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Le transfert du cimetière communal de Lys-Saint-Georges (Indre), témoin d’un mode de fonctionnement particulier des cimetières ruraux contemporains
No full textInternational audienceUn diagnostic d’archéologie préventive mené « place de l’Église » à Lys-Saint-Georges (Indre) a mis au jour plusieurs sépultures contemporaines, localisées à l’emplacement de l’ancien cimetière communal. Les sondages réalisés ont permis d’appréhender la durée de fonctionnement de cet espace funéraire, tandis que les sources archivistiques et orales documentent les conditions de sa fermeture ainsi que son transfert vers un nouveau site entre 1950 et 1966.Si la documentation archéologique peut, à première vue, surprendre quant aux modalités du déplacement des tombes, elle reflète en réalité une gestion ordinaire et pragmatique des cimetières à l’époque contemporaine. Les sources d’archives montrent, quant à elles, un fonctionnement singulier, peut-être propre aux petites communes rurales
Calculs de positionnements à partir d'anciennes données topographiques à Gabian (Hérault)
No full textCe rapport explique comment peuvent être calculées les coordonnées de points à partir d'anciennes données disparates et très peu documentées
Nogent-sur-Seine (Aube), site du Cardinal II : des fosses pré-et protohistoriques comme témoins de l'évolution des sols et des paysages au cours de l'Holocène
No full textInternational audienceThe discovery of several deep pits dating from the Early and Middle Mesolithic as well as the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age in Nogent-sur-Seine (Aube, Grand Est, France) has made it possible to consider these structures as sedimentary archives of ancient soils, now disappeared. Indeed, since the recognition of these mesolithic pits and their inventory in Champagne at the beginning of the 2010s, these remains have been regularly unearthed on a regional scale. However, the rarity of archaeological material in their filling (a rarity that is also noted in the Neolithic and later “V-Y-W” shaped pits) makes it difficult to establish a consensus around their functional approach. However, beyond the question of their function, it is necessary to consider these diachronic buried structures as real sedimentary traps allowing us to understand the past environment and the evolution of soils (in the pedological sense). Indeed, these ancient soils are largely eroded nowadays and their study through the archives that constitute these structures has a real paleoenvironmental interest. By working on the evolution of pedogenesis, as well as on the major phases of erosion and truncation of soils, it is possible to better understand the state of conservation of the remains as well as the periods of more or less intense erosion that marked the Holocene. Conversely, in order to understand the dynamics of filling an archaeological structure and its post-filling evolution (given the interrelation between the surrounding soil and the filling), it is essential to understand the morpho- and pedosedimentary evolution of the natural sequences of a site.This issue was at the heart of the scientific prescription issued for the operation, which explicitly stipulated the continuous use of geoarchaeology and paleoenvironment methods. One of these methods was based on the study of recurring pedofeatures by period. Indeed, certain specific features, such as primary or secondary carbonation, are commonly observed on a regional scale in the filling of ancient pits but had never been quantified until now. However, since soil evolution is closely linked to landscape evolution, certain periods may appear more favorable to the establishment of certain pedofeatures (secondary carbonation, decarbonation). Their study and the associated landscape reconstructions make it possible to deduce the impact of natural and anthropogenic forcing in their formation.A transdisciplinary approach was therefore implemented as part of this operation, combining methods from geosciences (geomorphology, pedology, micromorphology), archaeology (identification and description of fill and surrounding soil dynamics, radiocarbon and OSL dating) and paleoenvironments (malacology, anthracology, carpology).This approach highlighted specific pedological features for the Mesolithic structures, including significant levels of secondary carbonates measured by calcimetry. Located in a wooded environment, the Early and Middle Mesolithic structures also recorded a thick reworked humus horizon in the fill and testify to a well-developed soil during the Preboreal / Boreal, without illuviation having yet been established.From the Middle Mesolithic, the pedological evolution transforms the loess deposits of the surrounding natural terrain and establishes a Luvisol and an argillic horizon (Bt horizon). This evolution, to be correlated with the climatic