining the privileges given to Lugdunum, modern-day Lyon. Originally displayed in the Sanctuary of the Three Gauls, discussed in chapter 3 as the site of the persecution of Christians in the late second century AD, the Table Claudienne was found in 1528 during the construction of a house in the Croix-Rousse area of Lyon. The discovery was brought to the attention of Bellièvre, who purchased the plaque on behalf of the city in the following year. The Table Claudienne, of which only the lower portion survives, was found in two parts, both of which are now in the Musée gallo-romain de Lyon-Fourvière.
Around the same time, the antiquary Guillaume du Choul, also from Lyon, was noted for his collection of coins. His manuscripts on Roman society were dedicated to King François I and King Henri II, and he also published books on Roman baths, military camps, and religion.
However, archaeology in the modern sense did not begin until the later seventeenth century, when Jacob Spon (1647–1685) used the term “archeologia.” Spon, who was a doctor and scholar from Lyon, also adopted a critical method for the study of inscriptions and supported the use of archaeological evidence. Accordingly, Spon distinguished archaeology from the practice of collectors.
There also had been antiquarian interest in Gallo-Roman architectural remains, which had remained visible in the landscape. Many of the more spectacular were in southern France and, as discussed in chapter 3, the scenae frons of the theater at Orange attracted the admiration of King Louis XIV (reigned 1643–1715), and the king also had commissioned a survey of the Gallo-Roman villa at Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer (Var). However, Gallo-Roman remains in the rest of France also attracted antiquarian interest. For example, the settlement site of Champlieu, in the commune of Orrouy (Oise), had been recognized from at least the end of the sixteenth century. It was described in detail by l’abbé Claude Carlier in his work Histoire du duché de Valois, written in 1764. As discussed below, the site also attracted the attention of the emperor Napoleon III.
The Cabinet des Médailles in Paris, more formally the Département des Monnaies, Médailles et Antiques de la Bibliothèque nationale de France, can be described as the oldest museum in France. Originally known as the Cabinet des rois de France, its origins lie in the rare and precious objects collected by the kings of France, and it was not until the reign of Henri IV (1589–1610) that it became a national, rather than personal, collection. The collection expanded in the reign of Louis XIV, who moved it to the palace of Versailles, although it returned to Paris in the eighteenth century. Individual collections were added, such as the extensive collection of antiquities owned by the Comte de Caylus, which was bequeathed to the Cabinet des Médailles on his death in 1765. Works of art from religious institutions, such as the Sainte-Chapelle, donated as taxes during the French Revolution, also were added to the collection. In 1917, the Cabinet des Médailles moved to its present premises on the rue de Richelieu in Paris, in the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
The Development of the Archaeology of Neolithic France
The Neolithic monuments in France remained largely visible in the landscape, and the dolmen tomb known as La Pierre-Levée in Poitiers (Vienne) attracted many visitors. A sixteenth-century sketch of the tomb showed the signatures of visitors carved on the monument. In addition, the tomb was mentioned in Rabelais’s comic novel Pantagruel, written in 1532, emphasizing the tomb’s renown.
The first recognized excavation in France is of a dolmen tomb in 1685. The tomb was discovered at Cocherel, in the commune of Houlbeck-Cocherel (Eure), during a search for building stone on land owned by Robert le Prévôt, a local aristocrat. On the discovery of human remains, le Prévôt assembled a team of workmen and commenced the careful excavation and recording of the tomb and its contents. He discovered twenty skeletons, one with a hole in the skull, together with objects including polished stone axs under the heads of the skeletons, beads, bone needles or points, and three pottery vessels that contained cremated remains. The account of the discovery of the tomb was reported by le Prévôt in 1686 in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society in London. The tomb and its contents were later described in detail in 1719 by Bernard de Montfaucon, followed by Pierre de Brasseur in 1722 and Jacques Martin in 1727. An appendix to Brasseur’s 1722 publication Histoire civile et ecclésiastique du Comté d’Evreux included a drawing of the tomb showing eight articulated skeletons.
A group of Neolithic monuments that attracted early antiquarian interest is found in Brittany at sites such as those in the Carnac area (Morbihan), discussed in chapter 2. The visibility of the monuments in the landscape had been recognized by antiquarians from the 1720s onward. Between 1727 and 1737, Christophe Paul de Robien (1698–1756), president of the Parliament of Brittany, made a study of the megalithic monuments of Locmariaquer and Carnac. Robien recorded their descriptions, accompanied by illustrations by a painter named Huguet, in an unpublished manuscript preserved in the library at Rennes (Ille-et-Vilaine). Although the initial focus of the scholar the Comte de Caylus (1692–1765) was classical archaeology, he also had an interest in the archaeology of France. Caylus’s major work, Recueil d’antiquités égyptiennes, étrusques, grecques, romaines et gauloises (Collection of Egyptian, Etruscan, Greek, Roman, and Gallic antiquities), included drawings and descriptions of megalithic tombs in France.
In a paper read to the Institut de France, the historian and antiquarian Pierre Legrand d’Aussy (1737–1800) introduced the use of the terms “menhir” and “dolmen,” taken from the Breton language, to describe the standing stones and tombs, terminology still in use.
Other early excavations were those undertaken by Armand-Louis-Bon Maudet de Penhoët, accompanied by an M. Renaud, at the tombs known as La Table des Marchands in 1811 and Les Pierres Plates in 1813, discussed further in chapter 2. Indeed, the earliest known drawings of engraved decoration from inside a megalithic tomb were those made by Maudet de Penhoët in 1814 in La Table des Marchands (figure 1.1) and Les Pierres Plates (figure 1.2).
