This program, which addresses questions of paleopathology and paleoepidemiology, deals with the health status of populations in the past and as such represents an important federating area for the team. In particular, it addresses the estimation of the impact of infections (visible or invisible on the bone) on the general health of immatures, in collaboration with colleagues of the GENGLOBE team (Hommes-Microbes project). This component on immatures, started in 2021, runs until 2025.
Projects
In close collaboration with colleagues from the GENGLOBE team (project "History of human-microbe interactions"), this project will focus on reconstructing and better understanding ancient epidemics. Both diachronic (from the metal ages to contemporary populations) and on a large geographical scale, this project will open to a strong international development.
The patrimonialization of the VAB, as approached by the SHS (archaeology, social anthropology and law), questions in particular the conflicts of use and appropriation of these remains. The BONES team is a forerunner in these issues and has been involved in the implementation and management of the PAOHCE Project (working group on the implementation of protocols for sampling and analysis of human bones and on the conservation of samples) since 2020 thanks to Y. Ardagna.
This project aims to study the evolution of practices and populations facing death in antiquity on an international scale (from the Metal Ages to the Greco-Roman contexts).
This multidisciplinary research program, directed by A. Schmitt (CNRS, UMR 5140 ASM), funded by the LabEx Archimede of the University of Montpellier, and with which E. Anstett, proposes to reference and order the practices that leave certain deceased persons without a funeral or burial (https://archeomort.hypotheses.org/). It is conceived as a prefigurative program for more extensive research, and will result in a collective publication to be published in 2023 by ArcheoPress and OpenAccess.
Funded by the AMU interdisciplinary mission, this program is co-piloted by the historian A. Carol (AMU, Telemme) and E. Anstett (CNRS, ADES). Backed by a research seminar organized around a series of thematic study days, this program proposes to engage in interdisciplinary reflection on the mortuary fact, by questioning more particularly its ordinary or extraordinary modalities, its most recent evolutions (notably in a context of crisis), and its various issues (https://necrolog.hypotheses.org/a-propos-du-seminaire-histoire-et-anthropologie-de-la-mort-amu).
Research on the estimation of the age of immature children is one of the strong identity markers of our team, and has given it international recognition for nearly 20 years. In a forensic context, the challenge is to make the decision of the Justice system more reliable in order to qualify a crime or a homicide (reaching the age of fetal viability, foeticide or neonaticide, justified choice of one method rather than another). In an archaeo-thanatological context, the challenge is to understand and interpret modes of burial or choices of burial sites according to age categories, and to be able to discuss the socio-cultural aspects of age-dependent funeral rites.
As a "forensic science", forensic anthropology must meet strict methodological constraints with regard to the stakes of the conclusions drawn. The reliability of the analytical processing chains of remains (skeletonized or not) which leads to the estimation of the biological profile presented in a court of law is part of it, and an interdisciplinary approach integrating the recent advances in the field of Artificial Intelligence and machine learning is able to bring significant progress.