Discover archaeology

The Franco-Egyptian team of the Centre d ' Études Alexandrines (CEAlex) under the leadership of Jean-Yves Empereur has, for more than ten years now, been involved in a series of salvage excavations on land and underwater. The mosaics unearthed during these digs are moved to the former armoury at Shallalat where they are restored before being exhibited to the public in one of Alexandria ' s museums. This film follows the delicate work done on the Mosaic Dog, from the restoration of the central…

Portrait de Mylène Pardoën, lauréate de la Médaille de Cristal 2020 du CNRS, Archéologue du paysage sonore à la Maison des sciences de l'Homme Lyon Saint-Étienne, créatrice et coordinatrice des projets Bretez et NOMADHISS, experte scientifique pour la restauration de Notre-Dame.

Sailing ships, fishing boats and lighters sailed along the banks of the Tiber between the 2nd and 5th centuries, when Rome had one of the largest harbours to help supply it. In the late 1950s the remains of these ships were discovered during excavations near Fiumicino International Airport. Giulia Boetto, a naval archaeologist, in collaboration with other researchers and engineers, was able to reconstruct them using 3D modelling.

À première vue, peu de choses affleurent à la surface de ce bloc de construction de deux mètres de long pesant une demie tonne. Le bloc de l'Alcazar, découvert à Marseille et conservé au Musée d'Histoire de la ville, est pourtant une curiosité sans équivalent. Eclairé sous une nouvelle lumière, c'est une partie de l'histoire de la Méditerranée d'il y a 2600 ans qu'il raconte alors… Il fait apparaitre des centaines de graffiti antiques superposés, de lettres, de silhouettes humaines et…

About 4 000 years ago, Assyrian merchants established a commercial settlement in the ancient city of Kaneš, within Central Anatolia. They came from Aššur, north of Mesopotamia. We have come to understand their history through their writings on clay tablets that have stood the test of time: more than 22 500 cuneiform tablets have been unearthed from the archaeological site of Kültepe. How did these Mesopotamian clay tablets arrived in Anatolia and what do they tell us? The voice of…

Discovered in the 1990s, Little Foot is the most complete skeleton of an Australopithecus ever unearthed. Research continues on this exceptional fossil as scientists reveal details about her cognitive abilities using a micro-tomographic scanner.

A Franco-Ethiopian research team is attempting to understand the complex past of Lalibela, located in Ethiopia, one of the most important Christian sites in Africa. The aim of this partnership is to identify the progressive stages of excavation of the eleven churches on the site in order to study the history of Lalibela throughout its existence. Alongside the archaeological excavations, a digitisation project is underway. Engineers are working on the internal and…

In southwestern Zimbabwe, the Matobo Hills are well-known for their thousands of rock art sites. Since 2017, a team of French and Zimbabwean archaeologists and rock art specialists have been studying these caves. Their goal is to date the paintings and identify the pictorial techniques used by Prehistorian artists. This includes analysing the many tools, ropes, and rocks found in the Pomongwe Cave, one of the richest of the area. New technologies are used to reveal paintings that…

In Oman, a team of French scientists is performing extensive excavations at the site of Salut at the gates of the Arabian Desert. They are studying a monumental structure, the latest evidence of an ancient civilization of which almost nothing is known. Excavations uncovered a tower of large proportions, 30 metres in diameter, and two defensive ditches surrounding the building on the outside. There are good grounds to believe that the tower which is more than 5000 years old was built to protect…

An international and multidisciplinary team of researchers sets out in search of the origins of man in southern Africa, in the Aha Hills (Namibia), a limestone massif whose geological evolution provides an ideal fossil record. Paleogeological exploration of this karst landscape makes it possible to refine the speleogenesis of the caves and to precisely locate the paleokarst, these cavities filled with sediments that could contain remains of ancient hominids.

This film takes a look back on the career of Muriel Labonnelie, a scholar specialised in Greco-Roman ophthalmology in her research at the LAMS laboratory (Laboratoire d'Archéologie Moléculaire et Structurale/laboratory of molecular and structural archaeology) into collyrium tablets. These tablets designate local action medications used on the conjunctiva to treat eye conditions. They provide valuable information on Roman medicine. They started to be listed as early as the eighteenth century…

In Atlit, northern Israel, a team of archaeologists went to explore a Christian cemetery dating from the 13th century. The first excavations carried out by the British in 1934 led to the discovery of more than 2,000 tombs, providing clues to the current layout of the skeletons. Today, archaeologists are trying to restore the original cemetery in its conditions before the English changed them. Based on the metal objects and ceramics found, archaeologists will be able to learn more about these…

Discovered in Pakistan in 1985, the Mehrgarh wheel amulet, 6000 years old, has long remained an enigma. Using new analytical techniques, a team of researchers has managed to unravel the secrets of the manufacturing process of this copper amulet, the first known object to have been made using lost-wax casting-a technique at the origin foundry arts.

The recent discovery of broken stalagmites arranged in circles in the Bruniquel Cave (southwestern France) indicate that humans started occupying caves much earlier (more than 100 millennia) than previously thought. These man-made structures also rank among the very first in human history and traces of fire show that Neanderthals knew how to use it to navigate dark and enclosed spaces, well before Homo sapiens

Man has always been intrigued by what he cannot see. This search for the invisible is also of interest to archaeologists. Photographs of objects, of tombs, of sarcophagi, of mummies all leave us imagining what visual elements have disappeared. Nowadays, certain photographic and image processing techniques can make visible that which had disappeared centuries ago. Using black light and then intricate exploitation of digital photography, the walls of the catacombs of Kom el-Shougafa in Alexandria…

Their brains may be tiny, but they manage to find their way, communicate and even develop complex strategies to feed their communities... Social insects therefore demonstrate remarkable intelligence, which allows them to create real societies despite their brains being infinitely smaller than ours. But how can we actually measure the intelligence of an insect with which we have (almost) nothing in common? Head to the Animal Cognition Research Centre in Toulouse, where scientists have developed…

Researchers are conducting a detailed investigation to analyse Coptic mummies from 1,500 years ago found at the Egyptian necropolis of Antinoe. Tribology, the science of friction and wear is their speciality. they are trying to better understand the embalming and gold leaf application techniques by analysing the skin and hair of these mummies along with the gilding and textile traces. Perhaps also finding some leads for possible reconstructions of clothing.