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Hello Paul. You should do this as a book review for Historical Archaeology!
William
-------- Message d'origine--------
De: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY de la part de paul courtney
Date: sam. 2011-04-09 14:39
À: [log in to unmask]
Objet : Historical Archaeology in Francel
A few people have asked for my thoughts as to whether the new French
book _Archéologie de la France moderne et contemporaine _edited by
Gilles Bellan and Flourent Journot(_L_a Decouverte, Paris 2011) is worth
having. I have no intention of giving a long formal review but here are
a few thoughts. It is expensive (20.95 euros) for its size of 180
pages and 20.5 x 14.5 cms format but is printed on nice paper with good
colour photographs. It starts with a history of archaeology of the
historical /post-medieval period in France (Renaissance onwards in
French terms). It is basically a summary of recent excavations, survey
and research undertaken by INRAP, the state archaeology service- this is
statist France. It gives a good review of recent major projects some of
considerable size which have occurred related to infrastructure
developments from towns to the TGV rail. Some of the work such as the
massive Louvre excavations and the digging up of the Grimsby "Chums" on
the Somme (WWI members of the Lincolnshire regiment in which one of my
grandfather's served). Other projects were new to me despite my serious
attempts to keep up with French medieval and later archaeology. The book
gives a good coverage of what is actually going on in the field and lab
though outsiders might consider it uneven which reflects that this
period is still weakly represented within university departments.
However, the European problem is that landscape studies, for example, is
interdisciplinary to the extent the work of historians, geographers and
archaeologists is often difficult to distinguish. Strict heritage laws
especially in northern Europe also limit the degree to which one can
undertake research excavations. The main sections of the book cover
environment and landscape archaeology, urban and industrial archaeology.
More interpretative sections cover archaeology and anthropology (short),
ceramics, transport and death. A short section discusses archaeology and
anthropology but is really a short dialogue on the scope of 'modern'
archaeology seen as the "science of man" (colonialism, humanity versus
science, material culture). The books shows both the strengths and
weaknesses of French archaeology. One cannot be impressed by the grand
scale of many of the open area excavation projects some of which no
doubt produced hundreds of thousands of contexts. A great strength of
the French system is their support of specialists in ceramics, glass,
chemical and physical analysis, osteology etc which shows through in
their contributions to this volume. This volume is a popular
introduction so one would not expect it to delve too deeply into theory-
the 'new' archaeology is briefly mentioned. However, an underlying
weakness is the French inability to engage with theory and a deep
distrust of Anglo-American historical archaeology as practised in
anglophone countries (and a francophone Canadian friend committed on
this when I forwarded a recent French research agenda on ceramics to
them) - despite the remarkable influence of French philosophers and
social scientists in anglophone archaeology from Levi-Strauss to
Certeau. Overall I would recommend it to anyone who can read basic
French (and the pictures are good if you struggle) as a good guide (in
fact the only general guide in book form) to recent French work and
approaches and it has a useful bibliography. And in my role as co-editor
of Post-Medieval Archaeology we would love any overviews or discussion
papers on historical archaeology as practised in France.
paul courtney
Leicster
UK
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