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Africa,
desertification and archaeology
October, the 8th at 18.30 pm. ARCHÉA
Museum in Louvres
From absolute desert to desert savanna, sahelo-saharian
regions held a great diversity of local ecosystems where
researchers and archaeologists may observe climatic and
environmental change from the end of Prehistory, and their
consequencies on human settlements, flora and fauna.
Between 9000 and 4000 BC, the phenomenon of desertification
in the Sahara conducted societies to invent original
mecanisms of adaptation. This old relationship between man
and his environment may shed light on contemporaries debates.
Emmanuelle Honoré, preparing a PhD in Université
Paris-I/Panthéon-Sorbonne, is working on rock art in the
shelters of the Gilf el-Kebir plateau in Egyptian Sahara,
near to Libyan and Sudanese borders.
Professor in the Department of African Art and
Archaeology of Université Paris-I/Panthéon-Sorbonne and
specialist of rock art, Manuel Gutierrez has studied the
tumuli of Kapanda necropolis in Angola. He is now working on
the history of settlements in La Réunion island.
Archaeology in Africa, an
endangered heritage
November, the 5th at 18.30 pm. ARCHÉA
Museum in Louvres
In 2007, alarmed by the exponential traffic of African
antiquities, archaeologists from Western Africa have issued
"L'Appel de Nouakchott". Protection laws for archaeological
heritage adopted by these countries are not applied, because
of the lack of competent agents, sufficient financial and
technical means and political will. Their archaeological
sites are the object of a massive plunder which feeds the
international traffic of antiquities. Their destruction
dispossesses concerned countries of their wealth and by
their memory. After a fast presentation of experiences on
the African grounds (excavation of sites revealing objects
desired by the Northern collectors) and Parisian (art market),
the discussion could focus on the self-justifications and
the respective responsibilities of every extremity of this
chain.
Dreaded by gallery owners and auctioneers, Jean Polet,
emeritus professor of African Archaeology at the University
of Paris-I / Panthéon-Sorbonne and specialist of the Nok
culture (Ivory Coast), is also an expert in the pursue of
stolen objects: on his advices, president Jacques Chirac
sent back to Mali the statuette of a ram provening from the
site of Thial (region of Tenenkou), discovered in 1991.
Chloé Capelle is preparing under his direction a PhD on
Saharan archaeology in Algeria and Morocco.
Archaeology in Dogon land
(Mali)
December, the 3rd
at 18.30 pm. ARCHÉA Museum in
Louvres
Compared with the " cradle of the humanity " supposed to be
in east Africa or of the South, western Africa has the
reputation to lack ancient prehistory remains.
Archaeological clues suggest nevertheless for a long time
that this part of the continent has been populated for 500
000 years. Registered on the list of the world heritage by
the UNESCO in 1989, the Dogon land is a rocky region of
difficult access. On the plateau of Bandiagara, along the
valley of Yamé, the deposit of Ounjougou is constituted of a
set of sites of diverse sizes and natures. The thickness of
its sedimentary archives allows to reconstitutes a series of
continuous settlements from Upper Palaeolithic to nowadays,
as well as an exceptional botanical documentation allowing
to study the history of the landscapes. The international
and interdisciplinary program of research « Peuplement
humain et évolution paléoclimatique en Afrique de l’Ouest »
began there in 1997.
Sylvain Soriano, researcher in CNRS (NATIONAL CENTER FOR
SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH) is working on the lithic industries of
the Middle Paleolithic, represented in Ounjougou by around
thirty archaeological levels dated between 80 000 and 20 000
years. He estimates that the variety and the frequency of
the changes in the size and cutting techniques are not
compatible with the hypothesis of a strictly local evolution,
and explains it by population movements .
Caroline Rubion, also researcher in CNRS has attempted to
redraw the history of smiths and steel industry in Dogon
land between the XIIth century and the early beginnings of
the colonization, by crossing several approaches: study of
the written
A
partnership between le Conseil général du Val-d’Oise,
Service départemental d’archéologie 01 34 64 21 20 /
www.valdoise.fr
Et
la Communauté de communes Roissy-Porte de France
01
34 31 30 31/ www.archea-roissyportedefrance.fr
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