Thesis by Clara Filet
Filet, Clara. 2021. « Dynamiques d’urbanisation et réseaux d’interactions dans le monde celtique ... more Filet, Clara. 2021. « Dynamiques d’urbanisation et réseaux d’interactions dans le monde celtique transalpin (IVe – Ier s. BCE) ». Thèse de doctorat, Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris, 747 p.
Urbanisation dynamics and interaction networks in the Celtic transalpine world (4th - 1st century BCE)
Abstract: In the last four centuries before the turn of era, the emergence of large agglomerations north of the Alps initiated a profound and irreversible change in the way of life of the continental Europe populations. This thesis aims to offer a new perspective on the development of these places in the La Tène world by analysing the evolution of the mobility of people and goods that accompanied their rise.
The inventory of 812 grouped settlements (open or fortified agglomerations) in ten countries from France to Slovakia offers a new picture of the wave of agglomeration foundations between the 4th and 1st centuries BC. The chronological and functional study of their formation offers a global perspective on the processes of settlement agglomeration on the scale of La Tène Europe, highlighting the crucial periods, rhythms and regional specificities. The development of Second Iron Age settlements can thus be seen as the result of multiple and combined processes at the interface between European, regional and local dynamics.
By concentrating people and activities, some of these agglomerations have polarised the circulation of people, products and ideas from the local to the intercultural level since the 3rd century. Through a multiscale study of the interactions and mobility of people and goods during the Second Iron Age, this thesis characterises the role of these sites within their economic, political, and social networks and examines how some of them established themselves as 'central places'. From data analysis to theoretical models, it attempts to propose methodological and conceptual tools to approach ancient urban networks and past interactions by combining concepts and methods from archaeology, geography, physics and complex systems science.
This work thus outlines a broader concept of urbanisation, for which the development of urban features is not limited to the intrinsic characteristics of agglomerations: it is to be placed at the heart of territorial dynamics, as the emergence not of a new type of settlement, but of ‘urbanised territories’. At the end of this work, the circulation of goods and people thus appears as an essential component of the urban development process in continental Europe.
Book Chapter by Clara Filet
2024_Des villages et des hameaux au second âge du Fer, une réalité ?
Villages et hameaux paysans en Gaule et sa périphérie entre la fin de la période laténienne et l’époque romaine, actes du XVe colloque AGER, Saverne, 28 septembre au 1er octobre 2022, 2024
Dans l’imaginaire collectif comme dans le discours scientifique, le « village gaulois » a longtem... more Dans l’imaginaire collectif comme dans le discours scientifique, le « village gaulois » a longtemps été envisagé comme le mode d’habitat emblématique de la Gaule au second âge du Fer. L’expression renverrait à l’existence, au sein des campagnes de l’Europe celtique, de petits habitats groupés aux fonctions essentiellement agropastorales, qui formeraient un mode d’occupation intermédiaire entre les établissements ruraux isolés d’une part, et les agglomérations urbaines d’autre part.
Dans ces espaces ruraux du second âge du Fer, dont l’archéologie préventive a récemment bouleversé nos représentations, le concept de village reste-t-il efficace à traduire une réalité archéologique ? Entre les habitats groupés aux activités toujours plus complexes et les grands domaines ruraux dont l’importance dans la hiérarchisation des territoires gaulois a été récemment révélée, force est de constater que les caractéristiques accordées au « village » apparaissent de moins en moins réservées à un type d’habitat spécifique. Trente-cinq ans après la parution de l’ouvrage « Villes, villages et campagnes de l’Europe celtique » (Buchsenschutz, Audouze 1989), reste-t-il vraiment une place pour le village dans la typologie des sites d’habitat gaulois ?
The Oxford Handbook of Archaeological Network Research, 2023
In archaeological studies, networks are constructed using both actual observations and hypotheses... more In archaeological studies, networks are constructed using both actual observations and hypotheses about interactions, exchanges, organization, etc. This chapter describes this modeling process and outlines the main differences between models primarily based on data and those constructed using complex sets of hypotheses, as well as their impact on the subsequent analyses. It reviews a selection of measures, metrics, and properties taking roots in graph theory and commonly used to describe networks at different levels of aggregation, with a particular focus on their applicability on different types of networks. It emphasizes the core role of paths in network analysis as well as the impact of modeling hypotheses on the expected structure of a network. Finally, the chapter discusses differences and complementarity between classical data analysis and network based analysis, in light of the nature of archaeological data and of the associated modeling processes.
