Typologie d'actualités : Publications

Revue | Thalassotopies. La mer vue de la terre, la terre vue de la mer dans l’Antiquité

Source : https://journals.openedition.org/mondesanciens/

La mer est un élément omniprésent dans le paysage méditerranéen, partagé entre des montagnes et des plaines, des côtes et des îles. La mer Égée constitue un cas caractéristique du monde méditerranéen : 72 % de la péninsule grecque et des îles égéennes se trouvent au voisinage direct de la mer ou à une distance inférieure à 25 km. Cette particularité géographique a souvent été mise en avant afin de prononcer le caractère maritime des  civilisations qui se sont développées dans le pourtour égéen. Or, si le paysage égéen est marqué par son aspect marin, il est aussi habituel de constater que le domaine des hommes reste la terre. Si la mer n’est jamais trop loin, elle reste un territoire non accessible aux humains, et qui nécessite des aptitudes cognitives pour le maîtriser. Diviniser la mer et tourner le dos à la mer coexistent depuis la préhistoire, et ces deux aspects contradictoires sont bien exprimés dans les registres archéologique, textuel ou ethnographique égéen.
Ce numéro des Cahiers « Mondes anciens » aspire à interroger les différentes perceptions – visuelles, cognitives ou imaginaires – du paysage marin par les civilisations protohistoriques et historiques, à décrypter le mode opératoire d’une vie maritime au-delà de la causalité géographique ou encore de la dichotomie mer/terre ou mer/homme. Les présentes contributions proposent une relecture intégrée des écosystèmes marins et des sociétés égéennes, un anthropo-écosystème dans lequel les deux constituants s’entremêlent et se fusionnent.
Les contributions issues de ce numéro ont été présentées lors de la journée d’études « Thalassotopies. La mer vue de la terre, la terre vue de la mer dans l’Antiquité » qui a eu lieu à Paris en avril 2017, avec le soutien de l’Institut d’études avancées de Paris et d’ArScAn (UMR 7041).

Ouvrage | Contacts between South Arabia and the Horn of Africa, from the Bronze Age to Islam. In Honor of Rémy Audouin

Source : http://pum.univ-tlse2.fr/~Contacts-between-South-Arabia-and~.html

N° ISBN : 978-2-8107-0726-3
PRIX : 30.00 €
Format et nombre de pages : 24 × 21 cm – 344 p.

Over the course of a millennium and a half, from the Bronze Age to the advent of Islam, the Red Sea was a threshold between the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa. From the Nile Valley to the Arabian Desert, influences, wealth, craftsmen, patterns and ideas circulated, accompanying caravans and travelers. Long-distance navigation was accompanied by cabotage from port to port demonstrating the extent to which seas are corridors rather than borders. Following the example of Abraha – a high-ranking military officer from the kingdom of Aksum on the African side of the Red Sea – who in the middle of the 6th century ruled over Yemen and extended his power over the entirety of the Arabian Peninsula, trade flowed in both directions.
The extravagant church that this Christian sovereign erected in his Yemeni capital Ṣanʿāʾ is still the subject of discussion among scholars. This book features the work of archaeologists, philologists and epigraphists, and is a rendition of the 21st Rencontres sabéennes which took place in Toulouse in 2017 and was devoted to the theme of “Relations between South Arabia and East Africa – from the Bronze Age to the advent of Islam”.
These contributions accompany a collection of moving tributes dedicated to the memory of Rémy Audouin (1935-2016) (Hommage à Rémy Audouin, Editions CEFAS 2020), who devoted his life to the archaeology of South Arabia and Ethiopia.