optimum of the Holocene, affects the upper part of the fillings of the Mesolithic pits when they are well preserved. This stability is reinforced by the wooded environment comprising diversified species (persistence of pine, birch, then mixed oak forest). The Bt horizon is also observed at the macro- and microscopic scale in a reworked form in the filling of the structures of the Early and Middle Neolithic.Finally, the second half of the Holocene, from the Bronze Age, is characterized by a semi-open environment, partly anthropized, where erosion tends to become progressively more present before a marked destabilization of the soils in the Subatlantic, thanks to a predominantly open and anthropized environment.This pedological transformation is corroborated by the calcimetric measurements. By quantifying in an absolute way these secondary carbonation processes within the structures and in the surrounding soil, we note a strong correlation between the degree of carbonation and the chronological period. This correlation thus underlines the impact of natural processes (climatic forcing and vegetation cover) in these secondary precipitations. The environment appears strongly decarbonated for the most recent periods of the Holocene, with the formation of the Bt horizon, which is also observed in the surrounding soil of anthropogenic structures after the Middle Mesolithic.These conclusions on the evolution of soils remain of course dependent on the particular lithostratigraphy of the site, corresponding to Pleistocene loess deposits, pedogenized in the Holocene. They are also limited, at this stage, to a particular topographical and climatic setting, on the higher slopes of the dry valleys just south of this part of the Seine valley. Such approaches have to be carried out in different geomorphological contexts (plateaus, foothills, valley bottoms) and in different sequences (alluvium, colluvium, chalk) in order to ensure the representativeness of this morpho- and pedosedimentary evolution pattern. In addition, this first approach should be supplemented by a precise determination of the type of secondary carbonates according to a well-defined typology. However, the regular implementation of this trans-disciplinary approach and the continuation of the study of ancient pits according to this prism could make it possible to build and feed a corpus of comparison on a regional or even extra-regional scale, based on quantified data, in order to better understand the process of pedogenesis at work in and outside archaeological structures.La mise au jour d’une série de fosses profondes datées du Mésolithique ancien et moyen, ainsi que du Néolithique et de l’âge du Bronze ancien à Nogent-sur-Seine (Aube, Grand Est) a permis d’appréhender ces structures comme des archives sédimentaires des sols anciens, aujourd’hui disparus. À travers une approche transdisciplinaire combinant les méthodes des géosciences et de l’archéologie environnementale, ces structures laissent entrevoir l’évolution des sols et de l’environnement intra-site, et permettent de replacer les différentes occupations dans leurs contextes paysagers. Cette approche a mis en évidence des traits pédologiques spécifiques pour les structures du Mésolithique, notamment des taux importants de carbonates secondaires mesurés par calcimétrie, associés à des comblements humifères issus d’un sol forestier particulièrement développé au Préboréal et au Boréal. La confrontation des mesures calcimétriques réalisées sur le comblement des fosses avec les âges mesurés par datation absolue révèle une bonne corrélation entre âge des structures et degré de carbonatation secondaire, et la décarbonatation progressive des sols. L’évolution pédologique transforme les dépôts lœssiques du terrain naturel encaissant à partir du Mésolithique moyen avec la mise en place d’un luvisol et d’un horizon argilique (horizon Bt). Cette évolution pédologique, à corréler avec l’optimum climatique de l’Holocène, affecte la partie supérieure des comblements des fosses mésolithiques les mieux conservées. Cette stabilité est renforcée par un milieu boisé où plusieurs essences se mêlent (perduration du pin, bouleau, puis chênaie mixte) comme l’illustrent les écofacts et les indicateurs malacologiques. Cet horizon Bt est également observé à l’échelle macro- et microscopique sous une forme remaniée dans le remplissage des structures du Néolithique ancien et moyen. Enfin, la seconde moitié de l’Holocène, à partir de l’âge du Bronze, est caractérisée par un milieu semi-ouvert, en partie anthropisé, où les premières phases d’érosion se mettent en place progressivement avant une déstabilisation généralisée des sols au Subatlantique, à la faveur d’un milieu majoritairement ouvert et anthropisé
Impressed ware traditions on the Adriatic coast: focus on the sickle blades from the Early Neolithic village site of Crno Vrilo (Dalmatia, Croatia).
