Miletus on the western coast of Turkey has been an important megapolis of the ancient Mediterranean. It is now a central place for research on ancient urbanisation, as it offers an ideal case for the study of the genesis of a big city perfectly integrated into Mediterranean networks. Field research however has until now concentrated on particular parts of the settlement from the Bronze age to Archaic times, and on the monumental centre of the post-classical city. The aim of the present project is, on the reverse, to provide a thorough study of the dynamics of settlement development beyond the central public places, in a long-term perspective, from the Late Bronze age to the end of the Roman Empire (from circa 1400 BC to circa 400 AD). In the framework of a cooperation between the ENS Paris and Hamburg University, the specific forms of life in a big city will be explored on three different scales : the houses and their immediate environment, the global structure of the settlement, and the relations between the megapolis and the neighbouring region. The absence of a modern occupation on the site enables us to plan a whole series of interdisciplinary archaeological investigations, which will converge into an appropriate study of each context according to its peculiarities. We notably plan, basing on the results of geophysical prospections which took place in the last years, precise soundings in different parts of the site to reconstruct the spatial and temporal dynamics of settlement history, as well as excavations providing case studies on spaces lying outside, or far from, the centre. Study of the material will shed light on domestic equipment but also on vegetal and animal remains. Precious information will be gained through the exploitation of data from contexts from earlier excavations. A GIS will integrate all existing data sets, which can be complemented by a reconstruction of the coastal line based on recent geomorphological investigation and by a Digital elevation model currently being build. All data will be placed on a GeoServer with differentiated access for participants to the project, for interested colleagues and for the wider audience. The results will be the subject of a vast monography. This project, generally, aims at a contribution to our knowledge oft he forms of life in a bug city in Ancient times through the example of Miletus..

Sharing and reuse of archaeological or historical data: a RDF-based description according to semantic web repositories and standards The HisArc-RDF project brings together a multidisciplinary consortium: archaeology, history, geography, terminology, bibliography and informatics. The pooling of experiences, based on the sharing and articulation of methods and software and semantic tools developed in each discipline, will make it possible to prototype (implementation and iterative tests) a "FAIR" operating chain on structurally and semantically heterogeneous archaeological and historical data sets: - to write a data management plan (DMP) for each dataset, based on the recommendations of the European Union and the french National Open Science Plan; - to develop two softwares : the first one operating a webservice between the OntoME tools (matching ontologies tool) designed by a community of historians and Opentheso (aligning thesauri tool) designed with a community of archaeologists; the second one creating a generic supervised automatic alignment interface between Opentheso and any semantic web repository; - to document each test set by a fine-grained processing chain, based on the use of microthesauri, descriptor concepts aligned with semantic web repositories, and then on the matching of the ontology expressed by the thesauri with the reference standards and ontologies of the documentary and scientific communities; thanks to the software developed, this phase will lead to a RDF-structured description of the test datasets; thus allowing, after online publication, the reporting and direct reuse ("calculability") of the datas; - to lead a wide network of historical and archaeological stakeholders (repository supports, multidisciplinary research groups, programmed and preventive archaeologies, European and non-European sites, academic and private stakeholders) through a training programme and experimental workshops, in order to disseminate the good practices supported and expressed by the operating chain and the tools developed during the project. The foundation of the HisArc-RDF project is threefold: a convergence of views born from the confrontation of multidisciplinary practices and experiences around the life cycle of data, from its acquisition to its publication, sharing and mediation; an acculturation of archaeological and historical communities to the practical and scientific challenge of aligning their vocabularies on semantic web core repositories; and finally the need for a processing chain capable of appropriation by these communities - i. e.i.e. as close as possible to business practices and work in the field and laboratories. The outcome of the project will be the realization and open publication of a methodology and associated tools in order to implement in our disciplines an ecosystem of "FAIR" data production, publication and sharing. It will be based on a proof of concept: the targeted user experience is the sharing and effective reuse of data extracted from recording systems (raw data), regardless of the structure specific to a particular database; it is the responsibility of each operating interface/visualization to pick them up and configure them to allow their reuse. The rapid implementation of these linked open data will be at the service of the widest possible academic audience: students, museums and research teams.

