Yes / Many hundreds of Bronze Age bronze artefacts are known from excavations in Switzerland, yet the interpretation of production networks from the object find locations remain problematic. It is proposed that the decorative elements used on items, such as ring-jewellery, can be used as elements to assist in the identification of artisanal traditions and ‘schools’, and also regional or community preference and selection of specific designs. Combining the analysis of over 1700 items of ring-jewellery from Switzerland with approaches from network science has facilitated the identification of regional clustering of design elements, comparable with cultural typologies in the area. It is also possible to identify potential instances of cultural differentiation through decoration within the broader regional cultural traditions. The study highlights important facets of bronzework production in the region of Switzerland, while also demonstrating future potential directions which could build upon the European wide dataset of prehistoric bronzework. / Primary research conducted under previous funding at University of Basel, Switzerland – SNF grant

No / This paper explores the interpretation of the deposition of artefacts in Ireland from c. 2500 to c. 800 bc, combining a contextual analysis with post-processual ideas about materiality, artefacts, and their biographies. Hoards, single and burial finds are shown to be complementary strands of the depositional record and the result of deliberate deposition. It is argued that both the symbolic value of these items as well as economic and practical rationales determine the depositional mode. The paper attempts to infer social practices and rules that determined the differential treatment of materials and object types. The main structuring factor in the depositional record is the type-specific meanings of individual artefacts, which embody social identities beyond the utilitarian function of the object. The act of deposition facilitates and legitimates the literal and symbolic transformation of artefacts and the concepts they embody. The need for a separation between ritual and profane interpretation is removed, as deposition is understood as the reflection of prehistoric concepts rather than labelled according to modern notions of functionality. It is also argued that both dry and wet places are meaningful contexts and that different forms of wet landscapes were conceptualised differently.

Yes / After more than 3500 years of occupation in the Neolithic and Bronze Age, the many lake-dwellings’ around the Circum-Alpine region ‘suddenly’ came to an end. Throughout that period alternating phases of occupation and abandonment illustrate how resilient lacustrine populations were against change: cultural/environmental factors might have forced them to relocate temporarily, but they always returned to the lakes. So why were the lake-dwellings finally abandoned and what exactly happened towards the end of the Late Bronze Age that made the lake-dwellers change their way of life so drastically? The new research presented here draws upon the results of a four-year-long project dedicated to shedding light on this intriguing conundrum. Placing a particular emphasis upon the Bronze Age, a multidisciplinary team of researchers has studied the lake-dwelling phenomenon inside out, leaving no stones unturned, enabling identification of all possible interactive socio-economic and environmental factors that can be subsequently tested against each other to prove (or disprove) their validity. By re-fitting the various pieces of the jigsaw a plausible, but also rather unexpected, picture emerges. / Swiss National Science Foundation

No / A shield of beaten bronze from South Cadbury, Somerset, England is the first shield to be discovered by excavation on an archaeological site. The shield lay in a silt-filled Bronze Age ditch on a spur of land below Cadbury Castle. A stake was thrust through the shield. The paper considers the recovery and conservation of the shield, the technology of metal shields and the evidence for the ritual deposition of shields in the Later Bronze Age of western Europe.

No / Studies of Late Bronze Age exchange and communication networks in the northern Circum-Alpine region, and central Europe as a whole, have typically focused on routes across the Alps and the circulation of high-value manufactured goods from the Italian peninsula to central Europe. Some artefacts certainly support such a movement from north to south, such as amber from the north or Pfahlbauperlen from the Po Plain. However, such objects are far outweighed by the evidence for regional exchange routes in central Europe north of the Alps. Some of these routes extended as far as northern Germany and southern Scandinavia. Whether such exchange routes were direct or down-the-line is open to debate, but it is possible that specific objects known from Switzerland represent the personal possessions of migrant individuals. Over all, it is evident that Late Bronze Age lake-dwelling communities in Switzerland were significant bronze work manufacturing centres, exporting goods to varied communities and regions across central Europe, but with potentially limited exchange, transfer, and cross fertilization of styles and equipment between eastern and western Switzerland.