Les agglomérations dans le monde celtique et ses marges. Nouvelles approches et perspectives de recherche, 2023
Open access : https://una-editions.fr/lessor-des-agglomerations-lateniennes/
Filet, Clara. 2023.... more Open access : https://una-editions.fr/lessor-des-agglomerations-lateniennes/
Filet, Clara. 2023. « L’essor des agglomérations laténiennes : pour une lecture européenne ». in Les agglomérations dans le monde celtique et ses marges. Nouvelles approches et perspectives de recherche, Nemesis 1, édité par E. Hiriart, S. Krausz, A. Alcantara, C. Filet, P. Golanova, J. Hantrais, et V. Mathé. Pessac: Ausonius Éditions.
Summary :
From the Atlantic to the Carpathians, data on agglomerated, open or fortified, settlements have multiplied in recent decades. However, shared analytical tools have yet to be developed to study these processes at the transnational scale at which they develop.
This article, which is the result of a doctoral thesis , aims to suggest a European perspective on the rhythm of La Tene settlements development between the 4th and 1st centuries BCE. To achieve this, however, several reassessments are proposed:
• to develop terms that do not shape the understanding of the object of study (such as "oppidum" and "open agglomeration"), since the naming of things is already an interpretation;
• to reassess the extent of the phenomenon thanks to updated data, by developing tools that allow its comparison;
• to move away from any monolithic view that would see a period of open agglomerations and then a period of oppida, in order to consider the processes as multifaceted and multi-scalar, at the interface between European dynamics and regional specificities;
• to abandon any site-centrism. Urbanisation can be seen as a territorial process on which changes in mobility have a major impact.
The inventory of 855 grouped (open or fortified) settlements in ten countries, from France to Slovakia, provides a new picture of the extent of the agglomeration wave between the 4th and 1st centuries BCE. Its chronological and functional study thus offers a global perspective on the processes of settlement agglomeration in La Tène Europe, highlighting crucial periods, rhythms and regional specificities. Deconstructing any monolithic view of urbanisation processes during the La Tène, this article aims to highlight some of the common trends at the scale of transalpine Europe, but also the numerous regional peculiarities and chronological shifts that characterise this vast, multiform and interconnected space.
Résumé :
De l’Atlantique aux Carpates, les données sur les habitats agglomérés, ouverts comme fortifiés se sont multipliées ces dernières décennies. Reste toutefois à élaborer des outils d’analyse partagés, pour étudier ces processus à l’échelle transnationale où ils se développent.
Cet article, issu d’une thèse de doctorat , vise à proposer une perspective européenne des rythmes de développement des agglomérations laténiennes entre le IVe et le Ier s. a.C. Pour y parvenir, plusieurs réévaluations sont toutefois suggérées :
• Élaborer des termes qui ne contraignent pas la compréhension de l’objet à étudier (« oppidum » et « agglomération ouverte »), puisque nommer les choses c’est déjà interpréter ;
• Réévaluer l’ampleur du phénomène grâce à des données actualisées sur une échelle vaste, en concevant les outils permettant leur comparaison ;
• Sortir de toute vision monolithique qui verrait un temps des agglo ouvertes puis un temps des oppida, pour envisager les processus comme multiples et multiscalaires, à l’articulation entre dynamiques européennes et spécificités régionales ;
• Sortir du site centrisme. L’urbanisation peut être considérée comme un processus territorial, au sein duquel les transformations de la mobilité ont un effet majeur.
Le recensement de 855 sites d’habitat groupé (ouverts ou fortifiées), dans dix pays de la France à la Slovaquie, permet de proposer une image renouvelée de l’ampleur de la vague de création d’agglomérations entre le IVe et le Ier s. a.C. Leur étude chronologique et fonctionnelle offre ainsi une perspective globale des processus d’agglomération de l’habitat à l’échelle de l’Europe laténienne, en soulignant les périodes charnières, les rythmes et certaines spécificités régionales. En déconstruisant toute vision monolithique des processus d’urbanisation au cours de La Tène, cet article vise à souligner certaines des tendances partagées à l’échelle de l’Europe transalpine, mais aussi les multiples spécificités régionales et décalages chronologiques qui caractérisent ce vaste espace, par essence multiforme et interconnecté.
