HEAD OF TRACEOLAB
RESEARCHERS
FNRS researcher
Veerle ROTS
Career
Veerle Rots obtained her PhD at Leuven University (Belgium, 2002) and subsequently became a postdoctoral research fellow of the Research Fund (2002-2009) and the Fund for Scientific Research – Flanders (FWO) (2009-2011). She was appointed guest lecturer at the Department of Archaeology of the University of Leuven in 2005 (until 2012). In 2011, she obtained a permanent position as Research Associate of the Fund for Scientific Research (Chercheur Qualifié du FNRS-FRS) at the University of Liège (Belgium). In 2019, she was appointed as Senior Research Associate (Maître des Recherches du FNRS-FRS). She was awarded a prestigious ERC starting grant in 2012 with the project “Evolution of Stone Tool Hafting in the Palaeolithic”. Since her arrival at the University of Liège, she has developed TraceoLab, a research centre in prehistory devoted to use-wear and residue studies of prehistoric stone tools and experimentation. Her personal expertise mainly concerns integrated techno-functional approaches with a particular focus on microscopic use-wear and hafting wear traces on stone tools, associated with systematic experimentation, and with a particular interest in Palaeolithic assemblages.
Over the years, she has been involved in many field projects in Belgium and abroad (e.g., Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Turkey, Poland, South Africa), and she has on-going collaborations to examine the archaeological material of different Palaeolithic sites (Belgium, Germany, France, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, Zambia, Israel).
Teaching
HAAR0071-1 Questions spéciales d’archéologie préhistorique
HAAR0107-1 Séminaire spécialisé de Préhistoire
PSTG0050-1 Stage spécialisé de Préhistoire
Publications
Marie Curie postdoctoral
research fellow
4000 Liège
BELGIQUE
Malvina BAUMANN
Career
Malvina Baumann obtained her PhD degree at the University of Paris 1, Panthéon-Sorbonne, in 2014, with a thesis devoted to the technological and functional analysis of the Solutrean bone equipment, which was not seen as being different from the ones of the preceding and subsequent cultural phases. Once the stratigraphic issues were clarified, the main result has been the identification of an original industry predominately manufactured by percussion and the discovery of tools dedicated to the pressure flaking of flint. This led her to explore more carefully the “unshaped” bone tools with an improved methodology. Thanks to the support of the French-Russian International Associated Laboratory Artemir, a grant from the Centre d’Etude Franco-Russe of Moscow and then, a grant from the Fyssen Foundation, her work expanded (2016-2018) to a comparison of bone production systems of Homo sapiens, Neandertal and Denisovan in the Siberian Altai at the interface of the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic period.
A Marie Sklowdoska-Curie fellowship now gives her the opportunity to explore the question of Neanderthals’ ability to use bone materials. In the TraceoLab laboratory, the challenge will be to establish objective criteria for recognizing manufacture and use markers of the “unshaped” tools. Alongside a classical traceological approach, she will exploit the potential provided by 3D internal and surface imaging. The results will contribute, in terms of the representation of their technical world, to the debate on the cognitive abilities of the fossil human species.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Dries CNUTS
Career
Dries Cnuts graduated from the University of Leuven in 2007 with a Master’s thesis entitled “A critical study on the diet of Neanderthals” under the supervision of Philip Van Peer. As a student he participated in several excavations in Belgium and abroad (e.g., France, Sudan). After his studies, he worked for the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs and he returned to archaeology in 2012. From 2012 until the end of 2013, he worked as an archaeologist for the Prehistoric Archaeology unit of the University of Leuven. During this period he was involved in several prehistoric field projects in Belgium. In 2013, he started a Phd under the supervision of Dr. Veerle Rots on the methodological problems related to residue analysis of stone tools.