Le site de Chagar Bazar situé dans la Jezireh syrienne est fouillé conjointement, depuis 1999, par la Direction Générale des Antiquités de Syrie et l'Université de Liège. 165 tombes ordinaires de l'âge du Bronze ancien et moyen ont été découvertes entre 1999 et 2010 et ce sont ces tombes qui sont étudiées dans ma thèse de doctorat. Le nombre relativement élevé de sépultures sur le site ainsi que le soin relatif apporté à leur examen permettent d'avoir à notre disposition un corpus important tant sur la quantité de données récoltées que sur leur qualité. En effet, si des tombes sont souvent mises au jour sur d'autres sites, elles ne font pas toujours l'objet d'une attention particulière de la part des archéologues. Les renseignements fournis par ces fouilles sont de plusieurs ordres : ils concernent principalement les aménagements funéraires, le mobilier déposé dans la sépulture et les ossements exhumés. Leurs analyses nous apporteront des informations, dont certaines inédites, notamment sur les offrandes animales. Une comparaison des tombes de Chagar Bazar (aménagement de la sépulture, matériel funéraire, restes osseux) avec celles de la Jezireh syrienne permet de montrer les convergences et divergences des tombes de Chagar Bazar avec l'ensemble des sépultures mises au jour dans la région L'étude présentée sera donc l'occasion de faire de Chagar Bazar un site de référence pour l'étude des tombes et pratiques funéraires dans la Jezireh au Bronze ancien et moyen. / A joint team of the General Direction of Antiquities of Syria and the University of Liege resumed since 1999 the excavations at Chagar Bazar located in the Syrian Jezireh. Between 1999 and 2010, 165 ordinary graves dating to the early and Middle Bronze Ages are excavated and they are studied in my PhD thesis. Thanks to the important number of excavated graves which were studied with relatively great care in the field, we have at our disposal an significant corpus of data which is relevant as far as the quantity and the quality of the informations are concerned. Indeed the graves are rarely excavated with comparable care and so richly documented in the other sites of the Syrian Jezireh. The excavations yielded many kind of informations, mainly on the funerary structures but also on the funerary deposits as well as on the human and animal bones ; some features are even original and not studied in detail until now elsewhere, as the animal offerings in the graves. The comparison, using all known details, between the rgaves excavated in Chagar Bazar and those discovered in the other sites of the Syrian Jezireh allows to highlight the points of convergence and divergence in the frame of funerary customs in the region. Thanks to the study of this new data, Chagar Bazar should be a reference site for a further investigation of graves and funerary customs in the Jezireh during the Early and Middle Bronze Ages.

Si, comme nous le suggérons, le mot « frontière » désigne un lieu de contact et d’échanges entre deux espaces plutôt qu’une ligne de séparation bien tracée, de nombreuses frontières existent, politiques, sociales, culturelles, linguistiques dans un Proche-Orient ancien qu’on qualifie souvent de « monde sans frontières » parce qu’il partage la même culture cunéiforme. Du XIVe siècle av. J.-C. au début du XIIe, les États syriens sont dans la mouvance successive d’empires puissants, Mitanni, Égypte, Hatti, qui se les disputent et fixent leurs frontières politiques, tandis que les frontières juridiques (de qui est-on justiciable ?) ou économiques (qui édicte les obligations fiscales ?) se superposent. Dans une Syrie où les langues parlées sont diverses, il existe, et même il se crée, des « entre-deux » linguistiques. Les zones frontières sont traversées sans cesse, volontairement (nomades, marchands) ou sous la contrainte (captifs). Dire qui est « un étranger » n’est possible en Syrie que de façon relative. Cependant, ni tout à fait étranger, ni membre de la communauté, un étranger résident peut, parce qu’il bénéficie d’une certaine protection et peut s’intégrer, devenir un de ceux par lesquels les cultures se transmettent. / If, as we would define it, the word “border” indicates a place of contact and exchanges between two spaces rather than a well-drawn line of separation, numerous borders exist: political, social, cultural, linguistic in an Ancient Near East often characterized as “a world without borders” since it shares the same cuneiform culture. From the fourteenth century BC to the beginning of the twelfth, the Syrian States have belonged to successive spheres of influence of powerful empires, Mitanni, Egypt, Hatti, which dispute them between themselves and fix their political borders, whereas the legal borders (to which jurisdiction you are under?) or economic ones (which authority imposes the tax obligations?) overlap. In Syria where the spoken languages are diverse, linguistic interspaces exist, are even created. Fringe areas are crossed ceaselessly, voluntarily (nomads, traders) or under duress (captives). To determine who is “a foreigner” is only possible in Syria in a relative manner. However, neither a true foreigner, nor a member of the community, a “resident foreigner” (since he is partly protected and may become integrated) can be one of these through whom the cultures are passed on.