2020_ "Territoire, Réseau", in Sanders, Brun, Ozouf : "Le temps long du peuplement: concepts et mots-clés"
Ozouf, Marie-Vic, Clara Filet, et Robin Cura. 2020. « Territoire, Réseau ». In Le temps long du p... more Ozouf, Marie-Vic, Clara Filet, et Robin Cura. 2020. « Territoire, Réseau ». In Le temps long du peuplement: concepts et mots-clés, Tours: Presses universitaire François Rabelais, 229‑79.
Résumé du livre :
Depuis qu'elles existent, les populations humaines ont habité, exploité et aménagé des portions de l'espace terrestre sous des formes diverses, nomades ou sédentaires, dispersées ou concentrées, pérennes ou saisonnières. Croisant connaissances et savoir-faire de géographes, historiens et archéologues, ce livre décrit, conceptualise et modélise les dynamiques du peuplement sur le temps long dans leurs expressions spatiales et leurs rythmes temporels. De Babylone à Chichen Iza en passant par les villes celtes ou la décroissance actuelle de villes russes ou allemandes, ce livre intègre une collection de cas décrits par des spécialistes, offrant ainsi un riche panorama des systèmes de peuplement.
Papers by Clara Filet
Journal of Archaeological Science, 2025
Although textual and archaeological sources inform us about the importance of river transport in ... more Although textual and archaeological sources inform us about the importance of river transport in Protohistory, Antiquity, and the Middle Ages, integrating it into studies of ancient mobility remains a challenge. Empirical navigability studies are time-consuming and are only feasible for rivers well-documented by historical, archaeological, and palaeogeographical studies.
This work proposes a method for realistically approximating navigable sections without empirical data by algorithmically detecting the plain sections of a river and testing its reliability as an indicator of navigability. Using 18 rivers in central-eastern Gaul, for which we have empirical knowledge of ancient navigable sections, we demonstrate that estimating the plain section of the river based on a change-point detection algorithm provides a good approximation of navigable sections. This method is applied to 48 Roman rivers where empirical information about navigable sections is scattered. A subset of these rivers is then empirically tested to validate the results obtained.
Applying this method offers a new perspective on navigable areas in the Roman world, providing a reasonable first guess that could guide future empirical research into the navigability of ancient rivers.
Journal of Archaeological Science, 2025
Celtic societies at the end of the last millennium BCE experienced a shift in the scale of produc... more Celtic societies at the end of the last millennium BCE experienced a shift in the scale of production and exchange, leading to a revolution in mobility. This study aims to investigate these ancient exchanges by focusing on their primary constraint: the difficulties of transportation. We seek to estimate the remoteness between sites from a merchant's perspective, considering transport costs, that is, the challenges of moving heavy and bulky goods over long distances. Our approach is based on Least-Cost Path (LCP) estimation, which we adapt to address the various complexities inherent in applying this method to ancient transportation systems. These complexities include the multimodal nature of transportation, involving inland transport, upstream and downstream fluvial navigation, and the lack of or imprecise nature of data regarding navigable sections and transportation costs. While LCPs are widely used in archaeological contexts, a standardised methodology for calibrating them and selecting algorithmic variants remains elusive, particularly when reference paths are absent. This article offers firstly a methodological contribution to the development and rational application of LCPs in archaeology, adapting them to the limitations of our data and the multimodal nature of goods transportation; and secondly an archaeological contribution demonstrating the crucial role of considering the constraints of ancient mobility in exploring the evolution of past societies' territories.
2021_ For an archaeology of exchange networks: methodological approaches and application to the Mediterranean interactions with Celtic Europe
Open access : https://www.archaeopress.com/Archaeopress/download/9781789697292
Feugnet, Auréli... more Open access : https://www.archaeopress.com/Archaeopress/download/9781789697292
Feugnet, Aurélia, Clara Filet, et Camille Gorin. 2021. « For an archaeology of exchange networks: methodological approaches and application to the Mediterranean interactions with Celtic Europe ». P. 6‑35 in Mobility and exchanges across borders. Exploring social processes in Europe during the first millenium BCE - Theoretical and methodological approaches, Actes du XVIIIe colloque de l’UISPP, Paris, 4-9 juin 2018, UISPP Poroceeding Series, édité par V. Cicolani. Paris: Archaeopress.