Ouvrage | SETTLING THE WORLD From Prehistory to the Metropolis Era

Auteurs : Arnaud Banos, Frédérique Bertoncello, Anne Bretagnolle, Christophe Coupé, Stefani A. Crabtree, Robin Cura, François Favory, Jean-Luc Fiches, Alain Franc, Pierre Garmy, Julie Gravier, Ryma Hachi, Jean-Marie Hombert, Lahouari Kaddouri, Timothy A. Kohler, Florent Le Néchet, Samuel Leturcq, Thérèse Libourel, Pierre Livet, Elisabeth Lorans, Hélène Mathian, Lucie Nahassia, Laure Nuninger, Marie-Jeanne Ouriachi, Denis Phan, Denise Pumain, Claude Raynaud, Sébastien Rey-Coyrehourcq, Xavier Rodier, Lena Sanders, Laurent Schneider, Clara Schmitt, Cécile Tannier, Sander van der Leeuw, Elisabeth Zadora-Rio
Abstract: 70 000 years ago, Homo sapiens left Africa to colonize the world. 6,000 years ago, he founded the first cities. Today, in the era of city networks, he is creating increasingly wide and complex metropolitan regions. From prehistory to the era of metropolises, man has occupied the earth’s space in an infinite variety of ways, under the influence of a multitude of factors. How did the Bantu populate a space already occupied by the Pygmies in equatorial Africa? How were cities born in the Bronze Age?
How did the pueblo society develop and then disappear in the United States? What were the effects of Romanization on the settlement of southern Gaul? How did the village system emerge around the year 1000 in Europe? This book addresses twelve major changes in global settlement
formalized as “transitions”.
What is a transition? How can it be identified in the empirical field? Archaeologists, historians, linguists, and geographers combine their efforts to construct, analyze, and compare models of settlement transition in world history. Observing the particular, they seek the universal. This book proposes a method for understanding the laws of human settlement in the very long term.

Article | Survival kit for the afterlife or instruction manual for prehistorians? Staging artefact production in Middle Neolithic cemetery Kadruka 23, Upper Nubia, Sudan

Source : https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2021.151 

The burials at the Neolithic cemetery Kadruka 23 in Sudan have yielded adornments and bone and lithic artefacts that occur as distinct stages of the chaîne opératoire. This article reports on a hitherto unrecognised funerary practice that highlights the importance of craftsmanship for Neolithic communities in life and beyond.

Chapitre | Tracing prehistory in highland Yemen: contributions of the Dhamar Survey Project in light of new discoveries in Arabia

Source : https://oi.uchicago.edu/article/sherds-landscapes-studies-ancient-near-east-honor-mcguire-gibson-now-available

Since at least the 1970s, McGuire Gibson recognized the unique potential for archaeological research in highland Yemen to reveal key insights into Arabian prehistory. At that time, southwest Arabia was considered by most to be peripheral to cultural developments in better-known parts of the early ancient Near East. A series of research projects in the region have since shown that Gibson’s early assessment was astute. This chapter briefly reviews the current state of research on the prehistory and paleoecology of highland Yemen, with special attention to the contributions of the Dhamar Survey Project, which was cofounded by McGuire Gibson and Tony Wilkinson. We then situate the evidence for prehistoric highland Yemen in the context of contemporary research questions across Arabia and the wider region.

Article | Holocene East African monsoonal variations recorded in wave-dominated clastic paleo-shorelines of Lake Abhe, Central Afar region (Ethiopia & Djibouti)