Figure 1.1. Tomb known as La Table des Marchands, Locmariaquer. istock, 617888194
Figure 1.2. Tomb known as Les Pierres-Plates, Locmariquer. istock, 116008032
Archaeological awareness of the Neolithic monuments in Brittany increased following the appointment in 1834 of Prosper Merimée, better known today as the author of the novella Carmen, to the post of Inspecteur général des monuments historiques (inspector general of historic monuments), a post he held until 1853. In 1835 Merimée undertook a tour of Brittany, publishing his notes the following year. He recorded that he deplored the destruction of the monuments by dislodging and removing the stones, whether to search for “treasure” or to reuse as paving stones.
In the early 1870s, the Abbé Jean-Joachim Collet had excavated at the foot of seven of the standing stones at Le Ménec in the Carnac area, where he found charcoal, a few pottery sherds, and stone tools. Collet, who was a member of the Societé polymathique du Morbihan, writing articles on archaeology, engaged in correspondence with prehistorians including Emile Cartailhac. However, the first major excavations of a group of menhirs were undertaken in 1877 and 1878 at Kermario (figure 1.3) by the Scottish antiquary James Miln (1819–1881). Miln’s account of his excavations at Kermario, also in the Carnac area, were published posthumously following his death in Glasgow in 1881. At this time, Miln’s archaeological collection was given to the town of Carnac, where his brother, Robert Miln, established the James Miln Museum. Zacharie le Rouzic, who had been Miln’s assistant from a very young age, became keeper of the museum and continued his archaeological work. From 1927, the museum in Carnac-Ville has been named Le Musée James Miln-Zacharie le Rouzic, following le Rouzic’s donation of his own archaeological collection.
Figure 1.3. Kermario alignment, Carnac. istock, 503668088
The Development of the Archaeology of Early Medieval France
Between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, few French scholars focused on archaeology of Early Medieval France. Knowledge of the Merovingian period in France was based on a few texts from the sixth to eighth centuries. It is believed that the earliest excavation of a Merovingian cemetery began in 1830 by Henri Baudot at the commune of Charnay (Saône-et-Loire). However, it was not until 1840 that the cemetery at Charnay was recognized as Merovingian, and subsequent discoveries at other sites enabled similar identifications. By the middle of the nineteenth century, chance finds of Merovingian cemeteries were made during church repairs and the construction of railways and roads. These continued in the second half of the nineteenth century, when the increased industrialization of France led to further discoveries and the foundation of new archaeological societies.
Although the speed of expansion of the railways in France in the second half of the nineteenth century resulted in some newly found sites being looted or destroyed, others subsequently were excavated using the archaeological methods current at the time. An example of this took place in 1863, when workers constructing the railway found a large Merovingian cemetery at Hardenthun in the commune of Marquise (Pas-de-Calais) during construction of the railway line between Boulogne-sur-Mer and Calais, apparently plundering about 120 graves. Abbé Daniel Haigneré, then the archivist of the town of Boulogne-sur-Mer and president of the Departmental Commission of Historic Monuments of Pas-de-Calais, was able briefly to stop the railway construction, allowing the excavation and publication of finds from the remaining part of the cemetery. By then Haigneré was an experienced archaeologist, having undertaken his first excavation in 1857—a Merovingian cemetery at Pincthun, in the commune of Echingen (Pas-de-Calais). The exploitation of a quarry revealed a cemetery of forty-nine tombs, the first Merovingian cemetery to have been found in the area of Boulogne-sur-Mer. This was followed by many other excavations by Haigneré in the Boulogne area, mostly Gallo-Roman or Merovingian cemeteries.
The acquisition and sale of finds from late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century discoveries of Merovingian cemeteries were frequently controversial and, in some cases, was little more than looting of archaeological sites. Among the most notorious characters were Jean-Baptiste Lelaurain and Léandre Cottel. Lelaurain had received some archaeological training from his father, who had conducted excavations at the behest of the emperor Napoleon III. It is alleged that Lelaurain had excavated more than twenty thousand graves from the Late Roman and Merovingian periods, none of which were recorded properly. One of the largest Merovingian cemeteries excavated by Lelaurain was north of the commune of Marchélepot (Somme), where he excavated approximately four thousand graves. Until his death in 1905, Lelaurain earned a living from the sale of objects retrieved from graves, which were acquired by collectors. These included John Evans, whose collection was presented to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford in 1909 by his son Arthur Evans, a former keeper of the museum who was renowned for his excavations on Crete. Léandre Cottel, a primary school teacher who was an associate of Lelaurain, also had a reputation as an excavator who did not record his discoveries. Cottel’s finds from the cemeteries he excavated also were sold to collectors and museums.
The Development of the Archaeology of Paleolithic France
The nineteenth century was a key period in the development of the study of Paleolithic stone tools and art in France and, above all, the true age of these objects.
Paul Tournal, originally a pharmacist from Narbonne, conducted excavations in the Grande Grotte de Bize (Aude) in 1827. As a result of these excavations, Tournal suggested the significance of discoveries of objects fashioned by humans alongside the bones of humans and modern and extinct animals, an idea that was considered heresy at that time. In 1833, the same year he founded the Musée archéologique in Narbonne, Tournal used the term “antehistoric” to describe the period before recorded history; in other words, before the Bible. This was perhaps the first indication of the existence of prehistory.