Résumé :
This article attempts to provide a conceptual framework for studies related to exchange networks and more generally to interactions in Archaeology. All too often, highlighting and analysing interactions are based on the study of the circulation of exogenous objects (imports) but this is only just one of the existing tools. The brief historiography of studies on exchange, started here from the 19th century, accentuates the current need to use theoretical concepts and a methodological framework based on the triad: interdisciplinarity, diachronism, and multiscale approach. Suggested as the illustration of the well-founded of this triad, a case study regarding the exchanges between the Mediterranean world and middle Europe at the end of the second Iron Age (3rd-1st century BCE) provides an application of this method. Thus, the identification of interactions, the characterisation of networks and the study of the economic, political and social consequences linked to these exchanges are discussed.
2017_Co-presence Analysis and Economic Patterns: Mediterranean Imports in the Celtic World
Open access : https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fdigh.2017.00001/full
Feugnet, Auré... more Open access : https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fdigh.2017.00001/full
Feugnet, Aurélia, Fabrice Rossi, et Clara Filet. 2017. « Co-Presence Analysis and Economic Patterns: Mediterranean Imports in the Celtic World ». Frontiers in Digital Humanities 4:1. doi: 10.3389/fdigh.2017.00001.
This article aims at exploring the diffusion patterns of Mediterranean imported goods in Late Iron Age Europe (250 to 25 BC), and the organisation of the commercial interactions of these goods. It brings together two archaeologists and a mathematician in the study of a wide inventory of 57,735 Italian and Greek imports discovered from England to Serbia. This large amount of new and unpublished data is analysed through the joint use of network analysis tools and formal statistical methods. The analysis focuses on detecting patterns in the association of imported artefacts that are significantlly found on the same sites (bipartite networks). The objectives are to highlight groups of imports that may have circulated together, and to emphasise regional selections by local populations. Two main systems of imports have been highlighted, used respectively in West and Central Europe. Interesting leads that will need further investigation include the imports status and the role they played in Celtic societies, as acculturated objects or more as objects for acculturation.
2017_ An Attempt to Estimate the Impact of the Spread of Economic Flows on Latenian Urbanization
Open access : https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fdigh.2016.00010/full
Filet, Clara.... more Open access : https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fdigh.2016.00010/full
Filet, Clara. 2017. « An Attempt to Estimate the Impact of the Spread of Economic Flows on Latenian Urbanization ». Frontiers in Digital Humaninites (3:10). doi: 10.3389/fdigh.2016.00010.
Over a relatively short period between the end of the fourth and the middle of the first century BC, an unprecedented process of urbanization developed in non-Mediterranean Europe. Among all the factors contributing to the rise of the first agglomerations possessing urban characteristics in this area, this article focuses on the role of commercial interactions. The ability of settlements to interact within the trade network is approached by modeling of interactions. The aim is to provide new material to estimate the extent to which this factor could have impacted the known hierarchy of settlements on the one hand, and its role in the development of the Latenian urbanization process on the other hand.
Filet, Clara. 2014. « New Approaches to the Celtic Urbanisation Process ». Dig it 2(1):19‑27.
... more Filet, Clara. 2014. « New Approaches to the Celtic Urbanisation Process ». Dig it 2(1):19‑27.
During the last four centuries BC, non-Mediterranean Europe
undergoes deep economic and social transformations exemplified
by the appearance of large agglomerations that already had urban
characteristics is one of the most important landmarks. The
development of such urbanisation process in this area, beginning
four centuries before the Roman conquest, has raised questions to
protohistorian archaeologists for a long period of time.
A better understanding of this phenomenon requires two main
revaluations. The first is to reconsider the extent of agglomeration
diversity, not in the light of morphological (open vs fortified
settlements) but in a functional sense. Secondly, the urbanisation
process needs to be perceived not only through the agglomerations
themselves, but as a long-term territorial phenomenon, which
affects the entire range of settlements. Rhythms of creation,
networks and functions of those sites have to be studied in aim to
follow the development of the urbanisation in Central and Western
Europe. It will also highlight the close ties of this process with the
emergence of the first state structures in this area.