À la suite d’une formation artistique à l’École des beaux-arts dans l’atelier de Bosio puis à l’Académie de France à Rome, le sculpteur Francisque Duret (1804-1865) se distingue particulièrement au Salon de 1833 avec un Jeune Pêcheur dansant la Tarentelle, fondu en bronze à la cire perdue par Honoré Gonon, prouesse technique pour l’époque. S’il exploite autant que possible cette veine pittoresque, notamment à travers la statuette d’édition, Duret, devenu membre de l’Institut en 1843 et professeur à l’École des beaux-arts en 1852, accumule les commandes officielles. La concrétisation de ce cursus honorum, qui fait de la carrière de Duret un archétype dans le monde de l’art officiel du XIXe siècle, repose sur une stratégie de carrière lisible notamment dans sa production de portraits, révélatrice de ses réseaux. Elle se décline également à travers des choix formels toujours marqués par l’antique qui lui permettent tant de rassurer ses commanditaires que de rentabiliser ses œuvres. En effet, ces dernières sont sujettes à de multiples variations, à toutes les échelles et dans des matériaux variés. Cette thèse a également pour ambition de mettre en lumière les ressorts intimes de la création de Duret en s’appuyant sur une correspondance très peu exploitée dans les précédentes études ainsi que sur des albums de dessins et des esquisses en terre cuite inédits. L’ensemble de ces sources révèle comment Duret, qui avait d’abord voulu être comédien, s’est constamment nourri des arts de la scène dans sa pratique de sculpteur. L’art du ballet mais aussi la tragédie et l’opéra lui ont permis d’approfondir son travail sur le drapé, le corps en mouvement et la composition du geste. / Following an artistic training at the School of Fine Arts in Bosio's workshop then at the Academy of France in Rome, the sculptor Francisque Duret (1804-1865) distinguishes itself particularly in the Show of 1833 with "Jeune Pêcheur dansant la Tarentelle" (Young fisherman dancing the Tarantella) a molten bronze made with lost wax method by Honoré Gonon, technical exploit for that period. If he exploits as far as possible this picturesque vein, in particular through the statuette of edition, Duret, who became in 1843 a member of the Institute and a professor of the School of Fine Arts in 1852, accumulates official orders. The realization of this Honorum Cursus which makes Duret's career an archetype in the world of the XIXth Century official Arts is based on a career strategy readable particularly in his production of portraits revealing his networks. His career also comes through formal choices always marked by the Classic Art (Antique) which gives him to reassure his sponsors and to make profitable works. Indeed the latter are subject to multiple variations at all level and in varied materials. This thesis has also for ambition to bring to light the intimate skills of Duret's creation by leaning on a correspondence little exploited in previous studies as well as on unpublished workbook of drawings and sketches in terracotta. All of these sources reveal how Duret, who wanted to be a stage actor, nourished constantly on performing arts for his sculptor's art. The Ballet, Tragedy and Opera arts allowed him to deepen his work on drape, body in movement and gesture composition.