Project
My research aims at reconstructing the use and hafting modes of lithic tools during the Palaeolithic period by studying residues that adhere to the surfaces of these tools. These residues are plant, animal or mineral origin and may the result from an activity (e.g. butchering), a production technique (e.g. organic hammer percussion) or an hafting mode (e.g. adhesive). The identification of these residues is done by using a combination of optical microscopes (stereo-microscope, metallurgical microscope) and lighting techniques (reflected and transmitted light). Although residue analysis has been now applied for 40 years, it is still confronted with several methodological problems which are not always recognised. First, the optical identification of these residues is challenging since smearing or crushing of residues through use or the degradation of residues through taphonomic processes may remove their diagnostic features and hamper reliable identification. Second, it still remains difficult to identify at which stage of the lifecycle the observed residue was formed. Too often, a residue is attributed to use, while other stages (production, retouch, burial) are not taken into consideration. Thirdly, the conditions under which these residues can survive are still poorly understood and is important in detecting the locations that are suitable for the application of residue analysis. My doctoral research aims therefore at refining the current method with a strong emphasis on experimentation and improvement of optical and molecular methods (in cooperation with the chemistry group of Prof Jef Focant (ULg)). The method will be tested on selection of Palaeolithic sites in Europe and Africa. This research is part of an ERC starting grant on the evolution of hafting during the Palaeolithic (EVO-Haft), led by Dr. Veerle Rots.
Publications
Postdoctoral Fellow
Justin COPPE
Career
Justin Coppe, graduated in 2013 from the University of Liège, with a Master’s thesis on the technological analysis of the recent Mousterian industry of Scladina cave (Belgium). Through a large corpus of refitting, he searched to prove the contemporaneity of the series studied (level 1A) and to understand the “chaine opératoire” used by Neanderthals. For his PhD, he focuses on the identification of projectiles and projection systems in the Palaeolithic. This research is based on a large experimental program and a detailed microscopic analysis. He aims to contribute to a better understanding of Palaeolithic hunting techniques. Justin Coppe has been involved in several field projects, notably on Belgian, French and Romanian Palaeolithic sites. He is also involved in experimental knapping in collaboration with the “Chercheurs de la Wallonie” at the Préhistomuséum de Ramioul (Liège).
Project
Projectile points have always attracted a lot of attention, but the last few years, efforts have been intensified to recognize them in assemblages and to understand the details of their functioning (propulsion mode, hafting method,…). These elements take an important place in discussions about the changes of human behaviour during the Palaeolithic. Especially the development of long-range hunting weapons must have significantly impacted human subsistence strategies. However, in most cases, the key elements of hunting equipment have disappeared, as they were manufactured out of organic material, and the stone points are the only evidence that is left. Therefore, an improved comprehension of their operational details, for example, the appearance and development of new weapon projecting techniques needs to rely on these stone points. The goal of my PhD is to refine the methodologies associated with the identification of projectile points, hafting arrangements and modes of propulsion. The project is based on a large reference collection. This method will be tested on a selection of European Middle and Upper Palaeolithic sites. Ultimately, this study should contribute to a better understanding of projectile technologies and their development. My project is part of a broader program on the evolution of hafting in the Palaeolithic, led by Dr. Veerle Rots (ERC starting grant).
PhD Student
4000 Liège
BELGIQUE
Tél. +32 (0)4 366 53 04
qgoffette@naturalsciences.be
Quentin GOFFETTE
Career
Quentin Goffette graduated from the University of Brussels (ULB) in 2009. As a student he participated in several excavations in Belgium and abroad (e.g., Cyprus, Syria, Italy). Since 2009, he works as an archaeozoologist at the Belgian Institute of Naturals Sciences (Brussels), within the scientific programme ‘Quaternary Environments & Humans’. During this period, he was involved in the study of faunal remains coming from the excavation of Sagalassos (Turkey, Interuniversity attraction poles), from Brussels and, since 2011, from the Walloon region.
In 2017, he started a PhD under the supervision of Dr. Veerle Rots and Dr. Christine Lefèvre (MNHN), on the exploitation of birds from Prehistory to Modern Times on the territory of modern Belgium, by the analysis of archaeozoological data. The evolution of the frequency of bird remains through time will be evaluated, as well as the purposes birds were used for (economic, symbolic, etc.).