Edited books by Clara Filet
Les agglomérations dans le monde celtique et ses marges. Nouvelles approches et perspectives de recherche, NEMESIS 1, 2023
Publication in Open acces :
https://una-editions.fr/les-agglomerations-dans-le-monde-celtique-et... more Publication in Open acces :
https://una-editions.fr/les-agglomerations-dans-le-monde-celtique-et-ses-marges/
Résumé
En Europe tempérée, les premières villes apparaissent plus tardivement que dans le monde méditerranéen. Elles se développent dans des contextes différents sur les plans économiques et politiques et selon des dynamiques qui leur sont propres. On a longtemps pensé que les oppida, habitats fortifiés de hauteur, qui émergent à la fin du IIe s. a.C. représentaient les premières villes du domaine celtique (plus précisément laténien). Mais les découvertes des trente dernières années montrent que des formes urbaines plus anciennes les ont précédés. Il en va ainsi des vastes agglomérations non fortifiées qui émergent dans le monde celtique aux IIIe et IIe s. a.C., longtemps ignorées en raison de la modestie des traces archéologiques qu’elles ont laissées. Ces agglomérations concentrent plusieurs innovations majeures : un accroissement démographique sans précédent ; une grande superficie d’habitat (plusieurs dizaines d’hectares) et l’amorce d’une organisation rationalisée de l’espace (places publiques, sanctuaires, quartiers spécialisés, etc.) ; des productions artisanales à grande échelle ; d’intenses activités commerciales et économiques marquées par la première apparition de la monnaie dans les échanges.
Cet ouvrage recueille les Actes du premier workshop de l’IRN (International Research Network) NEMESIS qui s’est tenu à Bordeaux (Musée d’Aquitaine) les 2 et 3 décembre 2021. Il rassemble plusieurs contributions de chercheurs européens qui travaillent sur les agglomérations dans le monde celtique et ses marges, de l’Atlantique à la mer Noire. Il s’agit de confronter ce phénomène apparemment spécifique au domaine celtique avec la situation contemporaine dans d’autres régions de l’espace étudié (péninsule Ibérique, Dacie, Eurasie…).
Ces Actes s’intéressent plus particulièrement aux stratégies qui permettent d’appréhender ces agglomérations sur de grandes surfaces. Les articles concernent les expériences passées, actuelles et à venir, qui incluent de préférence des approches intégrées : LIDAR, prospections archéologiques (géophysiques, pédestres, aériennes), SIG, cartographie, fouilles archéologiques, reconstitution de réseaux, études du paléo-environnement, etc. Ces travaux permettent de poser les jalons d’une réflexion commune autour des stratégies, des protocoles et des bonnes pratiques à mettre en œuvre pour aborder un grand site.
Abstract
In temperate Europe, the first cities appeared later than in the Mediterranean world. They developed in different economic and political contexts and according to their own dynamics. It was long thought that the oppida, fortified settlements on high ground, which emerged at the end of the 2nd century BC, represented the first towns in the Celtic (more precisely Latin) domain. But the discoveries of the last thirty years show that older urban forms preceded them. This is true of the vast unfortified settlements that emerged in the Celtic world in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, long ignored because of the modest archaeological traces they left behind. These agglomerations concentrated several major innovations: an unprecedented demographic growth; a large area of habitat (several tens of hectares) and the beginning of a rationalised organisation of space (public squares, sanctuaries, specialised districts, etc.); large-scale craft production; intense commercial and economic activities marked by the first appearance of money in trade.
This book gathers the proceedings of the first IRN (International Research Network) NEMESIS workshop held in Bordeaux (Musée d’Aquitaine) on 2 and 3 December 2021. It brings together several contributions from European researchers working on settlements in the Celtic world and its margins, from the Atlantic to the Black Sea. The aim is to compare this phenomenon, apparently specific to the Celtic domain, with the contemporary situation in other regions of the area studied (Iberian Peninsula, Dacia, Eurasia, etc.).
