Archaeology (CNRS Humanities & Social Sciences disciplinary priority)

Archaeology is the study of past societies, from the appearance of hominids to the sub-contemporary period through the analysis of material remains. This historical discipline is currently undergoing a major process of epistemological renewal and involves a highly marked level of interdisciplinarity.

Archaeology contributes to the renewal of historical knowledge particularly for periods or societies for which written documentation is non-existent or very incomplete. It also similarly renews knowledge for more contemporary periods and helps shift focus from the elites who produced the written word to the general population while highlighting how the historical narrative has been manipulated and deliberate forms of information concealment. The discipline is constantly expanding its range of subjects. Sedimentation and patrimonialization continuously produce archaeological remains but these 'soil archives' are subject to considerable erosion because of regional planning, major infrastructure works, trafficking, looting and deliberate destructive acts.

The increasingly interdisciplinary sciences of archaeology include archaeology and art history along with all the sciences that study materials (physics, chemistry), the palaeoenvironment (palynology, anthracology, archaeobotany, archaeozoology, geoarchaeology), human and animal genomes, and so forth. This research thus involves a great deal of interaction with other CNRS Institutes, particularly CNRS Ecology & Environment, CNRS Chemistry and CNRS Earth & Space.

Archaeologists are also reinforcing dialogue with the other fields of the humanities and social sciences like history, ethnology, sociology and law particularly as regards the issue of heritage and trafficking of antiquities.

This research has a strong presence in units in other countries co-steered by the CNRS Humanities & Social Sciences.

Research centers and networks