PhD Student
Marine MICHEL
Career
Marine Michel was master graduated from archaeology and art history in 2017 in Liège University. Her master thesis was about “Frost effects on flint tools on different stages of their life cycle”. The taphonomic part of the study was very conclusive. For the first time she manages to reproduce alteration polish from frost/thaw cycles. This one is present on archaeological artefacts and can hinder use-wear good understanding. In 2018 she begins a thesis on the effects of post-depositional phenomena on use-wear. A lot of archaeological artefacts are altered (polishes, patina) because of taphonomic processes. It’s important to be able to understand alteration for a better comprehension of use-wear. Thanks to experimentation and functional analyses, the study aims at improving gravettian sites comprehension and their function.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Noora TAIPALE
Career
Noora Taipale obtained her PhD at the University of Liège in 2020, and currently works at TraceoLab as a postdoctoral fellow. With a Master’s degree from the University of Helsinki (Finland), she was initially trained in use-wear analysis at Uppsala University (Sweden) under the supervision of Prof. Kjel Knutsson. During her year there, she prepared her master’s thesis that involved the functional study of quartz artefacts from two Mesolithic sites. Through her work in Liège, she has gained experience in the analysis of flint and flint-like rocks from Europe as well as African raw materials, particularly quartzite. These projects have also allowed her to expand the scope of her research first to the European Upper Palaeolithic and then to the Middle Stone Age and Early Stone Age of Africa. Her main interest is to use lithic functional analysis as a way to address general questions about technological strategies, their development through time, and their links to human evolution.
PhD project
Framed in the context of the ERC-funded project “Evolution of stone tool hafting in the Palaeolithic” led by Dr. Veerle Rots, Noora’s PhD project focused on the variability in stone tool hafting and use in the Gravettian and Magdalenian of Central and Western Europe. Her thesis, entitled « Hafting as a flexible strategy: variability in stone tool hafting and use at three European Upper Palaeolithic sites », represents the first large-scale application of the hafting wear method developed by Dr. Rots on Upper Palaeolithic assemblages. Noora’s work entailed the analysis of large samples of lithic artefacts, particularly domestic tools, from three archaeological sites, namely the cave site Hohle Fels (SW Germany), the open-air site Maisières-Canal (Belgium), and the rock shelter Abri Pataud (SW France). By applying low and high magnification use-wear analysis, she could identify several categories of hafted tools within these assemblages. The comparative analysis of the datasets from different sites and different time periods allowed her to establish that while simple task mechanics explain some of the patterning in stone tool hafting, the remaining part requires more complex explanations. By contextualising the use-wear results with the help of data on subsistence, seasonality, and mobility, she could propose initial hypotheses about the links between stone tool hafting and social division of work in the Upper Palaeolithic.
Postdoc project
After obtaining her PhD, Noora has been working as a postdoctoral fellow in the project “Investigating the Deep Roots of Human Behaviour”. Led by Prof. Lawrence Barham (University of Liverpool, UK), Dr. Veerle Rots (TraceoLab, ULiège), and their co-investigators, this research project looks into the very beginnings of hafted stone tool technologies and aims at understanding their evolutionary significance. As a member of an international and interdisciplinary team composed of researchers from several institutes in Zambia and Europe, Noora focuses on lithic material from the site of Kalambo Falls. This famous site has been subject to new excavations since 2019, and contains both Early Stone Age and Middle Stone Age layers that are currently being dated. Noora’s aim is to understand tool use and hafting at the site with the help of extensive experimentation carried out in collaboration with experimental archaeologists at TraceoLab and in the UK. By doing this, she wishes to contribute to an improved understanding of the origins of hafting and the changes in technological strategies across the ESA/MSA transition. In addition, Noora’s work will help adjust the existing functional analysis methods to the local raw material situation in Zambia.
Publications
Postdoctoral Fellow
Sonja TOMASSO
Career
Sonja Tomasso obtained her PhD at the University of Liège in 2021. The main objective of her PhD research was to improve the understanding of long term technological changes during the Middle and Late Pleistocene in North Africa. For this purpose she performed a functional study on the lithic assemblage from Ifri n’Ammar, a rockshelter located in Northeast Morocco, which has been occupied periodically since ~170 ka. This assemblage provided a great diversity of lithic tools, including the emblematic tanged tools characteristic of the Aterian.