In the 1840s, Jacques Boucher de Perthes explored the gravel quarries of the river Somme, where he found chipped stone tools in association with the fossilized bones of extinct animals deposited in the Ice Age. This was key to the breakthrough in determining the age of these objects. Boucher de Perthes published his findings in the first volume of his three-volume work Les Antiquités Celtiques et Antédiluviennes, the title confirming that the term “Celtic” was in general use to describe pre-Roman antiquities and additionally suggesting that the association between the stone tools and extinct animal remains indicated that humans had existed long before the biblical flood. The view of Boucher de Perthes was not widely accepted, but attitudes were changing. New archaeological discoveries in France and England, together with the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species in 1859, altered ideas on the age of worked stone tools. The conclusions of Boucher de Perthes were supported by geologists and antiquarians, including Charles Lyell, Joseph Prestwich, and John Evans, who confirmed the concept of the antiquity of humans.
The study of stone tools in France continued in the later part of the nineteenth century, with a large number of “type sites” for phases of the Paleolithic period in Western Europe and beyond being named from sites in France. This is discussed further in chapter 4.
The identification of the age of Paleolithic art was not made until the late nineteenth century, following many finds whose true age had not been recognized immediately.
Images, both painted and engraved, had been noticed in caves from at least the seventeenth century, indicated by dated graffiti on cave walls. However, the first reported finds of portable art that would only later be identified as dating from the Ice Age had been made in the first half of the nineteenth century, several decades before cave art. An early specialist in Paleolithic art, Edouard Lartet, reported that Paul Tournal had found a piece of antler engraved with chevrons in the Grande Grotte de Bize (Aude), but the details of the object were never published, and it is now lost. The first attested decorated tools were found around 1833 in the Salève quarries in the commune of Etrembières (Haute-Savoie), across the border from the Swiss municipality of Veyrier, by François Mayor, a doctor from Geneva. They were a harpoon, made from antler to resemble a plant with buds along its stem; and a baton, also made from antler, pierced at one end and with a simple engraving, perhaps representing a bird. A reindeer antler, engraved with a horse’s head (figure 1.4), which had been found at the open-air site of Neschers (Puy-de-Dôme) by Jean-Baptiste Croizet, the local priest, is believed from documentary sources to have been found between 1830 and 1848. The antler was acquired by the British Museum in 1848 and transferred to the Natural History Museum in London when the latter became independent from the British Museum.
Figure 1.4. Reindeer antler, engraved with a horse’s head, found at Neschers. Alamy
In 1852, a reindeer foot bone engraved with two female deer was found by André Brouillet and Charles Joly Leterme at the Grottes du Chaffaud (Vienne). A drawing of the bone was made by Prosper Merimée, then Inspecteur général des monuments historiques, who enclosed it with a letter to Jens Worsaae, the Danish archaeologist It is believed to be the earliest known drawing of Ice Age art. The bone, which is 13.5 centimeters long and 3.7 centimeters wide, was donated to the Musée de Cluny in Paris where, without an awareness of Paleolithic art, it was documented as being Celtic.
By the 1860s, the existence of Paleolithic art was accepted through the discovery of engraved and carved bones and stones found in several caves and rock shelters by Edouard Lartet and Henry Christy, whose contributions to French archaeology are further discussed in chapter 4. Through their finds of decorated objects in association with Paleolithic stone and bone tools together with the bones of Ice Age animals, Lartet and Christy discovered evidence that humans had existed alongside animals that by that time were extinct. In 1864, an image of a mammoth engraved on a mammoth tusk was found by Lartet and Christy at the Abri de la Madeleine, near Tursac (Dordogne). At about the same time, the first discovery of an Ice Age figurine was made, a statuette of a young woman, 7.7 centimeters tall. The figurine, given the name “Vénus impudique” (Immodest Venus) and made from mammoth ivory, was found at the Abri de Laugerie-Basse (Dordogne) by Paul Hurault, Marquis de Vibraye.
By 1867, sufficient interest prompted a display of prehistoric objects to be included in the Exposition universelle held in Paris.
Evidence of cave art began to be reported in increasing numbers in the late nineteenth century, although its date had yet to be recognized. In 1878, Léopold Chiron made early photographs of engravings in the Grotte Chabot, near Aiguèze (Gard); the following year he wrote to the archaeologist Gabriel de Mortillet to report the engravings he had recorded, associated with the presence of stone tools. However, Mortillet, who recognized the importance of Paleolithic portable art, did not believe that cave walls were decorated in the same period and did not present Chiron’s information in the journal he published.
Debate continued regarding the age of the decoration on the cave walls. Crucial discoveries proved to be at La Grotte de la Mouthe in Les-Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil (Dordogne), hereafter referred to as “Les Eyzies,” where in 1895 Emile Rivière found engravings in a gallery that had been blocked by archaeological deposits from the Paleolithic period, indicating that the engravings were also Paleolithic. The following year, François Daleau noted engravings of animals including horses and aurochs in the Grotte de Pair-non-Pair, in the commune of Prignac-et-Marcamps (Gironde), which had been discovered in 1881. The authenticity of Paleolithic cave art was established by discoveries shortly after at Les Combarelles and Font-de-Gaume, both close to Les Eyzies (Dordogne). Two caves are at Les Combarelles, designated Les Combarelles I and II, although only the former is now open to the public. Les Combarelles II and the entrance to Les Combarelles I were excavated by Emile Rivière between 1891 and 1894. However, it was not until 1901 that Denis Peyrony, Henri Breuil, and Louis Capitan entered Les Combarelles I and found hundreds of engravings, many overlapping. Breuil recorded that he had initially identified almost three hundred engravings, and many more were recognized subsequently. The images include stylized female figures and many animals, especially horses and deer, with a particularly striking image depicting a feline (figure 1.5).
