Marie Yvane Daire: The tradition of island archaeology in Brittany - the unmissable role of Pierre-Roland Giot (1919- 2002)

Hello everybody.

First of all, I would like to thank the associates for the invitation, and I'm very proud to participate in this amazing event of the anniversary of the Soci. Uh, second, and we'd like my advance to apologize for my awful French accent and my English, which is not so, so good. I will try to do my best. OK, uh, my talk today will focus on island archaeology in Brittany, and I will successively give you first an overview of uh the research potential, uh, and the birth and tradition of research in Brittany.

Then I will develop the inmissible role of Pierreconio in the scientific development of regional archaeology, but also I will evoke his links with the Jersey Island. And I will quickly conclude with the state of the art today in the region. Well, Brittany offers perfect conditions for studying island and coastal occupations due to its geographic feature with a very long coastline, a great diversity of geographic facias with rocky cliffs, sandy beaches, estuaries, and more than 850 islands, islets and archipelago.

It means a huge potential. This means that researchers have a very high potential of study in different domains geography, geomorphology, but also in the history of present and past populations. In addition to this uh geographical context, uh, all along the coast and on the island, archaeologists can find remains documenting all the periods.

Uh, of human occupation from the earliest prehistoric times, uh, especially with paleolithic camps up to modern installation here on the photo, uh, you have a selection of diverse kind of archaeological sites and monuments. For example, standing stones and funeral monuments from Neolithic period, Iron Age shell mids, uh, in the center of the slide. Uh, medieval chapels and uh also uh fish traps and wires dating from various periods and illustrating the relationship uh between populations with, uh, marine resources. Since the end of the 19th century, some pioneers antiquarians turned their interest to the coastal and island heritage.

Most of them were at the origin of the creation of the Parma Museum of Prehistory, which is located in southern Finnister, and most of these men were officers in the national navy. Uh, this is the first point, and the second point is most of them were experimented in, uh, new technologies of these times, especially photography, and for us, you will see that it was of great importance. Then these pioneers left us an impressive quantity of documents, very precious, even for the researchers working nowadays on island heritage.

Here you can see several examples of their photos and drawing. You can notice the quality of the documentation. Um, some of them have an exceptional scientific value. And for example, the photo on the right bottom represents the monumental standing stone of the Melon Island which is located in northern Finni there. Uh, this standing stone was, uh, uh, more than 8 m high. And this standing stone, this man, as we call it in France, uh, has been destroyed during the Second World War, and that means that our archives are the only evidence of the existence of this monument. Let's move forward and uh during the middle of the 20th century, some famous archaeologists were also interested in coastal Brittany, and here I want to evoke the memory of Sir Mortimer Wheeler, who is co-author with Kate Richardson of the book Hillfort of Northern France.

Uh, Sir Mortimer Wheeler and Kate Richardson, uh, explored and surveyed various sites in Brittany and Normandy, and their book is still a reference for modern archaeologists.

On the photo on the left you can see Sir Mortimer Wheeler in company, uh, with the Glen Daniels while they were visiting the Coast Castle, uh, Cliff Cliff Castle, uh, in Western Brittany, which is an Iron Age, uh, site. We have also to remind the expeditions and papers of another British archaeologist who had worked in Brittany before the Second World War.

I mean Leslie Murray Tra plan who studied the Iron Age cliff castle in Bellylomere and Graa Island in southern Brittany. These sites still represent major Iron Age occupations in the region and have still um and have been a little uh excavated since that time. It means that Leslie Murray work still uh is considered still as a reference on the map you can uh have an idea of the complexity and the impressive uh importance of the defensive earthwork. Let's turn now to Pierre Lajou and his place in the tradition of island and coastal archaeology.

Since the middle of the 20th century, Pierre Lanjeu is considered as the founder of modern archaeology in Western France. He was initially a geologist, but also interested in biological anthropology. He could um manage several responsibilities in parallel.

He was a researcher in the Centro de la scientific. He was also the curator of the Parmar Museum, which I mentioned earlier, but also of the Karnak Museum during several years. And he was also the director of prehistoric service for the culture ministry. That means that he had all the powers in his hands during several decades.

Uh, he could teach and place his students in good position in order to ensure his uh future replacement. Personally, I have been his last PhD students before his retirement, and I'm quite proud to say that and to precide that I have been his only female PhD student. OK, in 1944 he created the research laboratory in the University of Rennes and um I'm very proud and happy now to manage this research team uh for seven years.

Uh this research team groups nowadays 175 researchers and teachers and students in western France. So, uh, Thierro Lore, in addition to his geological and anthropological approaches, promoted the laboratory to modern and interdisciplinary archaeology with, uh, for example, uh, chemistry, especially analysis of um metal objects. Uh, petrography and uh that means study, a geological study of stone objects and potteries, especially and ceramics and also biology and for example, with the pollen and charcoal analysis. Concerning uh Pier Vange links with Jersey.