Sonja Tomasso graduated from Liège University in 2008 and subsequently worked as an archaeologist in the city of Aachen (Germany). In 2013, she started the PhD research at the TraceoLab and gained experience in the methods of functional studies. Since 2013, she also worked in cooperation with the German “Kommission für Archäologie Außereuropäischer Kulturen (KAAK) des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts (DAI)” (Bonn, Germany) and the Moroccan „Institut National des Sciences de l’Archéologie et du Patrimoine“ (INSAP). Parallel to her PhD research, she was involved in several research projects which allowed her to gain more experience in use-wear studies and expand her scope of her research (e.g. collaborations with Oxford Archaeology South, BAAC Vlaanderen, National Museum of the Solomon Islands in the framework of a the archaeological project of the KAAK (DAI), the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES), the Flemish Goverment, Belgium, in the framework of synthesis archaeological research).
After obtaining her PhD, Sonja is working in a project of the Flemish subsidy for archaeological synthesis research in Flanders (Onroerend Erfgoed) entitled “From micro to macro: understanding the presence of Mesolithic hunter-gatherer groups in the lower Scheldt region through techno-functional research.” This interdisciplinary research project focuses on understanding the presence of Mesolithic hunter-gatherer groups in the lower Scheldt region through techno-functional research, with a strong emphasis on reconstructing past plant processing activities. The project will be carried in close collaboration with (BAAC Vlaanderen) and (Arkéodidacte).
Excavations
- 07/2003 : Trou Al’Wesse (Belgique), sous la direction de Rebecca Miller (ULg)
- 08/2004 : Trou Al’Wesse (Belgique), sous la direction de Rebecca Miller (ULg)
- 08/2005 : Grotte de Karain (Turquie), sous la direction de Marcel Otte et Ișin Yalçinkaya (ULg, Ankara University)
- 07/2006 : Grotte de Karain (Turquie), sous la direction de Marcel Otte et Ișin Yalçinkaya (ULg, Ankara University)
- 05/2007 : Tell Chagar Bazar (Syrie), sous la direction d’ Önhan Tunca et Jean Marie Cordy (ULg)
- 05/2008 : Tell Chagar Bazar (Syrie), sous la direction d’ Önhan Tunca et Jean Marie Cordy (ULg)
- 05-06/2009 : Tell Chagar Bazar (Syrie), sous la direction d’ Önhan Tunca et Jean Marie Cordy (ULg)
- Depuis 2010 : Ifri n’Ammar (Maroc), sous la direction de Josef Eiwanger (KAAK) (en coopération avec Abdes Mikdad, INSAP)
Publications
Assistant – PhD Student
4000 Liège
BELGIQUE
Lola TYDGADT
Career
Lola Tydgadt obtained an History of art and Archaeology (Archaeometry) master’s degree with Highest Honours from the University of Liège in 2019. As a student, she was involved in several excavations, post-excavation and prospection campaigns, both in Belgium and abroad (France, United Kingdom, Italy). From 2017 to 2019, she was appointed as a student-instructor in Prehistory and redacted her master’s dissertation, “Leave no stone unturned. Étude fonctionnelle des assemblages lithiques protohistoriques de Wanze et Harmignies”, under Dr. Veerle Rots’ supervision. In 2019, she was appointed as an academic assistant for the Service de Préhistoire (Dr. Pierre Noiret and Dr. Veerle Rots) and Service d’Histoire de l’Art et Archéologie de l’Antiquité gréco-romaine (Dr. Thomas Morard) of the University of Liège. Her position includes the realisation of a Phd under Dr. Veerle Rots’ guidance.
EXPERIMENTATIONS
INTERNATIONAL PhD STUDENTS IN CO-SUPERVISION
Experimentation
Christian LEPERS
Career
Christian Lepers is a member of the Chercheurs de la Wallonie and over the years he gained a lot of experience in stone tool knapping and use. He is a regular participant to the European Championship of prehistoric spear-throwing and bow use given his great skill in this field. Within the lab, he is responsible for the experimental program on stone tool use and hafting.
PhD Student
University of Liverpool, UK
4000 Liège
BELGIQUE
Christopher SCOTT
PhD student (University of Liverpool).
PhD Student
University of Liverpool, UK
4000 Liège
BELGIQUE
Dylan JONES
PhD student (University of Liverpool).