Figure 1.5. Engraving of a feline from Les Combarelles cave. Jean Vertut, P. Bahn collection
The discovery of the engravings at Les Combarelles encouraged Denis Peyrony to visit the nearby La Grotte de Font-de-Gaume to check whether it, too, was decorated. His instinct was correct; the cave was found to be decorated with more than two hundred figures, including more than eighty bison, some rendered in black, brown, and red, dated between 14,000 and 10,000 BC. La Grotte de Font-de-Gaume is now the only decorated cave in France with polychrome paintings that remains open to the public. The discoveries, which suggested the paintings and engravings dated to the Paleolithic period, paved the way for the studies that continue to the present day.
Archaeology in France in the Late Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
The former learned societies of l’Ancien Régime, pre-Revolutionary France, had been dissolved in 1793, along with other royal institutions. Their place was taken by the Institut de France, a learned society, which was established in Paris in 1795 by the Convention nationale, the third government of the French Revolution. L’Institut de France, which still exists, groups together five Académies: the Académie française, the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, the Académie des sciences, the Académie des beaux-arts, and the Académie des sciences morales et politiques. To some extent this fostered the discussion of archaeology, and in 1799 Pierre Legrand d’Aussy, who had introduced the use of the terms “menhir” and “dolmen” to describe the megalithic monuments in Brittany, presented to the Institut de France a “Memoir on ancient burials . . . and a project for excavations to be carried out in our départements.” This proposal did not, however, progress. Indeed, from the end of the eighteenth century until the middle of the nineteenth century, the only officially appointed archaeologist was the curator of the Cabinet des Médailles in Paris, although this role required only a classical education rather than any archaeological experience.
The restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in 1814 did not see a great revival in the promotion of the material remains of French history. However, in 1816 the king ordered the return to the Basilica of Saint-Denis of most of the architectural fragments from the royal tombs. The tombs in the Basilica of Saint-Denis had been desecrated by revolutionaries in 1793, although Alexandre Lenoir succeeded in removing some of the architectural remains, including statues and stained glass. These subsequently were housed in the Musée des monuments français, founded in Paris in 1795 by Lenoir.
The role of Inspecteur général des monuments historiques (inspector general of ancient monuments) had been created by the politician François Guizot in 1830; Ludovic Vitet was the first holder of the post, succeeded by Prosper Merimée. This was followed in 1834 by the foundation by Guizot of a Comité historique, whose role was to compile an inventory of historical monuments. It is apparent, however, that the committee initially was dominated by architects, whose focus was on standing remains.
In 1858 the Emperor Napoleon III convened the Commission de la topographie des Gaules, who undertook excavations on his behalf, including at Merdogne, now known as Gergovie (Puy-de-Dôme) and Alise-Sainte-Reine (Côte-d’Or), the presumed sites of Julius Caesar’s battles at Gergovie and Alésia, respectively; and at Bibracte (Saône-et-Loire), where Caesar wrote his Commentarii de Bello Gallico (Commentaries on the Gallic War). The Commission de topographie des Gaules also was charged with producing the publication Dictionnaire archéologique de la Gaule, although the project was adjourned in 1878 and not revived until 1894.
One of Napoleon III’s objectives was to locate Alésia, the site of the crucial battle during the final conquest of Gaul by Gaius Julius Caesar, in the “Gallic Wars” that took place between 58 and 52 BC. In his Commentarii de Bello Gallico, Caesar records his final struggle against Vercingetorix, who by 52 BC had become the leader of all of the indigenous tribes from the river Seine in the north to the river Garonne in the southwest. Caesar wrote that the struggle against Vercingetorix culminated in the final battle at Alésia, the capital of the Mandubii tribe, a hill fort where Vercingetorix and his troops had taken refuge. The site of Alésia was not known, and Napoleon III decreed that archaeological excavations should be undertaken on Mont-Auxois, near Alise-Sainte-Reine (Côte-d’Or), which he believed could be identified as Alésia. It is recorded that the imperial administration employed approximately fifty laborers, each of whom was paid three francs per day. Between 1860 and 1862, a team led by Alexandre Bertrand, who was the first secretary of the Commission de la topographie des Gaules, made preliminary excavations on Mont-Auxois. The excavations, which began in June 1861, were directed by Colonel Eugène Stoffel. Stoffel’s interest in the campaigns of Julius Caesar was reflected by his 1887 publication titled Histoire de Jules César. In 1864 Napoleon III issued an official decree that Alésia was indeed located on Mont-Auxois and, accordingly, he commissioned a colossal statue of Vercingetorix from the sculptor Aimé Millet to overlook the presumed site of the battle (figure 1.6).
Figure 1.6. Statue of Vercingetorix on Mont-Auxois. Alamy
In addition, Napoleon III requested excavations at the Gallo-Roman site of Champlieu, in the commune of Orrouy (Oise), close to his palace at Compiègne. The remains at the site, which has been designated a historic monument since 1846, comprise a theater, able to accommodate up to three thousand people, baths, and a sanctuary.