Les questions qui entourent les relations homme-chien, sont nombreuses. Parmi elles, la variabilité morphologique des chiens (Canis lupus familiaris) est au centre des attentions. Trouvant son origine entre sélection humaine et contraintes environnementales, la variabilité des chiens est la source de multiples utilisations, bien plus diverses que pour tout autre animal domestique. Les premiers témoins d’une sélection humaine en tant qu’acte délibéré sont fournis au cours de l’âge du Bronze et ceux de la première explosion de la variabilité morphologique sous l’Antiquité romaine. L’étude réalisée au cours de ce Doctorat a donc ciblé cet intervalle chronologique, en ouvrant une fenêtre orientée sur la Méditerranée nord-occidentale, lieu d’échanges culturels et économiques. Un référentiel inédit a été constitué afin d’étudier la variabilité morphologique des chiens actuels. Les méthodes de morphométrie utilisées ont par la suite été transposées à des spécimens issus de quatre sites archéologiques de France et de Catalogne (Espagne). Des comparaisons ont été faites avec les deux seuls canidés sauvages présents dans la zone d’étude depuis le début de l’Holocène, le loup gris (Canis lupus) et le renard roux (Vulpes vulpes). L’analyse des données portant sur les spécimens actuels a montré de nombreux critères diagnostiques, d’ordre typologique et spécifique, transposables au matériel archéologique. Les résultats font état pour l’âge du Bronze de populations soustraites au contrôle des hommes, se déplaçant et s’alimentant sans doute librement. A l’Antiquité, des morphotypes canins variés sont déterminés, certains attestés pour la première fois dans leur région de découverte. Les différences importantes entre les périodes et les sites sont l’œuvre de sélections plus ou moins intenses de la part des populations humaines dont les besoins et modes de vie ont considérablement orienté la gestion des chiens. / Among the questions about human-dog relationships, the morphological variability of dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) is the center of attention. Originating between human selection and environmental constraints, the variability of dogs is the source of many uses, more than any other domestic animal. The first evidences of human selection are given during the Bronze Age and those of the first explosion of variability come from the Roman period. This study had thus focused this chronological timeline, looking towards north-western Mediterranean, crossroad for trade and cultural exchanges. A unique referential was built in order to study the morphological variability of modern dogs. Morphometric methods used on modern animals were thereafter transposed on archaeological specimens from France and Catalonia (Spain). Comparisons were made with the only two wild canids living in the studied area during the Holocene, the grey wolf (Canis lupus) and the red fox (Vulpes vulpes). The analysis relating to modern specimens showed several diagnostic criteria, related to typological or specific features, and transferable to archaeological remains. Results for Bronze Age dogs outline populations of free-ranging dogs, feeding and traveling probably beyond human control. Roman dogs consist of diverse and identified morphotypes, some of them recorded for the first time in the studied area. Substantial differences between periods and sites originate from variable anthropic pressures, depending on the needs and lifestyles, which have deeply shaped the dogs.

L’objet de cette étude est avant tout de dresser un bilan documentaire critique des données archéologiques concernant l’âge du Bronze et le début de l’âge du Fer (v. 2100-600 av. J.-C.) dans l’extrême Sud-Est de la France. À l’aune du renouvellement des recherches sur ces périodes en Provence, la révision du mobilier céramique et métallique permet de proposer des ébauches de typochronologies, lesquelles constituent, avec quelques mesures radiométriques, le socle à partir duquel peut être réalisé l'ordonnancement chronologique des 184 sites retenus. Les nombreuses incertitudes liées à la nature de la documentation, de même que la résolution chronologique encore faible pour la période et l'espace considérés, n’autorisent cependant qu’un traitement statistique limité des données.Les résultats obtenus offrent néanmoins la possibilité d’établir un cadre chronologique actualisé et d’aborder la question des dynamiques qui caractérisent la Protohistoire ancienne dans cet espace situé à la charnière des cultures italiques et provençales, qu’il s’agisse des questions de peuplement, de l’identification des voies de communication, des bases sur lesquelles reposait l’économie ou de la nature et de l’évolution des pratiques funéraires et des aspects symboliques. Les tendances dégagées combinées à la prise en compte des composantes culturelles des mobiliers permettent au total de proposer un scénario d’évolution chrono-culturelle et d’identifier une entité « liguro-provençale » relayant, à des degrés divers et selon des directions différentes en fonction des périodes, les influences provenant tout à la fois de France méditerranéenne, d’Italie et de l’aire nord-alpine occidentale. / The purpose of this study is first and foremost to draught a critical documentary record of the archaeological data relating to the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age (c. 2100-600 BC) in the extreme South-East of France. In the light of the recent renewal of research on the Bronze Age in Provence, the revision of ceramic and metal wares makes it possible to propose drafts of typochronologies which, with some radiometric measurements, form the base from which the chronology of the 184 sites selected can be realized. The numerous uncertainties related to the nature of the documentation, as well as the still low chronological resolution for the period and the space considered, permit only a limited statistical processing of the data.The results obtained nevertheless offer the possibility to establish an updated chronological framework and to address the question of the dynamics that characterize the ancient Protohistory in this space located at the hinge of the Italian and Provencal cultures, be it the organization and the evolution of settlement patterns, the identification of possible channels of communication, the bases on which the economy was founded, or the nature and evolution of funeral practices and symbolic aspects. Ultimately, the resulting trends combined with the cultural components of the ceramic and metal wares allow to propose a scenario of chrono-cultural evolution and to identify a "Liguro-Provençal" entity relaying, to different degrees and in different directions depending on the period, influences from both Mediterranean France, Italy and north-western Alpine area.