Source : https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2021.107896

Abstract

In tropical Africa, Late Pleistocene-Holocene climatic fluctuations heavily impacted the continental hydro-systems. The timing and magnitude of ‘African Humid Period’ hydrological dynamics (AHP; ~14.8 to ~5.5 ka BP) are not yet fully understood due to the extreme variability in African geomorphic patterns and the complex network of past air convergence boundary shifts. The investigation of the functioning of specific hydro-sedimentary basins is needed to improve our knowledge on the AHP spatial and chronological patterns over the continent. In this paper we present a revised Holocene lake level curve of Lake Abhe: an endorheic basin situated in the Afar Depression at the northern extremity of the East African Rift System (EARS). Located at the boundary of the Red Sea and the Indian and Atlantic Oceans’ air moisture mass fluxes, the Lake Abhe watershed represents a system sensitive to changes in Northeast African hydro-climate. Based on numerous littoral lacustrine geomorphic features and 53 related radiocarbon ages on stromatolites and nearshore deposits, we have defined the main Holocene lake highstands proposing a detailed paleo-shoreline record. The first rise in water level is dated to ~11.1 ka cal. BP, while the Maximal Holocene Highstand Shoreline (~420 m a.s.l.) was rapidly reached around ~10 ka cal. BP. Evidence of the impact of the 8.2 ka North Atlantic cooling event is recognized with slow lake level regression until ~8.3 ka cal. BP and with an abrupt drop at ~8 ka cal. BP. The resurgence of humid conditions was recorded from ~7.7 ka cal. BP to ~4.6 ka cal. BP. Radiocarbon ages on littoral materials allow us to propose a Holocene subsidence rate of the Abhe basin axial valley. Furthermore, multiphase sill overflow incisions towards the downstream Hanle basin and transient fluvial connectivity with the upstream Ziway-Shala basin, indicate strong geomorphic controls on lake highstand elevations. In summary, Lake Abhe Holocene fluctuations are the result of combined hydro-climatic, tectonic and local geomorphic controls. However, the confrontation with others East African basins allows us to discuss the transport of moisture masses dynamics into the northern EARS during the Holocene.

Article | Sedimentary processes and palaeoenvironments from La Combette sequence (southeastern France): climatic insights on the Last Interglacial/Glacial transition

Source : https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2021.110503

Abstract

During the Last Interglacial-Early Glacial transition (MIS5-MIS4; ~73 ka), substantial hydroclimatic changes affected morphogenetic processes, landformdynamics, and ecosystem variability over the Mediterranean sub-alpine valleys. This transition is mainly preserved in the northern Mediterranean region in continuous marine, lacustrine, and peat bog archives. To understand better local-to-regional hydro-sedimentary processes, their climatic significance, and their direct impact on prehistoric settlements, this manuscript reinvestigates a known continental sedimentary record with revised methods. The Middle Palaeolithic site of La Combette in the western Provence region (southeastern France) presents a thick sedimentary key sequence for studying environmental changes from the MIS5 to the MIS3. A review of previous studies with the integration of new micromorphological, sedimentological, physicochemical, malacological, and luminescence ages allows us to characterize the sedimentary processes and environmental patterns during this major climatic transition. Alternating warm and cold conditions and shifting vegetation patterns reflect the strong environmental instability of the end of the Last Interglacial Period. The emergence of a steppe-like ecology dominated by cryo-turbated loess deposition marks the beginning of the Early Würmian Glacial period (MIS4-MIS3; ~73 ka to ~50 ka), contemporaneous with the last Neanderthal occupation at La Combette rock shelter. Comparisons with regional palaeoclimatic data allow us to detail local climatic settings and provide evidence of divergences with larger-scale quantitative reconstructions during a period of significant environmental and socio-cultural shifts.

Article | Co-variations of climate and silicate weathering in the Nile Basin during the Late Pleistocene

Source : https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.107012

We have investigated provenance and weathering proxies of the clay-size sediment exported from the Nile River basin over the last 110,000 years. Using neodymium isotope composition of sediments from both the Nile Deep Sea-Fan and Lake Tana, we show that the Nile River branches draining the Ethiopian Highlands have remained the main contributors of clays to the Nile delta during the Late Quaternary. We demonstrate that fluctuations of clay-size particle contribution to the Nile Delta are mainly driven by orbital precession cycle, which controls summer insolation and consequently the African monsoon intensity changes. Our results indicate that – over the last 110,000 years – the proportion of clays coming from Ethiopian Traps fluctuates accordingly to the intensity of the last 5 precession cycles (MIS 5 to MIS 1). However, there is a threshold effect in the transport efficiency during the lowest insolation minima (arid periods), in particular during the MIS3. Several arid events corresponding to the Heinrich Stadial periods are associated with small or negligible clay source changes while chemical weathering proxies, such as δ7Li, Mg/Ti and K/Ti, vary significantly. This suggests a straightforward control of weathering by hydro-climate changes over centennial to millennial timescales. Our data also suggests a significant but more progressive influence of the temperature decrease between 110kyr and 20kyr. Taken altogether, the observed tight coupling between past climate variations and silicate weathering proxies leads us to conclude that precipitation changes in northeast Africa can impact soil development over a few hundred years only, while the influence of temperature appears more gradual.