In 1862 Napoleon III also initiated the conversion of the former royal residence at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, which had been in decline during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, to be the “Musée des Antiquités celtiques et gallo-romaines.” The chateau became a historic monument shortly afterward and was restored to give the appearance it would have had in the reign of King François I, in the first half of the sixteenth century, involving the removal of later additions. This work was planned and begun by the architect Eugène Millet, who formerly had been assistant to Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, the architect who had led the Gothic revival in France. Although restoration work continued at the chateau until 1907, the first exhibition galleries had been opened in 1867 by Napoleon III; Alexandre Bertrand, who had been involved in the initial excavations on Mont-Auxois, became its first curator. By 1898 the museum had more than thirty-five thousand objects in its collection, displayed in thirty-eight galleries. The museum still exists, as the Musée d’Archéologie nationale- Domaine national at Saint-Germain-en-Laye (Yvelines), hereafter referred to as the Musée d’Archéologie nationale (figure 1.7). The museum was founded to house archaeological objects that the Musée du Louvre did not collect, including those from the excavations at Alésia and the stone tools collected by Jacques Boucher de Perthes.
Figure 1.7. Musée d’Archéologie nationale-Domaine national at Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Alamy
It is noteworthy that many of the early prehistorians were self-taught, originally soldiers, clergymen, or wealthy individuals who were prominent in their local communities. Furthermore, those with an interest in the past who had a university education often were students at the French Schools in Athens or Rome, discussed further below, and conducting fieldwork in Greece or Italy rather than excavate in France. One such individual was Charles Ernest Beulé, who, as discussed further in chapter 4, excavated on the Acropolis in Athens and at Carthage. It should be noted, however, that although Alexandre Bertrand had studied at the Ecole française d’Athènes in 1849, his appointment in 1858 as secretary of the Commission de topographie des Gaules apparently gave him the desire to develop archaeology in France.
French Archaeologists Overseas in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
The Commission des Sciences et des Arts de l’armée d’Orient was a group of around 150 scholars, artists, scientists, and engineers, collectively known as savants, who accompanied Napoleon Bonaparte’s invasion of Egypt between 1798 and 1801. Their findings, including records of archaeological remains, were published in their complete form in 1829 in the Description de l’Egypte. Napoleon’s commission not only provided a wealth of information about ancient Egypt, it also provided the model for expeditions to Greece, Persia, Algeria, and the Levant.
French overseas schools of archaeology were established from the middle of the nineteenth century; the Ecole française d’Athènes was founded in 1846, followed in 1875 by the Ecole française de Rome. Continuing interest in Egyptian archaeology was reflected with the foundation in 1880 of the Ecole du Caire, which became the Institut français d’archéologie orientale du Caire in 1898. The same year saw the foundation of the Mission archéologique d’Indo-Chine in Saigon, which became the Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient in 1900. The Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient, usually abbreviated to EFEO, now has its headquarters in Paris and, as well as in Vietnam, has centers in India, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan. The five French schools of archaeology overseas also include the Casa de Velázquez in Madrid, established in 1928, which evolved from l’Institut français d’Espagne, founded in 1913. It focuses on the archaeology of North Africa.
The network named Instituts Français de Recherche à l’Etranger (French overseas research institutes), usually abbreviated to IFRE, currently consists of twenty-seven institutions and seven branches, operating in thirty-four countries. IFRE is under the joint authority of the Ministère des Affaires étrangères (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (National Centre for Scientific Research), usually abbreviated to CNRS. There also are 125 French archaeological missions abroad. The IFRE network was begun in the late nineteenth century, with the creation in 1890 of the French Archaeological Mission in Persia, which was the forerunner of the French Institute in Iran. Other overseas institutes and missions include those in Afghanistan, founded in 1923; and in Istanbul, founded in 1930. Decolonization led to new locations for French institutes and missions, including Pondicherry and Ethiopia, both in 1955. Political changes in the late twentieth century led to the foundation of other institutes and missions, including in 1992 of l’Institut français d’études sur l’Asia centrale (Institute for Central Asian Studies) in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
Protection of Sites and Monuments in France
In 1913, the Assemblée Nationale passed legislation giving protection to historic monuments. However, this was not comprehensive, and sites as a whole or monuments that were buried were not included in the legislation. Accordingly, archaeological work conducted by individuals was not subject to any control. In addition, public funding for archaeological work was restricted to small grants made by the Comité des travaux historiques, and such excavations largely were conducted under the auspices of learned societies. This had been the case for many years; the excavation of the cemetery at Charnay (Saône-et-Loire), believed to have been the earliest excavation of a Merovingian cemetery, had been funded from 1830 until 1860 by Henri Baudot, a lawyer who was a member of the Academy of Sciences in Dijon (Côte-d’Or). In 1904, the private society known as La Société française des fouilles archéologiques had been founded, as it had been recognized that the French government could not increase funding for archaeological research or excavations. Accordingly, this allowed the instigation of important excavations and research, such as at Trophée des Alpes at La Turbie (Alpes-Maritimes), the Roman baths at the Gallo-Roman town of Gisacum, in the commune of Vieil-Evreux (Eure), Alise-Sainte-Reine (Côte-d’Or), and Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges (Haute-Garonne).
It was not until 1941, during the Vichy regime, that Jérôme Carcopino, Minister of National Education and Youth, introduced what became known as the Lois Carcopino (Carcopino Laws). The law prohibited any excavations in France, including on one’s own land, without a specific permit issued based on scientific and logistic competencies. In addition, it required people to declare any objects they found and enabled the state to undertake excavations on private land, without the owner’s permission, albeit with compensation. France was divided into areas known as circonscriptions, each with a director. In addition, the journal Gallia was founded to publish the results of excavations.
