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The defence will be in French.
Link visio: https://univ-grenoble-alpes-fr.zoom.us/j/91220469627?pwd=tehv6GicXUwb0vQcOwi1p1qXEpCKYm.1
Abstract: Datation and understanding of the techniques and social practices associated with the schematic corpus, particularly the paintings, which form the core of this doctoral research, remain very fragmentary. The associated archaeological material is generally absent or minimal, the material used is essentially decarbonated, and these paintings are mainly located in open environments, where damage (flaking, weathering, deposits, human actions) is widespread. Furthermore, the location and accessibility of the sites and walls are often difficult. All of these factors constitute major obstacles to scientific investigation.
This thesis examines the composition of the pictorial materials used to create these paintings. It highlights the need to examine all processes, whether natural or anthropogenic, and helps to justify the scientific scope of a transdisciplinary approach known as integrated. More specifically, through a detailed physico-chemical characterisation of the materials, and in particular the pictorial material, it aims to question: their nature, the existence of recipes, the choice of materials, their origin, and the distribution of pictorial materials according to the figures, their location on the painted panel, in the stratigraphy and in the site.
The Otello rock shelter (Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Bouches-du-Rhône) will be the focus of this study. This major site in the south of France features more than 300 painted figures and a few engraved figures.
The combination of non-invasive in situ techniques and analyses on micro-samples, using state-of-the-art techniques (synchrotron, SEM-FEG), allows the material to be investigated with precision, while ensuring the respect and integrity of the paintings. Elemental analyses by X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), carried out with the MobiFlu mobile instrument, complement the X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses performed on the ID22 and ID13 lines at the ESRF. XRF can be used, for example, to filter elements when identifying mineral phases by X-ray diffraction on micro-samples. Its mobility also makes it possible to increase the number of measurement points and ensure a certain degree of representativeness. XRD on micro-samples, meanwhile, allows stratigraphy to be studied with precision, which facilitates the interpretation of XRF results (multi-layer model).
This new approach not only makes it possible to determine the phases that make up the colouring material (kaolinite, iron and titanium oxides), but also to understand the stratigraphy (limestone substrate, sulphate and carbonate alterations). Finally, we will discuss the quantification and discrimination of materials with different colours but similar chemical and mineralogical compositions.