No full textInternational audienceFrom the late 7th millennium onwards, the spread of Neolithic lifeways toward the central and western Mediterranean followed a non-linear trajectory, marked by pioneer incursions, pauses, and cultural reconfigurations. In this context, the Balkan Peninsula and the Adriatic - where technical systems transforme - represent a key region for understanding Neolithic trajectories.Crno Vrilo, a central-eastern Adriatic site in the Zadar hinterland, provides remarkable evidence of the first agro-pastoral communities of the Impressed Ware tradition. Excavated in the early 2000s by Brunislav Marijanović (University of Zadar), it revealed rectangular houses, pathways, and a rich material culture, attesting to a well-structured village (c. 5800–5600 cal BC).Among its finds, the lithic assemblage—over 4000 well-preserved artefacts—constitutes the largest Early Neolithic collection from littoral Croatia, offering unique insights into domestic lithic production and use. Technological and functional analyses highlight tool maintenance strategies, subsistence activities, and blank selection. Lithic production at Crno Vrilo is characterized by pressure blade flaking on high-quality exogenous cherts (sourced from the Gargano Peninsula, Italy), reflecting significant socio-economic and technical investement. These blades were used both unretouched and modified into diverse tools, including sickle elements, indicating that cereal cultivation played a central role. Symmetrical trapezoidal armatures show projectile impact and evidence of recycling, while large blades, likely produced by lever pressure and imported as finished products, served various functions.Within this presentation, we aim to explore the Crno Vrilo technological system in its domestic context and position it within a broader perspective on Neolithisation processes in the central-western Mediterranean and the Balkans
Les impacts territoriaux de la diversité des roches sédimentaires régionales
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Héritages morphologiques de la Grande Guerre en Champagne (apport du LIDAR et de l’approche archéologique)
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Effect of Extrinsic Reward on Motor Plasticity during Skill Learning
No full textInternational audienceHuman motor skill acquisition is improved by performance feedback, and coupling such feedback with extrinsic reward (such as money) can enhance skill learning. However, the neurophysiology underlying such behavioral effect is unclear. To bridge this gap, we assessed the effects of reward on multiple forms of motor plasticity during skill learning. Sixty-five healthy participants divided into three groups performed a pinch-grip skill task with sensory feedback only, sensory and reinforcement feedback, or both feedback coupled with an extrinsic monetary reward during skill training. To probe motor plasticity, we applied transcranial magnetic stimulation at rest, on the left primary motor cortex before, at an early-training time point, and after training in the three groups and measured motor-evoked potentials from task-relevant muscle of the right arm. This allowed us to evaluate the amplitude and variability of corticospinal output, GABAergic short-intracortical inhibition, and use-dependent plasticity before training and at two additional time points (early and end training). At the behavioral level, monetary reward accelerated skill learning. In parallel, corticospinal output became less variable early on during training in the presence of extrinsic reward. Interestingly, this effect was particularly pronounced for participants who were more sensitive to reward, as evaluated in an independent questionnaire. Other measures of motor excitability remained comparable across groups. These findings highlight that a mechanism underlying the benefit of reward on motor skill learning is the fine-tuning of early-training resting-state corticospinal variability
A new methodology for incorporating weathering products into analyses of prehistoric pictorial matter: A case study at the Rocher Du Château schematic rock art site
No full textInternational audienceComparisons of prehistoric pictorial matter and colouring matter can provide information about the chronology of rock art and the provenience of the materials used. However, characterizing pictorial matter is difficult because samples generally contain fragments of substrate and overlying weathering products, as well as pictorial matter. Studies of pictorial matter have long taken account of the substrate, but attempts to isolate weathering products are much more recent. The current article describes a methodology for doing this and its application to the Rocher du Château schematic rock art site. This site in Savoie, France, is one of only a few such sites whose archaeological layers contain colouring matter (possibly dated to 4,600 – 4,000 BC) that is potentially the same as the rock art pictorial matter and close to a potential source of colouring matter. Our aim was to ascertain whether the archaeological colouring matter was related to the rock art pictorial matter and to identify its source. Results showed that the phosphorus in the Rocher du Château’s paintings came from runoff water and that the whewellite, weddellite and calcite in the surface crusts are linked to the presence of mosses/lichens. In addition, the pigment minerals in the pictorial matter samples were of hydrothermal origin, as were the minerals in the colouring matter from the archaeological layers. Although, we were unable to determine whether the colouring matter is identical to the pictorial matter used to make the paintings, our results highlight the need to consider weathering products when analyzing pictorial matter
Potential and limitations of adhesive identification on museum curated metal objects