One result of these changes was that the role professional archaeologists took increased at the expense of amateurs. Within each circonscription was one director for prehistoric archaeology, another for historic archaeology, mostly recruited from universities, notable exceptions being the prehistoric archaeologists Denis Peyrony and Saint-Just Péquart. Since the time of Napoleon III, large sites such as the oppidum of Gergovie had been excavated by nonprofessional archaeologists, often belonging to archaeological societies. However, from 1941, these excavations were taken over by Jean-Jacques Hatt, chair of national archaeology at l’Université de Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin).
The development of rescue archaeology—archaeological work conducted in advance of development—led to the foundation in 1977 of FIAS, Fonds d’intervention pour l’archéologie de sauvetage (Intervention Fund for Rescue Archaeology). The same year saw the adoption of article R.111-3-2 of the Urban Planning Code, which withheld permission for construction if it would jeopardize the preservation of an archaeological site. In 1979, a subdirectorate of archaeology was founded in the Ministry of Culture, and archaeological services were now run as local branches of the Ministry.
In 1973, AFAN, l’Association pour les fouilles archéologiques nationales (National Association for Archaeological Excavations), was created. AFAN’s role was taken over by Inrap (Institut national de recherches archéologiques préventives), founded in 2002. Inrap, which currently has over two thousand collaborators and researchers, is the largest archaeological research organization in France. Alongside partners in the public and private sector, it undertakes evaluation and excavation of more than two thousand sites per year in mainland France and its overseas territories.
France was the first country with a government department for underwater archaeology with the founding of Le département des recherches archéologiques subaquatiques et sous-marines (Department of underwater and undersea archaeological research), usually abbreviated DRASSM, based in Marseille. The organization was created in 1966 by André Malraux, then minister for culture in the French government. In 1996, DRASSM merged with the CNRAS: Centre national de la recherche archéologique subaqatique (National Centre for Underwater Archaeological Research), which had been created in 1980 to manage and protect France’s cultural heritage in inland waters. In 2010, DRASSM established a preventive conservation unit. DRASSM’s original ship L’Archéonaute, which mapped around one thousand archaeological sites, was replaced in 2012 by a new vessel named André Malraux. Since its creation, DRASSM has excavated around fifteen hundred archaeological sites, ranging in date from prehistory to the present.
France is a signatory of the European Convention for the Protection of the Archaeological Heritage, generally known as the Valetta Convention of 1992, which came into force in 1995. The emphasis of the convention shifted from the perception of threats to the archaeological record predominantly being from unauthorized excavation to that of major construction projects and, in particular, made an obligation for the prior evaluation of a site before development starts. The Convention set guidelines for the funding of excavation and research work and publication of research findings. Another important aspect of the Convention is the requirement for the development of public awareness of archaeological heritage.
In France, preventive archaeology is treated as a necessary element of development. On sites above 3000 square meters, developers pay a fee known as the “redevance d’archéologie préventive” whose purpose is to fund an archaeological evaluation. If the evaluation indicates the likely presence of archeological remains that may be affected by the development, a full excavation would take place.
“Archéosites”: Popularizing Archaeology in France
Reconstructions are a familiar feature of archaeology in France, which since the 1970s has fostered the construction of re-creational parks known as “archéosites,” whose role is the dissemination of archaeology to the general public. Archéosites usually include extensive re-creations of structures from antiquity, with the aim of educating visitors as much as exercises in experimental archaeology.
Figure 1.8. Reconstruction of fortifications at the MuséoParc Alésia. Alamy
A pioneer in this field was the Archéodrome de Beaune opened on the area of Beaune on the A6 autoroute, in the commune of Merceuil (Côte-d’Or). The Archéodrome, which was developed by La Société des Autoroutes Paris-Rhin-Rhône and the regional archaeological service of Bourgogne, opened in 1978 but closed to the public in 2005 as a result of low annual visitor numbers, which had fallen from 250,000 to 40,000. The goal of the site was to demonstrate to visitors various construction methods used up to AD 1000 by re-creations of various types of buildings from the past. One of the best-known reconstructions was a section of the Roman fortifications that would have surrounded Alésia (figure 1.8). One of the reasons given for the demise of the Archéodrome de Beaune was a lack of investment and the failure to update or replace any of the buildings since 1994. A secondary activity at the Archéodrome was its use as a center for experimental archaeology, discussed further below.
Le Parc Samara, which opened in 1983 in the commune of La Chausée-Tirancourt (Somme), was inspired by the Archéodrome de Beaune, but it has proven to be much more successful. It combines a natural park with archaeology, allowing a visit to an excavated oppidum site with the opportunity to see reconstructed buildings. A range of structures from prehistory to the Early Iron Age have been presented—namely, a circular tent based on evidence from the site of Buisson Campin in the commune of Verberie (Oise) to illustrate a hunting camp of the Magdalenian period, and houses from the Neolithic, Bronze Age, and Early Iron Age based on examples from Cuiry-lès-Chaudardes (Aisne), Choisy-au-Bac (Oise), and Glisy (Aisne), respectively. The original reconstruction of an Early Iron Age house was based on an excavated example from Villeneuve-Saint-Germain (Aisne), but it was decided to dismantle it in 2013 and reuse the materials in a new reconstruction. Its replacement was a large house with a ground plan measuring 7.8 meters by 6.6 meters, based on discoveries made at Glisy (Aisne) in 2006 of buildings dating from the end of the fourth century BC. In recent years, Le Parc Samara has hosted an annual event in which archaeologists have conducted various exercises in experimental archaeology. In 2013, three pottery kilns, based on archaeological discoveries from Gallo-Roman sites around Arras (Pas-de-Calais), were reconstructed, and pottery made using Gallo-Roman techniques. The following year, archaeologists re-created Iron Age ovens, used for the boiling of brine, which results in the production of salt. The reconstruction drew on new research as it was based on examples found in 2010 in advance of road construction at the commune of Gouy-Saint-André (Pas-de-Calais). By chance, a few weeks previously a team of archaeologists had found a very similar salt-making workshop at the commune of Saint-Quentin-la-Motte-Croix-au-Bailly (Somme), which confirmed their experimental work.