SCIENTIFIC COLLABORATORS & VISITING RESEARCHERS
Postdoctoral Fellow
Antonin TOMASSO
Project
As part of a postdoctoral BeIPD-COFUND incoming fellowship on the «Adoption, abandonment, and revival of a technical innovation. Techno-functional study of twisted blade production during the Upper Paleolithic in Europe» I will perform a research on technical innovations in Prehistory within TraceoLab. The goal is to study the causes and implications of the diversity of blade and bladelet production patterns which are a key aspect of the variability of the Upper Paleolithic in Europe. I will particularly focus on the production of twisted blanks, introduced in Europe at the early beginning of the Upper Paleolithic, which disappears and reappears periodically and in different areas throughout the Upper Paleolithic. Based on a techno-functional approach that includes petrographic, functional and technical analyses, I aim to clarify the meaning of these productions anticipating two possible hypotheses: (1) the twisted character is intentionally sought, or (2) it is a byproduct and a consequence of other technical constraints.
This research project is based on the analysis of a new open-air site « Les Prés Laure » (Var, France) which delivers exceptionally well preserved deposits from the Upper Paleolithic dated around the end of the LGM (about 25 000 – 20,000 BP).
FORMER RESEARCHERS
Postdoctoral Fellow
Elspeth HAYES
Career
Elspeth “Ebbe” Hayes completed her PhD at the University of Wollongong, Australia, in 2015, under the supervision of Prof. Richard Fullagar. Her PhD research focussed on the function of Aboriginal grinding tools through a detailed functional analysis of the usewear and residue traces on tools from key archaeological sites in Australia (Madjedbebe and Lake Mungo). During her PhD, Ebbe visited Lakehead University in Canada to study chemical methods of residue analysis, including the newest applications of spectroscopy, gas-chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS), biochemical staining and others.
Following the completion of her PhD, Ebbe worked as a Research Fellow in the Centre for Archaeological Science at the University of Wollongong. She has been involved in several collaborative projects to study tool function at early human sites in eastern Asia and Australia, including Denisova Cave (Siberia), Liang Bua (Indonesia) and Madjedbebe (northern Australia).
Qualifications
Doctor of Philosophy (with commendation) 2015
Centre for Archaeological Science,
School of Earth and Environmental Science,
Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health
University of Wollongong
Bachelor of Science (Hons 1) (Geoscience) 2010
School of Earth and Environmental Science,
Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health
University of Wollongong
Publications
Journal articles:
Hayes, E.H., D. Cnuts, C. Lepers, V. Rots. (2017). Learning from blind tests: determining the function of experimental grinding stones through use-wear and residue analysis. Journal of Archaeological Science Reports 11: 245–260.
Fullagar, R., B. Stephenson, E.H. Hayes. (2017). Grinding grounds: function and distribution of grinding stones from an open site in the Pilbara, Western Australia. Quaternary International 427: 175–183.
Marwick, B., Hayes, E.H., C, Clarkson, R., Fullagar. (2017). Movement of lithics by trampling: an experiment in Madjedbebe sediments. Journal of Archaeological Science.
Hayes, E.H., R., Fullagar, K. Mulvaney, K. Connell. (2016). Food or fibercraft? Grinding stones and Triodia grass (spinifex). Quaternary International. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2016.08.010
Rots, V., E.H. Hayes, D. Cnuts, C. Lepers, R. Fullagar. (2016). Making sense of residues on flaked stone artefacts: learning from blind tests. Plos One. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.015043
Fullagar, R., E.H. Hayes, B. Stephenson, J. Field, C. Matheson, N. Stern and K. Fitzsimmons. (2015). The scale of seed grinding at Lake Mungo. Archaeology in Oceania 50: 177–179.
Fullagar, R., E.H. Hayes, B. Stephenson, J. Field, C. Matheson, N. Stern and K. Fitzsimmons (2015). Evidence for Pleistocene seed grinding at Lake Mungo, south-eastern Australia. Archaeology in Oceania 50: 3–19.
Smith, M., E.H. Hayes and B. Stephenson 2015 Mapping a millstone: the dynamics of use-wear and residues on a Central Australian seed-grinding implement. Australian Archaeology: 80: 70–79.