These Proceedings are particularly interested in the strategies that make it possible to apprehend these agglomerations on large surfaces. The papers concern past, present and future experiences, preferably including integrated approaches: LIDAR, archaeological surveys (geophysical, pedestrian, aerial), GIS, cartography, archaeological excavations, network reconstruction, paleoenvironmental studies, etc. This work allows us to lay the groundwork for a common reflection on the strategies, protocols and best practices to be implemented to approach a large site.
Archéo.Doct, 2017
Le temps, en archéologie, est un temps construit. Comment distinguer parmi les innovations celles... more Le temps, en archéologie, est un temps construit. Comment distinguer parmi les innovations celles qui modifient profondément les sociétés ? Comment apprécier les dynamiques du changement ? Comment l’évolution, imperceptible ou brutale, devient-elle révolution, subversive et refondatrice ?
Ce volume prend appui sur la richesse des aires chrono-culturelles étudiées par les doctorants de l’ED 112 pour témoigner et débattre des manières dont nous percevons les transformations et leurs effets sur les sociétés du passé. Sur un temps court, les changements, brusques ou discrets, esquissent une dynamique évolutive. Il s’agit alors de les expliquer : déterminisme environnemental, fonctionnel, culturel, influence externe ou innovation locale. Mais il faut aussi estimer sur un temps long l’impact réel de ces bouleversements dans l’histoire. Les rythmes des mutations deviennent ainsi un indicateur de la stabilité d’une société et peuvent révéler sa transformation profonde.
De la révolution de l’agriculture à la Révolution française, le dynamisme des sociétés humaines ne tient-il pas de leur capacité à toujours se renouveler ?
Organisation by Clara Filet
Ecole Thématique internationale
Ranging from exchange to urban networks, interactions systems are a basic component of every soci... more Ranging from exchange to urban networks, interactions systems are a basic component of every society, from the prehistoric to the modern.
The Research School ‘MOSAICnet: Networks in archaeological research’ aims at bringing together young and senior researchers around this transdisciplinary issue of networks. The Research School offers the state of the art of several methodological approaches (such as Social Network Analysis, Spatial Network Analysis, etc.), resulting from the dialogue between the Human and the Exact Sciences.
It also intends to discuss their contributions to the research on past social, cultural and economic interactions.
The Research School will last 6 days, and will address the matters of the theoretical context of the research on interaction systems, the empirical data we can rely on to grasp them, as well as provide an overview of several available methods of system analysis and reconstruction. Those tools will be applied using the Rstudio software.
announcements by Clara Filet
Appel à communication Luxe et Prestige à la Protohistoire
Actualités de la recherche 1ère journée... more Appel à communication Luxe et Prestige à la Protohistoire
Actualités de la recherche 1ère journée du GRAAP 19 avril 2024 Musée d'Aquitaine-Bordeaux
La journée marquera la première édition d'un cycle annuel du GRAAP (Groupe de Recherche Aquitain en Archéologie Protohistorique), qui vise à consolider le réseau régional des archéologues travaillant sur la Protohistoire. Ces rencontres cherchent à faire émerger une dynamique collective de recherche sur la Protohistoire en Aquitaine.
Call For Papers
UISPP Paris 2018
Iron Age Commission
Session 104 : Modelling spheres of Interact... more Call For Papers
UISPP Paris 2018
Iron Age Commission
Session 104 : Modelling spheres of Interaction in the european first millennium BC
Field Reports by Clara Filet
SRA (24 000 €) Conseil Général du Puy-de-Dôme (10 000 €) Conseil Régional d'Auvergne (4 000 €) Co... more SRA (24 000 €) Conseil Général du Puy-de-Dôme (10 000 €) Conseil Régional d'Auvergne (4 000 €) Communauté de Communes Gergovie -Val d'Allier (3 000 €) Intervenants terrain Responsable d'opération, titulaire de l'autorisation de fouille : Matthieu POUX, professeur d'archéologie (
Uploads
Thesis by Clara Filet
Urbanisation dynamics and interaction networks in the Celtic transalpine world (4th - 1st century BCE)
Abstract: In the last four centuries before the turn of era, the emergence of large agglomerations north of the Alps initiated a profound and irreversible change in the way of life of the continental Europe populations. This thesis aims to offer a new perspective on the development of these places in the La Tène world by analysing the evolution of the mobility of people and goods that accompanied their rise.