Also in northern France, Le Parc archéologique Asnapio is situated in the commune of Villeneuve-d’Ascq (Nord). Excavations in advance of construction in the 1970s of the “new town” of Villeneuve d’Ascq revealed remains from the prehistoric and Early Iron Age. The themes of the Parc archéologique, which was first established in 1988 and inaugurated in 2001, partly draw on local archaeological discoveries. As at Le Parc Samara, a range of dwellings have been reimagined, including a tent from the Magdalenian period, based on the excavations of André Leroi-Gourhan at Pincevent (Seine-et-Marne), discussed in chapter 4. As at Le Parc Samara, the Neolithic houses found at Cuiry-lès-Chaudardes (Aisne) provided the model for the reconstructed example at Asnapio, and the reconstructed Bronze Age house was based on a round house found at the site of Haut-de-Clauwiers in the commune of Seclin (Nord). Various Early Iron Age buildings have been re-created, including houses and a granary, plus a reconstructed Gallo-Roman villa. Le Parc archéologique Asnapio also includes reconstructions of medieval buildings.
Local archaeological discoveries are also part of the Parc archéologique européen/Europaïscher Kulturpark Bliesbruck-Reinheim, which is partly in the French commune of Bliesbruck (Moselle) and partly in the German municipality of Gersheim (Saarland). Opened in the late 1980s, the park incorporates the site of an Iron Age female burial accompanied by lavish grave goods (the “Celtic Princess of Reinheim”), excavated in 1954, together with several Gallo-Roman buildings, excavation of which has been continuing. Several buildings have been re-created in the park, including the “Tomb of the Celtic Princess,” Early Iron Age houses, and partly reconstructed Gallo-Roman buildings, including a villa and baths.
Equally inspired by local archaeology is the Muséoparc Alésia in Alise-Sainte-Reine (Côte-d’Or), spread over an area of seven thousand hectares. The Muséoparc includes the remains of the Gallo-Roman settlement, discussed in chapter 3, and the statue of Vercingetorix by the sculptor Aimé Millet mentioned earlier in this chapter. An interpretation center, housed in a striking cylindrical building designed by the noted French-Swiss architect Bernard Tschumi, opened in 2012 and presents detailed information on the Roman conquest of Gaul and, in particular, the siege at Alésia. A hundred-meter-long section of the Roman fortifications is re-created (figure 1.8), based on the account by Julius Caesar and the excavations conducted at the behest of the Emperor Napoleon III. An archaeological museum is scheduled to open on the site in 2018.
Slightly different in nature is the Coriobona Village Gaulois in the commune of Esse (Charente), founded by the reenactment group Les Gaulois d’Esse in 2003. The aim was to re-create a small oppidum of the first century BC, basing the reconstructed buildings on discoveries from archaeological sites such as Saint-Gence (Haute-Vienne) and Tintignac (Corrèze); the oppidum of Corent (Puy-de-Dôme) is providing the model for the planned “tavern” at Coriobona. Activities demonstrated at Coriobona include plowing, metalwork, textile production, and pottery making.
It is less common for Late Roman and Early Medieval buildings to be reconstructed. An archéosite whose buildings are based on archaeological discoveries on the site is the Archéo’site Les Rues des Vignes, in the commune of Les Rues des Vignes (Nord), which opened to the public in 1991. The original site was excavated between 1979 and 1986, and discoveries included cellars from the Late Roman period, almost 350 Merovingian tombs and postholes from the construction of Carolingian buildings, which have formed the basis of various reconstructions, including a Merovingian necropolis, barn, and workshops, together with a Carolingian settlement whose construction began in 2005.
An archéosite that focuses on the Merovingian period is the Musée des Temps Barbares-Parc archéologique in the commune of Marle (Aisne), which was opened in 1991. The catalyst for the new museum and archéosite was the discovery of two Merovingian cemeteries at the commune of Goudelancourt-lès-Pierrepont (Aisne), to the southeast of Marle. The site was excavated between 1981 and 1987, revealing more than 450 burials dating to the sixth and seventh centuries AD. From 1988, surveys in the area adjacent to the cemeteries discovered habitation sites, including a farm, from the same period. In 1991, a museum opened in Marle, housed in a renovated mill building originally constructed in the twelfth century but damaged in the eighteenth century. The displays of finds from Goudelancourt-lès-Pierrepont include a rare example of a Merovingian decorated stone sarcophagus lid. Reconstructions on the archaeological park, which is located on more than four hectares of land adjacent to the museum, feature Early Medieval buildings, including a Merovingian farmhouse, erected in 1993, based on an example found at Goudelancourt-lès-Pierrepont. When the park was extended in 2006, it was decided to re-create a Frankish village. The buildings are based on discoveries by Didier Bayard during his excavations at the site of Le Gué de Mauchamp in the commune of Juvincourt-et-Damary conducted between 1984 and 1990 in advance of the construction of the A26 autoroute. Unusually, the smaller of the two Merovingian cemeteries at Goudelancourt-lès-Pierrepont, which contained 134 burials, also has been reconstructed.