Clarkson, C., M. Smith, B. Marwick, R. Fullagar, L. Wallis, P. Faulkner, T. Manne, E.H. Hayes, R.G. Roberts, Z. Jacobs, X. Carah, K.M. Lowe, J. Matthews and A. Florin (2015). Madjedbebe (Malakunanja II): Archaeology, chronology and stratigraphic integrity revisited. Journal of Human Evolution 83: 46–64.
Hayes, E.H., R. Fullagar, C.J. Clarkson and S. O’Connor (2014). Usewear on the platform: ‘use-flakes’ and ‘retouch-flakes’ from northern Australia and Timor. In S. Nunziante Cesaro and C. Lemori (eds), An Integration of Use-Wear and Residue Analysis for the Identification of the Function of Archaeological Stone Tools: Proceedings of the International Workshop Rome, March 5th–7th, 2012, pp.77–90. British Archaeological Reports: 2649. Oxford: Archaeopress.
Jacobs, Z., E.H. Hayes, R.G. Roberts, R.F. Galbraith and C.S. Henshilwood (2013). An improved OSL chronology for the Still Bay layers at Blombos Cave, South Africa: further tests of single-grain dating procedures and a re-evaluation of the timing of the Still Bay industry across southern Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science 40(1): 579–594.
Theses:
Hayes, E.H. (2015). What was ground? A functional analysis of grinding stones from Madjedbebe and Lake Mungo, Australia. PhD thesis, University of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia.
Hayes, E.H. (2010). Extending the chronology for Blombos Cave, South Africa: Further evidence for the origins of modern human behaviour. Honours thesis, University of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Carol LENTFER
Career
Carol Lentfer graduated from the University of New England, Armidale, Australia with BSc Hons (Ecology/Zoology/Microbiology) and a BA (Archaeology/Botany). After teaching in New South Wales, Australia and a remote aboriginal settlement in the Northern Territory she resumed studies at the Southern Cross University, Lismore, Australia and graduated with a Masters in Applied Science (Archaeological Science) and a PhD (2004). She has since held research positions at the University of Queensland, Australia (2005-2008), the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, USA (2009-2010), and Minpaku, the National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan (2011-2012). She has worked on several collaborative archaeological projects in Australia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, Indonesia, East Timor, Borneo and Taiwan.
Project
She has worked on several collaborative archaeological projects focusing her research on the prehistory of human settlement in the Southeast Asian/Pacific region to investigate resource exploitation, subsistence, patterns of economic development and change and environmental change. She specializes in phytolith and starch analyses, plant macro-remain analyses including wood and nutshell/seed identification, and use wear and residue analyses. Currently she is affiliated with the University of Queensland as an Adjunct Fellow and is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Liège University in Belgium, financed by an ERC starting grant initiated and directed by Dr Veerle Rots.
Publications
Postdoctoral Fellow
Jimmy LINTON
Career
J’ai été formé aux principes et méthodes de l’archéologie préhistorique dans le cadre d’une Licence et d’une Maîtrise à l’Université de Toulouse le Mirail, puis d’un DEA d’Anthropologie double sceau à l’École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales et l’Université du Mirail. Mes deux mémoires ont porté sur l’industrie lithique chasséenne de Roucadour (Thémines, Lot). À travers l’analyse des processus de production, de gestion et d’utilisation de l’outillage en silex, mon travail a contribué à mieux comprendre le statut particulier de ce site des Causses du Quercy au Néolithique moyen.
J’ai ensuite rejoint l’UMR6298 Artehis (Université de Dijon) pour faire une thèse financée par une Allocation de Recherche. Le financement était adossé à un programme de recherche intitulé « Territoire Environnement et Pratiques Agricoles au Néolithique ». Ma thèse de doctorat a porté sur la gestion et l’utilisation des produits en silex du Turonien supérieur de la région du Grand-Pressigny au Néolithique final. Afin de travailler à l’échelle des réseaux de diffusion, je me suis attaché à étudier des ensembles répartis entre l’aire de production des grandes lames en Touraine (France), et les rives du lac de Neuchâtel (Suisse). Ainsi, mon travail s’est fondé sur les résultats de l’analyse techno-fonctionnelle d’une vingtaine d’ensembles échantillonnés.