No full textInternational audienceIn Europe, adhesives were produced and employed from the Middle Palaeolithic onwards. In the earlier periods, adhesives were used predominantly for hafting tools and weapons, but their functionality evolved with the advent of ceramic technologies, with use widening to pottery repair and ornamentation. Limited attention has been directed towards their application in metalwork. It is unclear whether the scarcity of adhesives described in association with metal is due to preservation factors, such as corrosion-related issues, or to a research emphasis on other materials associated with metalwork such as coral, amber, and glass. To address this issue, we conducted chemical analyses including gas chromatography -mass spectrometry on 18 adhesive residues present on 15 objects from France and England dated from the mid first millennium BCE to the first century CE. These artefacts include jewellery, vessels, harness fittings and weaponry components. Our findings suggest that a range of adhesives were employed in assembling and applying decoration to diverse types of metal objects. These include birch tar and conifer resins, also bitumen and possibly beeswax, which have not been reported before. However, the application of waxes in past conservation practices introduces challenges that can potentially constrain the interpretation of molecular analyses. Our results have implications for the understanding of the adhesive technologies, and illustrate the potential of identifying adhesives linked to metal ornamentation. They further demonstrate the widening application of long-established adhesive technologies within the framework of increasingly complex craft specialisms
Deep-learning based Detection and Segmentation in Archaeology
No full textInternational audience1 Introduction Modern archaeology benefits from a convergence between traditional excavation methods and technological advancements, particularly those stemming from computer vision. Among these technologies, image segmentation plays a central role. It involves dividing an image into multiple meaningful regions to isolate specific elements, such as artifacts, architectural structures, or traces of ancient carvings. This task is crucial for extracting, analyzing, and interpreting visual information from archaeological surveys. However, segmentation in the archaeological context poses specific challenges. Images often come from complex scenes where objects of interest may be partially buried, degraded, or blended into their surroundings. Varied textures, shadows, and overlapping elements make it difficult to accurately identify shapes and contours. Despite these challenges, modern approaches, particularly those based on deep learning, have significantly improved segmentation capabilities. In this work, we propose applying two state-of-the-art segmentation methods to two archaeological problems. We will focus, on the one hand, on the detection and segmentation of petroglyphs, and on the other hand, on the segmentation of mosaics into tesserae. 2 Methods and Materials Petroglyphs Detection with YOLOv9 Petroglyphs serve as immutable spatio-temporal markers that hold crucial information about the history of local settlements. The study of these archaeological sites (Danielyan 2020) often requires cataloging all the petroglyphs present. This process traditionally involves photographing the rocks of interest and subsequently analyzing the images, manually detecting and outlining each petroglyph — a labor-intensive task. Using YOLOv9, we propose automating this demanding step. YOLO (You Only Look Once) is a family of real-time object detection models renowned for their speed and efficiency. Designed to simultaneously localize and classify objects in an image in a single step, these networks have evolved over successive versions to deliver increasingly impressive performance. With YOLOv9 (Wang, Yeh, and Mark Liao 2025), the latest iteration in the series, significant improvements have been introduced. This version leverages advancements in network architecture, optimization, and data processing to enhance accuracy while maintaining exceptional speed. YOLOv9 incorporates optimized modules such as advanced attention mechanisms, adaptive anchoring strategies, and better balancing for detecting objects of various sizes. We trained YOLOv9 with annotated images provided by archaeologists. Due to the limited availability of data, data augmentation was essential. Additionally, the images originated from only a few sites, influencing various factors such as rock color. Training was automatically halted after 379 epochs, demonstrating YOLOv9’s capability to adapt to this specialized archaeological dataset. Segmenting Mosaics with Segment Anything Another aspect of our work focuses on the segmentation of tesserae that compose mosaics. These tesserae exhibit varying shapes and sizes, often irregular, and are separated by mortar 155 arranged in a non-uniform manner. Furthermore, the tesserae typically have muted colors and low contrast, making it difficult to distinguish them from the mortar. Automatic segmentation of tesserae thus represents a significant challenge. The goal of this study is to develop a segmentation method specifically tailored to mosaics, concentrating on extracting tesserae as distinct entities. Such an approach would allow archaeologists to analyze the tesserae directly, facilitating their digitization. The detected tesserae would form the basis for deeper analysis, aiding in the interpretation and utilization of the extracted information. While machine learning approaches like Segment Anything (Kirillov et al. 2023) outperform traditional methods, they are not without limitations. When applied to the full image of a mosaic, Segment Anything tends to detect broader shapes, such as characters or decorative elements on the mosaic, rather than focusing on individual tesserae. To counter this, we apply Segment Anything to smaller, localized sections of the image devoid of identifiable forms. This adjustment allows for the generation of more precise masks. This approach, however, requires post-processing. Issues such as duplicate masks and overlaps can arise. To address these, statistical analysis of tesserae sizes and a selection algorithm for the masks are employed to eliminate undesirable duplicates and guarantee segmentation accuracy. 3 Results and Discussion For petroglyphs, our algorithm delivers satisfactory results, particularly when petroglyphs from the same site are included in the training data. However, due to the vast variability in features (e.g., petroglyph shapes, rock types), some elements may go undetected. To address this, an executable application has been developed, allowing archaeologists to manually refine the results produced by the network. This tool will be released as open-source software. Figure 1 illustrates an example of petroglyph segmentation before and after archaeologist intervention. Similarly, the tesserae segmentation will also be integrated into an open-source application. This tool will support the use of various input image types, such as those enhanced through gradient emphasis or captured under different lighting conditions for the same scene. This application has already been employed to conduct a statistical study on the tesserae of Saint-Romain-en-Gal (France), analyzing their size, color, and roughness. This study enabled the tesserae to be grouped based on these characteristics, marking the beginning of an investigation into the materials used in their construction