CALL FOR ABSTRACTS > THEMES SYNTHESIS

Since 1977, the GMPCA (Groupe des Méthodes Pluridisciplinaires Contribuant à l'Archéologie) symposium has brought together French and European researchers from various disciplines who contribute to archaeology through multidisciplinarity. This 25th edition will take place in Rouen from April 14 to 20, 2025. It comprises15 sessions organized into4 themes: Water landscapes and socio-environmental dynamics (theme 1); Gestures of human-resource-object interactions (theme 2); Innovative tools for characterizing, imaging and dating (theme 3); The contribution of digital technology to reconstructing remains and landscapes (theme 4). The various sessions grouped under these 4 themes are designed to welcome research carried out within the framework of both preventive and programmed archaeology. This symposium aims to take stock of advances in techniques applied to archaeology, to exchange views on current archaeometric research and to enable young researchers to present their work.

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Theme 1. Water landscapes: from human-environment interactions to socio-environmental dynamics

Coordination : Cécile ALLINNE ; Stoil CHAPKANSKI ; Léa MAIRAVILLE ; Dominique TODISCO

Continental and coastal hydrosystems have been attractive environments for human societies for thousand of years and all over the world. Those "water landscapes" were occupied and modified very early by societies, and played a crucial part in the processes of cultural and material diffusion. Because of their active hydro-geomorphological dynamics, theose environments allow for very responsive answers facing climate forcings. Exposed to this dynamism, waterside societies needed to invent and develop specific solutions to reduce risks and vulnerability to flooding or erosion hazard. Therefore, in this theme, we will be attentive to consider and study the vulnerability of archaeological sites facing coastline retreat, thawing permafrost, riverbank degradation or fluvial erosion, as also documented by archaeology. All of those items are important challenges for societies in France, but also worldwide.

Session 1.1. Crises and resilience of societies in alluvial and lake contexts

Keywords : fluvio-lacustrine environments, river dynamics, crises, risks, adaptation, geoarchaeology.

Session 1.2. The trajectory of environmental socio-systems at the land-sea interface

Keywords : coastal environments, transition areas, port interfaces, economic resources

Session 1.3. Archaeological sites in the Anthropocene: vulnerability, management and societal challenges

Keywords : site preservation, vulnerability, heritage, conservation, climate change, coastal retreat, erosion, permafrost melting.

Theme 2. Identify, analyse and reproduce the gestures of human - resources - objects interactions

Coordination : Guillaume BLANCHET ; Valentin MICLON ; Anne BOCQUET-LIÉNARD ; Damase MOURALIS ; Dominique TODISCO

The interactions between humans, resources and objects involve a multitude of tangible and intangible gestures and operations, of which archaeological remains are privileged witnesses. Recent methodological developments and the integration of these archives into multiscalar studies are considerably increasing our knowledge of past societies. They enable us to understand socio-economic organisations, their links to ecosystems and their implications (social, economic, ecological and healthcare). Documenting and reproducing some of these interactions, and recognising their repercussions, are major objectives of current archaeological research. This theme offers an opportunity to combine work in this dynamic from all chronological periods and in particular works aiming at describing and reconstructing the gestures used in the operational chain from the resources acquisition, their processing, transformation to use, to their dumping or recycling.

Keywords : Experimental archaeology; energy; resources; manufacturing/transformation; circulation/mobility; different levels of investigation/different scales of observation; differentiated socio-cultural spheres; health repercussions; cross-referencing with written sources.

Session 2.1. Acquiring and managing resources

Keywords : forests ; quarries, fishing areas ; mines ; farming ; deposit ; raw material ; mining ; management

Session 2.2. Transforming resources

Keywords : working ; shaping ; manufacture ; human and material resources ; workshops

Session 2.3. Use, consomption, exchange and circulation

Keywords : know-how and object; supply; mobility; eating; socio-economic organisations; transmission of gesture/technical transfers (heritage/cultural heritage)

Session 2.4. Reproducing to understand the gestures of the chaîne opératoire

Keywords : Experimental archaeology; chaîne opératoire; ethnoarchaeology; referentials; energy; alteration; actualism; tracerology, neotaphonomy.