Ouvrage | Les déserts de l’Occident. Genèse des lieux monastiques dans le sud-est de la Gaule (fin IVe – milieu VIe siècle)

Source : http://www.brepols.net/Pages/ShowProduct.aspx?prod_id=IS-9782503592725-1

Le monachisme rhodanien : une tradition majeure pour la formation des monastères occidentaux comme espaces sacrés.
Au cours du ve siècle, dans le sud-est de la Gaule, plusieurs ascètes entreprennent d’aménager des lieux monastiques sur des îles : à Lérins, Porquerolles, l’Ile-Barbe, la Cappe. Définissant ces établissements insulaires comme des déserts, ils entendent affirmer leur séparation avec le monde profane, consacrant par une rupture spatiale la rupture sociale inhérente au monachisme.
Relisant les données transmises par les documents écrits et exploitant les ressources de fouilles archéologiques parfois très récentes, ce livre étudie la genèse de ces lieux monastiques séparés, en y voyant la caractéristique majeure des expériences monastiques mises en oeuvre dans le sud- est de la Gaule aux ve et vie siècles. Il s’interroge tout d’abord sur le modèle de l’île-monastère, en reconnaissant l’influence de Jérôme de Stridon et de pratiques développées vers 400 dans l’archipel toscan. Il décrypte ensuite la formation des monastères dans les îles provençales et rhodaniennes, puis dans les villes où furent institués des établissements de vierges cloîtrées. Il présente enfin les grands textes monastiques rédigés dans l’espace rhodano- provençal dans la première moitié du vie siècle, en montrant qu’ils firent des traditions nées dans le sud-est de la Gaule une source majeure de la culture monastique occidentale.

Ouvrage | Labeur, production et économie monastique dans l’Occident médiéval. De la Règle de saint Benoît aux Cisterciens

Une enquête sur le “travail” dans l’Occident médiéval, à travers le cas des monastères

Tous les groupes humains produisent afin d’assurer leur subsistance, mais il n’y a pas de « travail » ni a fortiori de « travailleurs » dans nombre de sociétés, au sens du moins que ces notions ont pris en Europe à l’époque de l’industrie et de l’économie politique. Reste que beaucoup d’historiens considèrent le monachisme du Moyen Âge comme une sorte de laboratoire des formes du « travail » en Occident, du reste à l’origine du processus de « croissance » qui caractérisa cette partie du monde.
Les quatorze auteurs de ce volume ont entrepris de reprendre sur nouveaux frais la question des représentations et des pratiques du labeur, en examinant tout à la fois les modèles, les règlements et les rapports sociaux à l’œuvre au sein des monastères occidentaux, depuis les premiers écrits latins et les premières traces archéologiques jusqu’au développement des établissements cisterciens aux XIIe-XIIIe siècles. Plusieurs contributions s’efforcent de reconstituer les catégories médiévales de l’activité humaine tout en interrogeant les modalités concrètes d’exploitation des ressources. L’ouvrage accorde une large place aux débats historiographiques en s’attachant notamment à saisir la genèse, entre xixe et xxe siècle, de la figure du « moine civilisateur » et de l’idéal du « travail monastique », souvent bien éloignés des réalités du Moyen Âge.