Knowledge of the seismic risk in Roman towns comes largely from historical sources, which report, more or less reliably, the damage and the rebuilding works. But the conditions and practices of the real works remain, in fact, poorly known. RECAP aims to explore these building processes from a multi-field interpretation of the archaeological data. In the history of Roman construction, this topic defines a little area of research, although it represents a challenge to understand how a high risk and emergency architecture could have evolved. The project aims to answer one key question: in one specific place, did the ancients come up with anti-seismic practices in order to limit the effects of frequent earthquakes? To develop this approach, it focuses on the unique laboratory of Pompeii. This small town in Campania was the victim of several earthquakes which followed one another at short intervals in the last 16 years of its existence, the first, in 62/63 AD, being particularly devastating. The site will be systematically studied at both the small- and large-scale so as to define the seismic impacts and the ensuing rebuilding work and technical innovations. Two different complexes have been selected as case studies in order to analyse both public and private building sites: the urban water towers, which were a vital element in the town’s functioning, and a large recreational villa, the Villa of Diomedes, that is entirely unpublished. On an urban scale, an overall study will be carried on a whole Regio of Pompeii, in order to characterize the rebuilding works which followed the earthquakes. Then we shall assemble a complete and dynamic overview of the reconstruction processes, involving the mobilisation of men, skills and materials. Beyond the case study of Pompeii, we shall consider the broader issue of the risk memory and awareness of vulnerability in Campania, including both the Vesuvian area and the Phlegrean Fields. These two territories present different geological features and seismic events and, for this reason, have been studied until now in a separate way. We will propose a combined approach of the effects of the earthquakes and bradyseism in both areas. The project is committed to fostering a multiple interdisciplinary approach drawing on the archaeology of construction, sociology, computer sciences, structural engineering and earth sciences It will provide excellent training for students in the joint disciplines of archaeological heritage and seismology, through doctoral internships carried out on the ground. It is planning an important dissemination of the results, which is intended for the scientific community and the general public: web site, with database / GIS and 3 D models on line, two monographs, one article, the proceedings of one international conference and one exhibition. Through the historical dimension, it will enhance public awareness of traditional anti-seismic techniques, in particular the local population in the Campania region which is at considerable risk.

The Phoceans and Etruscans made their cultural mark on the North-Mediterranean area. Finished products, raw materials, ideas, beliefs and ritual practices circulated widely and played their part in the rapid evolution of Mediterranean societies. 5 sites in the north-western Mediterranean (Tarquinia, Aléria, Marseille, Lattes / La Monédière, Ampurias), have been selected to develop an innovative transdisciplinary study combining (1) a technical approach to archaeological material, ( 2) chemical (GC-MS) and proteomics analyzes, (3) archaeobotanical study. The objective is to identify the plant and animal raw materials used in Etruscan, Phocean and Gallic rituals for the same period (6th-4rd century BC) and to help to shed light on the gestures and meaning of ritual (rite of commensality), by using data which complements the material/ physical evidence usually provided by archeology, and by a comparative approach.

How did exchange networks work during the Early Iron Age? Research on the interactions among Protohistoric societies is mostly focused on the elites and their ostentatious manifestations, exemplified by luxury imports and valued items. Indeed, during the first Iron Age – Hallstatt D –, exchanges substantially increased, thus promoting the rise of a dynamic system of long-distance network and enabling the dissemination of a wide range of raw materials and finished items across Europe. Partly linked with the growth of Mediterranean, Greek and Etruscan trade, these exchanges also favoured the dissemination of practices, symbols, as well as artistic manifestations across cultural boundaries. In this framework, because of the unusual nature of some of the imported artefacts, found away from their places of origin, studies on the subject have long been rooted to a “Mediterranean imports’ paradigm”, reducing the interactions to a mere prestige issue among Celtic, Italic and Mediterranean elites. However, this perception of the society hides a more complex reality, keeping ordinary people and their productions out of the picture. As illustrated by recent research in Northern Italy and France, the archaeology of interactions shall not be solely focused on a single class of objects, a single social class, or even a single cultural area, notwithstanding how rich may that be. To overcome these imbalances, the ITINERIS project focuses on daily objects (ornaments), their makers and dissemination patterns, adopting a strong continental and technological perspective. Thus, the characterization of Nord-italic bronze metalwork, a topic still poorly known, is the new paradigm structuring the investigation of cultural interactions and a multilevel model of the Protohistoric trade in the early Iron Age. The study of daily objects, features and technical traits, from both empirical and social perspectives, would lead to a contextualised understanding of artisanal, economic and cultural practices within a broader narrative about life-styles and (trans)-actions of European Iron age communities. Combining different methodological approaches used in Humanities, Physics, Chemistry and Computational Sciences, this project shifts the traditional paradigm pointing out the definition of metalwork traditions as a new key to a critical review of cultural interactions, emphasizing the role of artisans in Protohistoric transfers and their involvement in the process of cultural identity formation. Based on a wide dataset of bronze items from settlements belonging to three different cultural areas – Golasecca, Liguria and West Emilia – interacting with each other and involved in large-scale trade, this project will set out to rethink European interactions as a complex system of interconnected workshops operating at different social levels. It is a new reading of the social reality that is targeted by this global revision and socio-economic modelling of archaeological data; it is also the notion of import that is being tested here to deeply explore the social-cultural reasons that moved objects, practices, and fashion trends across Europe. Building on a technological approach and promoting an interdisciplinary analytic strategy, ITINERIS will be able to achieve a better cultural and anthropological understanding of Iron Age ancient societies, also taking part in the current debates on human mobility, and on dynamics of cultural integration and rejection.