Theme 3. Objects, material, outer and underground environments: innovative tools for characterizing, imaging and dating

Coordination: Anne BOCQUET-LIÉNARD, Carole NEHMÉ, Stoil CHAPKANSKI, Guillaume BLANCHET

Archaeometry studies are constantly evolving, particularly due to the technological and analytical advances they benefit from. New methods, techniques and improved protocols contribute to increasing scientific knowledge about our tangible and intangible heritage. This theme focuses on methodological developments and innovative instruments implemented for the study of archaeological contexts and artifacts, on site or in the laboratory. It will bring together contributions on: (3.1) geophysical and remote sensing methods, (3.2.) photo- and lasergrammetry methods applied in archaeology, (3.3.) new instrumentation and non-invasive analytical techniques to analyse archaeological matter and objects, (3.4.) dating and processing of chronological data in outer environment and (3.5.) geochronological approaches and anthropogenic markers in underground environment.

Session 3.1. Geophysical and remote sensing techniques applied to geoarchaeology

Keywords : Geophysics, Remote sensing techniques, Non-invasive approach, Geoarchaeology

Session 3.2. 3D acquisition and multi-dimensional analysis

Keywords : photogrammetry, lasergrammetry, 3D scanner, LIDAR, Terrestrial Laser Scanner, Multibeam, 3d restitution, HBIM

Session 3.3. New approaches to study archaeological material and objects

Keywords : portable analytical methods, instrumentation, sampling, protocols

Session 3.4. Dating and processing of chronological data in outer environment

Keywords : absolute and relative dating, chronostratigraphy, methodological developments, chrono-statistical model

Session 3.5. Geochronological approaches and anthropogenic markers in underground environments

Keywords : geochronology, anthropic markers, sedimentary archives, underground environment

Theme 4. From vestige to digital landscape : Bringing together modelling, computational analysis, simulation and (geo)visualization within an interdisciplinary and reproducible scientific framework

Theme 4 is organized in collaboration with CAA-FR, the French chapter of the international organization Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology (CAA).

Coordination : Nicolas BERNIGAUD, Frédérique BERTONCELLO, Maria-Elena CASTIELLO, Bertrand DAVID, Nicolas FREREBEAU, Anaïs GUILLEM, Thomas HUET, Julie GRAVIER, Raphaëlle KRUMMEICH, Gwénaëlle MOREAU, Marie-Jeanne OURIACHI, Sébastien PLUTNIAK, Sébastien REY-COYREHOURCQ, Muriel VAN RUYMBEKE

We face a reality on our field where all might come together : the risk of losing information or the destruction of artifacts, the impossibility to observe directly inferred phenomena and the challenges due to multiple ways to look at the research object that is intrinsic to interdisciplinary dialogue. Within the realm of a reproducible research, this theme examines arcaheology, through its digital practices in the construction and visualisation of the archaeological narrative in all its many forms. Within these three sessions, we seek to make visible scientific issues at stake associated with archaeological data, software and statistical or generative modelling. We believe that it is important to understand why and how these practices are adopted and may become part of the multidisciplinary field of archaeology.  The first session focuses on  the multiple ways data harmonisation and interoperability are dealt with in archeology, but also adresses more basic scientific issues on data and archeological archives happening (4.1), the second seeks issues at stake in computational archeology, questionning the role of these new practices and methodologies within a critical perspective (4.2), and the last session offers a critical point of view of archaeological facts providing a reflexive framework to better manage the simulated mechanisms at stake in complex systems (4.3).  At last, the theme will enable dialogues between and gathering of different communities (CAA, NASSA, CIDOC etc.).

Keywords : Spatial Archeology; Interdisciplinarity; Interoperability; Digital Humanities; Computational Reproductibility; Models and Simulations; Geovizualisations

Session 4.1. Interoperability and data life cycle & open science in an interdisciplinary context

Keywords : digital humanities; interoperability; harmonization; data sharing; ontology; knowledge graph; FAIR principles ; DMP; data/digital preservation; metadata; open science; open data; data archive

Session 4.2. Building and making: computational archaeology as a new paradigm ?

Keywords : data mining, processing and visualization, literate programming, software development, computational reproducibility

Session 4.3. Modeling and simulation of spatial phenomena

Keywords : generative simulation models; epistemology; networks and communities of practice; issues and perspectives; past societies; agent-based modelling