Après ma soutenance, mon activité s’est partagée entre des expertises et contrats d’étude spécialisée réalisés pour divers prestataires de l’archéologie préventive, et une activité de recherche dans la continuité de mon travail de thèse. Je suis impliqué dans différents programmes de recherche, réseaux de collaborations et groupes de travail à l’échelle nationale ou européenne.
La bourse Marie Curie COFUND me permet depuis octobre 2014 de mener mon travail de recherche au Service de Préhistoire de l’Université de Liège, au sein du Laboratoire de Tracéologie.
Research Theme
Mes recherches s’attachent à appréhender les transformations des systèmes techniques et socio-économiques des sociétés agropastorales néolithiques ouest-européennes entre le Vème et le IIIème millénaire av. J.-C. par le biais de la tracéologie et de la technologie lithique. Mes domaines d’analyse et d’expertise sont les processus de production, de gestion et d’utilisation de l’outillage en silex. Mon travail comporte trois axes principaux : les conditions techniques et sociales de la diversité de l’équipement en silex, la variabilité des agro systèmes et son évolution dans le temps, les transferts de technologies et de traditions techniques dans le temps et l’espace.
Dans le cadre de mon mandat post-doctoral à l’Université de Liège je vais développer des recherches sur l’emmanchement de l’outillage lithique au Néolithique. L’objectif sera de faciliter la restitution des types d’emmanchement des pièces lithiques provenant des sites terrestres en établissant un corpus tracéologique de comparaison (archéologique et expérimental). Le volet archéologique se focalise sur l’étude de pièces encore emmanchées des collections exceptionnelles des villages néolithiques littoraux des lacs nord-alpins. Récemment inscrits au patrimoine mondial par l’UNESCO, les sites lacustres bénéficient de conditions de conservation uniques qui offrent l’accès à des vestiges en matière organique, habituellement dégradés en contexte terrestre.
Publications
Student
Virginie MATTERNE
Career
Virginie Matterne obtained her master’s degree in archaeology at the belgian University of Louvain-la-Neuve in 2014. Her master’s thesis was directed by Nicholas Cauwe and adressed the issue of music in the Upper Palaeolithic under an organological -based on the development of a catalog- and experimental approach. She became more familiar with the technological aspect of musical instruments, their manufacture and specificities, during a brief internship in Ardèche with the french instrument maker Jean-François Barbe, specialised in traditional and archaeological flutes.
In order to acquire skill in the field of education, she continued her studies to obtain secondary school teaching qualifications (Agrégation de l’enseignement secondaire supérieur en Archéologie et histoire de l’art), before joining the TraceoLab team in 2015 to start a doctoral thesis on prehistoric hafting. She hopes to develop a methodology in the recognition of organic hafts from fauna collections and apply it to a series of Palaeolithic sites.
She works in parallel as a tour guide at the Prehistomuseum de Ramioul (Flémalle, Belgique).
Reasearch topics
- Archaelogy
- Prehistory (Paleolithic)
- Archaeomusicology
- Traceology
- Hard animal material industry
- Experimental archaeology
Publications
PhD Student
Giancarlo RUTA
6-month scholarship for specialisation abroad (1/10/2015 – 31/3/2016).
Postdoctoral Fellow
Antonin TOMASSO
Project
As part of a postdoctoral BeIPD-COFUND incoming fellowship on the «Adoption, abandonment, and revival of a technical innovation. Techno-functional study of twisted blade production during the Upper Paleolithic in Europe» I will perform a research on technical innovations in Prehistory within TraceoLab. The goal is to study the causes and implications of the diversity of blade and bladelet production patterns which are a key aspect of the variability of the Upper Paleolithic in Europe. I will particularly focus on the production of twisted blanks, introduced in Europe at the early beginning of the Upper Paleolithic, which disappears and reappears periodically and in different areas throughout the Upper Paleolithic. Based on a techno-functional approach that includes petrographic, functional and technical analyses, I aim to clarify the meaning of these productions anticipating two possible hypotheses: (1) the twisted character is intentionally sought, or (2) it is a byproduct and a consequence of other technical constraints.
This research project is based on the analysis of a new open-air site « Les Prés Laure » (Var, France) which delivers exceptionally well preserved deposits from the Upper Paleolithic dated around the end of the LGM (about 25 000 – 20,000 BP).