Uh, he came several times in Jersey during his life and became a corresponding member of the Societe Jaz in 1976, but I could find in his private archives this lovely photo of baby Pierco Lonio. Uh, he was, uh, one year old on this photo, and he's in Jersey with his mother, uh, Anne Baxter, who was an English native and, uh, who married a Norman painter named Henry Jo. Looking at this photo, we can see that probably uh we understand the origin of the interest of geology in sciences, in geology, and also his interest and uh love for Jersey Island.

In order to illustrate Tro links with Jersey Island, we have the record kindly written by Margaret Finlason, past chairman of the archaeological section.

She met sorry, she met Pierre Rangio in 1975 and reminds their scientific discussions on prehistoric pottery or other topics such as the connection between Jersey and Brittany. Margaret also mentioned some personal details, for example, and his favorite place to stand on the island. We can read quickly, uh, Margaret's text. I first, she said, I first came to know Professor Zhou in about 1975 when I was just starting out. Archaeology and beginning a campaign of rescue work in our town of Saint Elier. Our correspondence developed through the many questions that I began to ask him on the cultural connections between Jersey and Brittany and for his help with the identification and dating of prehistoric pottery. Visiting the island became quite a regular event when his hotel of choice was the British chalet de lamai. Does it still exist? Uh, a traditional residence in a small, uh, bay east of Saint Helier. But I'm very proud also to mention the testimony of John Renouf with there, uh, past curator of the museum in Saint Eli, who also provided kindly provided me some memories of his contacts and exchanges wither.

Uh, I can't read his, uh, his text. I had always had a particular interest in him.io since like me, he was a geologist by training. His interest in this Celtic links came over to me as one of the intense personal pride and satisfaction, and this depth of feeling has remained at the most vivid memory of the talk, the talks we had together in 1997. Thank you. OK, let's turn now to Pierre interest and development of uh in island archaeology.

Calogio excavations underlined very early the advantage of the island heritage. And uh beyond these advantages there is especially the very good preservation of archaeological remains. Uh this is due to isolation or access difficulties that often acted as a protection against modern threats such as intensive agriculture, concentrated buildings, or tourism infrastructures. And in this context, small islands are especially profitable in this domain. They have scarcely been populated or exploited during modern time. It means that archaeological remains are still uh in the a very good uh state. The preservation of island archaeological heritage is often reinforced when island or archipelagos, um, acquired the nature reserve statues.

Here is the example of the Cairn Island site with, uh, with its very well preserved megalithic monuments studied and restored by Pierre Coloniou during the 1950s. Another site is the Gino Island, uh, excavated by Pierre, Pierroo in the 1960s during 10 years.

The Megalithic monument dating back from the Neolithic period has also been progressively restored, and uh the other ownscient occupation of the site date from the Iron Age period with the settlement during the 2nd and 1st century BC. And the medieval remains exist too. On the photo, you can verify the quality of the preservation of the monuments, the tombs, and also of the medieval enclosure. Third example of uh Perco works is um on the Brea archipelago.

Uh, during the 1980s, Piercoonio excavated the Latte Island site. He was not really interested by the Roman ruins, uh, that you can see on the right part of the slide. Um, in fact, his interest for this island was due to medieval occupation, and he could there study the Sambuok monastery, uh, and the monk symmetry coming back then to his interest for biological anthropology. As on the photo of the on the left you can see Pierre Colano excavating a medieval skeleton.

Uh, still, uh, thanks to Margaret Findlay's and contribution, uh, thanks to her, we know that, uh, in that period, Pierre Colonio had a great interest in the Ilagua, uh, site, and it's probably reused, um, from Iron Age site to an Aramatic settlement in the early medieval period. He was keen to discuss comparable sites in Brittany with Philip Aldworth, the co-director of the excavation with Margaret Finlao. Nowadays, uh, our laboratory federates, uh, several dozen of members around the coastal and maritime research, um.

Where islands have still still a central place not only along the European coast but also along the American Atlantic facade.

Our team developed now researches themes such as navigation, traffic, uh, port sites, uh, coastal system, and the exploitation of marine and coastal resources, and I invite you if you want to know more, I invite you to visit our website, uh, if you want to discover more activities. Some example of more recent, recent researches on island, uh, I will just quickly mention to, uh, because I excavated those sites, so it's easier for me.

uh, the, the Island, um, with a very important, uh, Iron Age settlement. And also a passage grave here again you can verify the quality of preservation of this site and another one I had the honor to present to you a few years ago from the Societ the example of the aging site of Polanc with this huge Iron Age occupation. OK.

Uh, so, uh, I would like uh to finish on this evocation, uh, by, um, a photo I could find in our archives. Uh, this is a historical photo. You have Piercou visiting the Karnak megaliths in company with your future king, uh, Charles, uh, during the year 1968. Thank you very much for your attention.