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Archaeology of Violence
Colloquia
Published on
24 November 2016
Updated on
19 June 2017
Colloquia
The Archaeology of Violence
International colloquium organized by Inrap and the Museum of Louvre-Lens.
October 2, 3 and 4, 2104 at La Scène du Louvre-Lens
An international symposium organised by the National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research and the Louvre-Lens Museum.
2, 3 and 4 October 2014 at La Scène of the Louvre-Lens Museum
On the occasion of the "The Disasters of War 1800-2014” exhibition at the Louvre-Lens Museum from 28 May to 6 October 2014, the National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research (Inrap) and the Louvre-Lens Museum are organising a symposium entitled "Archaeology of Violence-War Violence, Mass Violence”, which aims to assess archaeology’s contribution to research on collective violence and war and to show how it can add to contemporary discussion.
The anthropological approach to research has freed it from the limitations of military and strategic history and offers fresh methodologies and theoretical approaches on the nature of the war experience as it is lived by combatants and civilians. The symposium will also provide an opportunity for dialogue between the social sciences and art history in an international perspective.
In France, the archaeology of the Great War led to reflection on research methods and techniques, although the new approach did raise questions. The 20th century was marred by extreme violence ¾ dramatic events that left mass graves and other traces. For international courts, they can determine the victims’ identity and help to determine everyone’s share of responsibility in the massacres. All these developments have led archaeology into new fields involving forensic expertise, the retrieval of historical memory and law.
Through the considerable information archaeology contributes to the knowledge of war and the reality of violence, it renews our understanding of war from prehistoric times to the contemporary era.
Free admission subject to the number of seats Booking advised at www.inrap.fr
The symposium will take place in English and French with simultaneous translation.
Jean Guilaine, member of the Institute, honorary professor at the Collège de France (1994-2007), and Jacques Sémelin, research director at the CNRS, CERI-Sciences Po, are the symposium’s scientific directors.
The anthropological approach to research has freed it from the limitations of military and strategic history and offers fresh methodologies and theoretical approaches on the nature of the war experience as it is lived by combatants and civilians. The symposium will also provide an opportunity for dialogue between the social sciences and art history in an international perspective.
In France, the archaeology of the Great War led to reflection on research methods and techniques, although the new approach did raise questions. The 20th century was marred by extreme violence ¾ dramatic events that left mass graves and other traces. For international courts, they can determine the victims’ identity and help to determine everyone’s share of responsibility in the massacres. All these developments have led archaeology into new fields involving forensic expertise, the retrieval of historical memory and law.
Through the considerable information archaeology contributes to the knowledge of war and the reality of violence, it renews our understanding of war from prehistoric times to the contemporary era.
Free admission subject to the number of seats Booking advised at www.inrap.fr
The symposium will take place in English and French with simultaneous translation.
Jean Guilaine, member of the Institute, honorary professor at the Collège de France (1994-2007), and Jacques Sémelin, research director at the CNRS, CERI-Sciences Po, are the symposium’s scientific directors.
Introduction
How do individuals no different from anybody else in the general population turn into mass murderers? How do "ordinary men” become killers and commit atrocities in a context of armed conflict? In which disciplines has the archaeology of conflict been used?
11h30
I - The roots of war
What are the origins of war? Is violence inherent to human societies? Is it inseparable from war or did violence exist before war? What can the traces we find tell us? When did war begin? We are seeking the clues of war in prehistoric times.
Chair : Jean Guilaine, member of Institute
Chair : Jean Guilaine, member of Institute
II - Wartime violence, mass violence: questions of method
History is based on archives or testimonials, but what does archaeology reveal about violence? What traces of violence are used by archaeology? What do they say and what can be concluded from them? What are the methods? What are their limits? What are the issues for archaeology?
Chair : Anne Lehoërff, university of Lille
Chair : Anne Lehoërff, university of Lille
Wartime violence, mass violence: questions of method (continuation)
III - The advent of total war
The 19th century paved the way for what would later be called "total war”, a cauldron in which people became accustomed to a high level of violence. The precursors appeared in the late 18th-early 19th century, especially the Vendée War (1793-1796), French Revolution and Napoleonic campaigns (the 1808-1814 Spanish War of Independence) and colonial violence (as the 1899-1902 Boer War). Were some conflicts, such as the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), the forerunners? Did total war lead to the "century of genocides”?
Chair : David El Kenz, university of Bourgogne
Chair : David El Kenz, university of Bourgogne
IV - The Age of Extremes
At a time when the historiography of contemporary conflicts has reached a turning point, the focus is shifting from the political causes and consequences of wars and dictatorships to the very nature of mass violence, its players and its internal economy. That is how forensic archaeology has been used. It applies the principles, techniques and methods of archaeology in a legal context that may or may not involve judicial procedures under way or the retrieval of memory. What issues are archaeologists working on in the highly diversified framework of contemporary conflict? What new things do they have to contribute?
16h30 / 17h30
Conclusion
What is the archaeology of violence? What dialogue can there be between the social sciences and art history? What joint research projects are possible? In multidisciplinary panel discussions, this part of the symposium aims to put the ways in which archaeology can be used in these areas of research into perspective.