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IUPPS “History of Archaeology” commission’s seminar series

The commission runs a seminar series where researchers present their ongoing research or general research perspectives.

Calendar

Cataldi, Building Humanity’s Heritage. Science, Politics and Religion (1860-1970)

My research program focuses on the social and political history of the construction of humanity’s heritage between the mid-19th century and the 1970s. Indeed, long before World Heritage was defined as “the common heritage of mankind”, to be protected by UNESCO, a group of actors shaped the intellectual space and scientific imaginary that have formed our conceptions of the unity of the human family. From the mid-19th century onward, men and women, clerics and laymen alike, have been building up collections of objects such as fossil bone fragments, lithic tools, skeletons representative of the world’s populations and rock art records. This cultural and scientific heritage includes objects that prove both the biological unity and cultural diversity of humankind. It proves our own evolutionary trajectory, that of Homo sapiens. The aim is to grasp the establishment of the paradigm of human evolution with which we are familiar today, that of Homo sapiens, which, from the 1950s onward, includes all the current populations of the globe, their cultures and the objects associated with them in a single origin.

Delphine Delamare @ IUPPS History of archaeology

Research interests

I am a PhD candidate in Contemporary History at the Institut national d’Histoire de l’art in Paris and at Nantes Université (CRHIA) under the supervision of Clémentine Gutron (CNRS-EHESS) and Alain Messaoudi (Nantes Université). My dissertation is entitled: “Objects, materiality and circulations: practicing prehistoric archaeology in Morocco (1906-2017)”.
From my Master’s Dissertation I have adopted a social and transnational perspective on the History of archaeology through a case study of Deir el-Medineh excavation site in Egypt between 1922 and 1952. This shaped my PhD project. My doctoral research examines the practices of prehistoric archaeology in Morocco between 1906 and 2017. My timeline begins in 1906 with the first prehistoric archaeological excavation in Tangier, at the Achakar caves, carried out by a French scientific mission, before the colonial period, and ends in 2017 marking a renewed general interest in Moroccan prehistoric archaeology following the 2017 redating of the oldest Homo sapiens of the Jebel Ighoud. This research aims at highlighting the political, scientific, social and economic practices of prehistoric archaeology in Morocco within colonial and post-colonial contexts.
My research focuses on objects, materiality and circulations in the practice of prehistoric archaeology. To this end, I am investigating the circulation of artifacts and materials produced by archaeological activities, including objects unearthed, restored or produced, ruins, and archives produced by the scientific community, from excavation journals to photographs and maps. Focusing on materiality allows questioning archaeological practices, including digging techniques, cataloging and restoring. My main objective is to track down the journey of these objects, by examining their presence in inventories, collections and archives to understand the political, scientific, artistic and heritage factors linked to them.
I am also affiliated with the ‘Art Markets and Provenance’ program, led by Yaëlle Biro at the Institut National d’Histoire de l’art, which focuses on African collections during the Second World War.

Publications

  • Delamare. forthcoming. “Collecter les artefacts préhistoriques dans la zone internationale de Tanger : une pratique amateure (1936-1952)”. Revue d’Histoire contemporaine de l’Afrique.
  • Delamare. 2024. « Une histoire locale et sociale de la pratique de l’archéologie à Louxor en Égypte : le cas du chantier archéologique français de Deir el-Medineh », Politiques et diplomaties culturelles dans le Nord de l’Afrique et au Moyen-Orient. Acteurs et sociétés (XIX-XXIe), Enquêtes et documents du CRHIA, Presses Universitaires de Rennes.