The inventory of 812 grouped settlements (open or fortified agglomerations) in ten countries from France to Slovakia offers a new picture of the wave of agglomeration foundations between the 4th and 1st centuries BC. The chronological and functional study of their formation offers a global perspective on the processes of settlement agglomeration on the scale of La Tène Europe, highlighting the crucial periods, rhythms and regional specificities. The development of Second Iron Age settlements can thus be seen as the result of multiple and combined processes at the interface between European, regional and local dynamics.
By concentrating people and activities, some of these agglomerations have polarised the circulation of people, products and ideas from the local to the intercultural level since the 3rd century. Through a multiscale study of the interactions and mobility of people and goods during the Second Iron Age, this thesis characterises the role of these sites within their economic, political, and social networks and examines how some of them established themselves as 'central places'. From data analysis to theoretical models, it attempts to propose methodological and conceptual tools to approach ancient urban networks and past interactions by combining concepts and methods from archaeology, geography, physics and complex systems science.
This work thus outlines a broader concept of urbanisation, for which the development of urban features is not limited to the intrinsic characteristics of agglomerations: it is to be placed at the heart of territorial dynamics, as the emergence not of a new type of settlement, but of ‘urbanised territories’. At the end of this work, the circulation of goods and people thus appears as an essential component of the urban development process in continental Europe.
Book Chapter by Clara Filet
Dans ces espaces ruraux du second âge du Fer, dont l’archéologie préventive a récemment bouleversé nos représentations, le concept de village reste-t-il efficace à traduire une réalité archéologique ? Entre les habitats groupés aux activités toujours plus complexes et les grands domaines ruraux dont l’importance dans la hiérarchisation des territoires gaulois a été récemment révélée, force est de constater que les caractéristiques accordées au « village » apparaissent de moins en moins réservées à un type d’habitat spécifique. Trente-cinq ans après la parution de l’ouvrage « Villes, villages et campagnes de l’Europe celtique » (Buchsenschutz, Audouze 1989), reste-t-il vraiment une place pour le village dans la typologie des sites d’habitat gaulois ?
Filet, Clara. 2023. « L’essor des agglomérations laténiennes : pour une lecture européenne ». in Les agglomérations dans le monde celtique et ses marges. Nouvelles approches et perspectives de recherche, Nemesis 1, édité par E. Hiriart, S. Krausz, A. Alcantara, C. Filet, P. Golanova, J. Hantrais, et V. Mathé. Pessac: Ausonius Éditions.
Summary :
From the Atlantic to the Carpathians, data on agglomerated, open or fortified, settlements have multiplied in recent decades. However, shared analytical tools have yet to be developed to study these processes at the transnational scale at which they develop.
This article, which is the result of a doctoral thesis , aims to suggest a European perspective on the rhythm of La Tene settlements development between the 4th and 1st centuries BCE. To achieve this, however, several reassessments are proposed:
• to develop terms that do not shape the understanding of the object of study (such as "oppidum" and "open agglomeration"), since the naming of things is already an interpretation;
• to reassess the extent of the phenomenon thanks to updated data, by developing tools that allow its comparison;
• to move away from any monolithic view that would see a period of open agglomerations and then a period of oppida, in order to consider the processes as multifaceted and multi-scalar, at the interface between European dynamics and regional specificities;
• to abandon any site-centrism. Urbanisation can be seen as a territorial process on which changes in mobility have a major impact.
The inventory of 855 grouped (open or fortified) settlements in ten countries, from France to Slovakia, provides a new picture of the extent of the agglomeration wave between the 4th and 1st centuries BCE. Its chronological and functional study thus offers a global perspective on the processes of settlement agglomeration in La Tène Europe, highlighting crucial periods, rhythms and regional specificities. Deconstructing any monolithic view of urbanisation processes during the La Tène, this article aims to highlight some of the common trends at the scale of transalpine Europe, but also the numerous regional peculiarities and chronological shifts that characterise this vast, multiform and interconnected space.
