Rock-cut Tombs

Rock-cut tombs are present, at the end of Prehistory, in Sardinia and in the south of France. A large literature is dedicated to these monuments, but the study of the digging process remains poorly discussed. This topic has been the object of a PhD research and a research program developed and funded by the Galilée program from the Université franco-italienne. This program focuses mainly on the study of the surfaces in rock-cut tombs. The question of the walls‘ surfaces from Sardinian and French hypogea is essential for the understanding of the realisation of these monuments and the action taken during the digging process. This research goes through the study of the walls, more precisely the digging traces, and the study of the macro-lithic tools used for the excavation. The study of excavation traces on the walls is complex because of the state of conservation of the monuments but also of the treatments applied on the walls. Indeed, many hypogea are characterized by the presence of a specific treatment on the walls comprising a smoothing and/or the realisation of sculpture and engraving. Many Sardinian hypogea also have painted representations. Similarly, these artificial cavities have many problems of conservation. The walls suffer from moisture and vegetation as well as vandalism. In these circumstances, it is necessary to develop a non-invasive study technique to obtain quality data. In this prospect, we chose to set up a photography and photogrammetry method complemented by an experimental protocol. We focused on the differences of treatments that can be observed on the walls of hypogea as well as on the techniques and tools used in the excavation of these underground architectures. In this communication, we will expose the methodology adopted and the results obtained within the Galilée program.

The rock-cut tombs are underground architectures which were especially used in Mediterranean later prehistory. Present since the middle of the 5th millennium BC, they are more particularly developed during the second half of the 4th millennium and the first half of the 3rd millennium. The question of the origin and appearance of hypogea has long been the subject of an important debate proposing the development of this type of funerary architecture in connection with contacts from the Eastern Mediterranean, before focusing on the autochthonous origin of the hypogea in certain regions such as Sardinia. This problem is accompanied by important works on the chronology of hypogea. Difficult to address because of the absence of closed sets and their intensive reuse, the dating of hypogea was completely revised with the multiplication of radiocarbon datings from the 1970s (Whitehouse, 1972). This issue is still the subject of numerous articles thanks to the discovery of new burials and the renewal of data on the subject (Malone et al., 1995, Gonçalvès, Andrade and Pereira, 2004, Valera, 2012, Negroni Catacchio et al., 2014, Tiberi and Dell'Anna, 2014). The purpose of this communication is to offer a new perspective on this debate using the study of know-how involved in the establishment and the digging of hypogea. The digging of prehistoric rock-cut tombs, subject of a thesis defended in 2018, requires a set of common knowledge to human groups practicing the exploitation of soils, both in the context of the implementation of funerary architectures and in the extraction of mineral resources. This study, through the prism of know-how and no longer the architectural analysis alone, leads us to a new approach on the concept of technical environment developed by André Leroi-Gourhan.

Il volume Norchia III è uno studio sulle Tombe a Tempio situate nella Valle dell’Acqualta, le celebri tombe monumentali di Norchia. Dopo l’inquadramento geologico e topografico dell’area, lo studio analizza la storia delle scoperte, degli scavi, degli studi e dell’abbondante documentazione grafica perlopiù inedita che l’autrice ha raccolto presso enti e istituzioni italiane e francesi. Tale documentazione, unita ad una nuova campagna di rilievo e di documentazione fotografica, ha consentito all’autrice di realizzare una proposta di ricostruzione grafica della decorazione scultorea dei frontoni e del bassorilievo del portico della Tomba occidentale, della policromia originale, l’anastilosi virtuale e la ricostruzione tridimensionale del monumento. Nel volume sono stati affrontati anche lo studio dell’architettura e dei rapporti di affinità con le tombe rupestri a tempio del Mediterraneo orientale, il problema della nascita del tipo architettonico e l’individuazione dell’archetipo comune nelle tombe macedoni. Ampio spazio è dedicato anche agli scavi eseguiti nella Valle dell’Acqualta nel 1934 e nel 1993. Chiude lo studio un’appendice sulla Tomba Lattanzi, della quale è stato possibile rintracciare molti documenti d’archivio inediti, utili ad una migliore comprensione del monumento, ormai poco leggibile a causa del pessimo stato di conservazione.