Le Musée de Préhistoire des Gorges du Verdon in the commune of Quinson (Alpes-des-Haute-Provence) has a second site, the “Village préhistorique de Quinson,” situated on the bank of the river Verdon. The “village préhistorique” includes not only reconstructions of five prehistoric structures from France, but also a re-creation of the circle of stones found at Olduvai in Tanzania, which the paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey believed to have been the remains of a hut created from branches secured at their base by stones. The buildings re-created in the “village” includes one of the huts from the site of Terra Amata in Nice (Alpes-Maritimes), discussed in chapter 2, although another, more complete, reconstruction of this type of hut can be seen in Le Musée de Terra Amata in Nice. As at Le Parc archéologique Asnapio, a tent from Pincevent has been reimagined. Two Neolithic dwellings have been reconstructed, one based on the type of houses found at Charavines (Isère), discussed in chapter 2, and the other based on the houses found at the site of Cambous in the commune of Viols-en-Laval (Hérault). Unlike most Neolithic houses, those discovered at Cambous, which date from between 2800 BC and 2400 BC, were made in the dry stone technique. The excavations, which began in 1967, found four groups of houses, each with between eight and ten structures. The archaeological site at Cambous also incorporates a reconstruction of one of the houses. Another reimagined Neolithic structure in the “village préhistorique” is a dolmen tomb, based on those found in the geographical region of Provence in southern France.
Several of the archéosites combine reconstructed buildings, some generic in nature, with demonstrations of ancient technology, including metalworking, pottery making, and weaving. Such archéosites include Le Village Gaulois in the commune of Rieux-Volvestre (Haute-Garonne), which focuses on the Iron Age; and the Parc Archéologique de Beynac in the commune of Beynac-et-Cazenac (Dordogne), which has attempted to re-create Neolithic, Bronze Age, and Early Iron Age life.
Other archéosites concentrate on specific aspects of life in the past, such as the Archéosite de Montans (Tarn). In the first and second centuries AD, Montans was important as one of the production centers of a type of South Gaulish terra sigillata pottery, found in western Gaul and modern-day northern Spain, with smaller quantities in Britain. The focus of the Archéosite de Montans is the reconstruction of the activities of the Gallo-Roman potters who worked in the area.
Archéosites should be distinguished from experimental archaeology projects. In addition to being a tourist attraction, the ultimately ill-fated Archéodrome de Beaune also served as a center for experimental archaeology. The site was used to conduct experimental archaeological activities on a wide range of material, including flint, metal, bone, textiles, and ceramics. In addition, experimental work was done to increase knowledge of ancient construction techniques.
The reconstruction of a Neolithic house from Cuiry-lès-Chaudardes (Aisne) in 1977 was the catalyst for the subsequent foundation of the Centre d’archéologie experimentale in the commune of Chassemy (Aisne) in 1980. One of the early projects was the reconstruction of an Iron Age farm based on excavations undertaken at Villeneuve-Saint-Germain (Aisne), although the Centre probably is best known for a two-year project, conducted since 1981, on experimental agricultural techniques in the Aisne valley during the Neolithic period.
As discussed in chapter 2, an experimental archaeology project was undertaken in 1988 at Lake Chalain (Jura), where two Neolithic houses were constructed, with part of the work carried out using Neolithic technology. The houses are no longer in existence, having collapsed in 2000.
Other reconstructions of Neolithic buildings were undertaken at CEPA (Centre expérimental de préhistoire alsacienne) in the commune of Holtzheim (Bas-Rhin). Experimental archaeological work took place at CEPA until the late 1990s, when the reconstructed houses were destroyed by fire, which signaled the end of the Centre’s activities.
A more unusual experimental archaeology program was the reconstruction of a Gallo-Roman barge that had been discovered in 1808 while digging for peat in the commune of Fontaine-sur-Somme (Somme). The barge was excavated by Laurent Joseph Traullé, who was curator of the Museum des antiques in Abbeville (Somme). The barge, dated from pottery and coins to the second century AD, was twelve meters long and three meters wide, and could have carried seven tons of cargo. Although no physical remains of the barge survive, Traullée’s description, together with more recent discoveries of similar vessels, have enabled reconstruction by the Ambiani Project.
Interest in the material remains of France’s past started in the sixteenth century through chance discoveries investigated by interested and informed individuals. The excavation of the dolmen tomb at Cocherel paved the way for investigation of other archaeological remains, whether visible in the landscape or accidental discoveries. Recording and publishing of such discoveries became more common, leading to the establishment of learned bodies promoting interest in the material remains of the past. By the nineteenth century, the widespread construction of railways and roads throughout France revealed many more archaeological sites. Around the same time, the personal interest of Napoleon III led to a more systematic approach to the remains of the past. In the twentieth century, archaeology in France, both terrestrial and maritime, emerged as a true scientific discipline. The turn of the new millennium has seen no respite in archaeological discoveries in France, in part due to developments in infrastructure, with a statutory requirement to investigate sites prior to development.