Pour consulter l'article intégral : http://journals.openedition.org/tc/10786

Les cavités artificielles hypogées sont présentes dans plusieurs régions de Méditerranée occidentale à la fin du Néolithique. Leur architecture pouvant être spécifique et leur nombre important sur certains territoires interrogent quant à leur développement et aux techniques mises en place dans leur élaboration. Plusieurs outils utilisés au cours des différentes phases de creusement de ces architectures souterraines sont ainsi connus. Ils sont présents dans divers contextes aussi bien en Sardaigne que dans le Sud de la France. Ces objets, découverts in situ, ne sont pas abandonnés dans ceux-ci mais bien déposés sous des formes particulières. Le mobilier de creusement est un outillage simple issu d’une chaîne opératoire de façonnage opportuniste. La présence de dépôts, dans les cavités artificielles, d’instruments utilisés pour les creuser n’est pas anodine et revêt sans doute différentes significations. Plusieurs interprétations ont été proposées dans la littérature et ce généralement en fonction des cas, allant du dépôt relatif aux défunts au dépôt collectif lié à l’architecture.
Nous proposons donc une analyse comparative de cette pratique grâce à l’étude de plusieurs sites et types de données afin d’offrir une vision d’ensemble de ce phénomène et d’interroger la valeur symbolique de cet acte. Le dépôt d’outils dans les hypogées ayant été utilisés dans le creusement de ceux-ci interpelle en ce qui concerne leur phase de creusement et de mise en place, et quant à l’importance de la représentation symbolique au sein du groupe que la construction de tels monuments devait porter. Le creusement des hypogées nécessite un effort collectif notable, traduit sans doute par une organisation importante des groupes humains. Le dépôt des outils utilisés au cours de cette activité collective, lors de laquelle un grand nombre de personnes appartenant au groupe (voire des personnes venant de l’extérieur) participent, peut être associé à la volonté, le désir, de représenter cet aspect du collectif. Il scelle un moment majeur pour la communauté au cours duquel des efforts importants sont fournis par celle-ci.

Porqueddu M.E. 2018, Architecture et creusement des cavités artificielles funéraires en Sardaigne à la fin de la Préhistoire : l'apport de l'archéologie expérimentale, in La Préhistoire et la Protohistoire des îles de Méditerranée Occidentale. Matières premières, circulation, expérimentation et traditions techniques, Atti del Workshop Corte - Université de Corse - 26-27 settembre 2016, Quaderni del LaPArS 3, pp. 193-208

W. M. F. Petrie and F. Ll. Griffith undertook a journey by boat down the
Nile in late 1886/early 1887, during which time they visited numerous
ancient sites. Petrie’s journey notebook reveals that he also stopped
at Nuwayrat. Bart Vanthuyne presents Petrie’s hitherto unreported
Nuwayrat observations and discoveries.

A large number of rock-cut shafts with a wide range of constructive specifics of burials was revealed on the site of the Russian Archaeological Mission at Giza (RAMG). The most of them stand for poor tombs: they have small scaled rock-cut chapels without inscriptions and images; their shallow shafts lead to small burial chambers without strict following of the established norms of orientation of burials in the Old Kingdom. It is obvious that deviating from the established standards of construction towards reduction and simplification is caused by attempts to reduce costs. Meanwhile, builders’ attempts to cut the costs of construction lead to emergence of the new burial types in the shafts. Sometimes these novelty burials demanded even more time and ingenuity for their construction. The article describes and reflects on the most characteristic variants of the said shafts.

The articles presents the results of the investigation by the Russian Archaeological Mission at Giza of the Institute of Oriental Studies, RAS (RAMG), of the previously unexplored rock-cut tomb of Perseneb (LG 78 / GE20–22) located on eastern area of Eastern Plateau of Giza. The architecture of the tomb raises many questions, and is characterized by seldom found, if not unique, features – multiple rooms, large number of statues cut out in the massif of the rock, presence of columns, etc. Comparative analysis of the architecture of the tomb of Perseneb with
analogies from other tombs of Eastern Plateau of Giza allows to reveal possible influences and make an attempt to define its relative dating.