Résumé :
De l’Atlantique aux Carpates, les données sur les habitats agglomérés, ouverts comme fortifiés se sont multipliées ces dernières décennies. Reste toutefois à élaborer des outils d’analyse partagés, pour étudier ces processus à l’échelle transnationale où ils se développent.
Cet article, issu d’une thèse de doctorat , vise à proposer une perspective européenne des rythmes de développement des agglomérations laténiennes entre le IVe et le Ier s. a.C. Pour y parvenir, plusieurs réévaluations sont toutefois suggérées :
• Élaborer des termes qui ne contraignent pas la compréhension de l’objet à étudier (« oppidum » et « agglomération ouverte »), puisque nommer les choses c’est déjà interpréter ;
• Réévaluer l’ampleur du phénomène grâce à des données actualisées sur une échelle vaste, en concevant les outils permettant leur comparaison ;
• Sortir de toute vision monolithique qui verrait un temps des agglo ouvertes puis un temps des oppida, pour envisager les processus comme multiples et multiscalaires, à l’articulation entre dynamiques européennes et spécificités régionales ;
• Sortir du site centrisme. L’urbanisation peut être considérée comme un processus territorial, au sein duquel les transformations de la mobilité ont un effet majeur.
Le recensement de 855 sites d’habitat groupé (ouverts ou fortifiées), dans dix pays de la France à la Slovaquie, permet de proposer une image renouvelée de l’ampleur de la vague de création d’agglomérations entre le IVe et le Ier s. a.C. Leur étude chronologique et fonctionnelle offre ainsi une perspective globale des processus d’agglomération de l’habitat à l’échelle de l’Europe laténienne, en soulignant les périodes charnières, les rythmes et certaines spécificités régionales. En déconstruisant toute vision monolithique des processus d’urbanisation au cours de La Tène, cet article vise à souligner certaines des tendances partagées à l’échelle de l’Europe transalpine, mais aussi les multiples spécificités régionales et décalages chronologiques qui caractérisent ce vaste espace, par essence multiforme et interconnecté.
Résumé du livre :
Depuis qu'elles existent, les populations humaines ont habité, exploité et aménagé des portions de l'espace terrestre sous des formes diverses, nomades ou sédentaires, dispersées ou concentrées, pérennes ou saisonnières. Croisant connaissances et savoir-faire de géographes, historiens et archéologues, ce livre décrit, conceptualise et modélise les dynamiques du peuplement sur le temps long dans leurs expressions spatiales et leurs rythmes temporels. De Babylone à Chichen Iza en passant par les villes celtes ou la décroissance actuelle de villes russes ou allemandes, ce livre intègre une collection de cas décrits par des spécialistes, offrant ainsi un riche panorama des systèmes de peuplement.
Papers by Clara Filet
This work proposes a method for realistically approximating navigable sections without empirical data by algorithmically detecting the plain sections of a river and testing its reliability as an indicator of navigability. Using 18 rivers in central-eastern Gaul, for which we have empirical knowledge of ancient navigable sections, we demonstrate that estimating the plain section of the river based on a change-point detection algorithm provides a good approximation of navigable sections. This method is applied to 48 Roman rivers where empirical information about navigable sections is scattered. A subset of these rivers is then empirically tested to validate the results obtained.
Applying this method offers a new perspective on navigable areas in the Roman world, providing a reasonable first guess that could guide future empirical research into the navigability of ancient rivers.
Feugnet, Aurélia, Clara Filet, et Camille Gorin. 2021. « For an archaeology of exchange networks: methodological approaches and application to the Mediterranean interactions with Celtic Europe ». P. 6‑35 in Mobility and exchanges across borders. Exploring social processes in Europe during the first millenium BCE - Theoretical and methodological approaches, Actes du XVIIIe colloque de l’UISPP, Paris, 4-9 juin 2018, UISPP Poroceeding Series, édité par V. Cicolani. Paris: Archaeopress.
Résumé :
This article attempts to provide a conceptual framework for studies related to exchange networks and more generally to interactions in Archaeology. All too often, highlighting and analysing interactions are based on the study of the circulation of exogenous objects (imports) but this is only just one of the existing tools. The brief historiography of studies on exchange, started here from the 19th century, accentuates the current need to use theoretical concepts and a methodological framework based on the triad: interdisciplinarity, diachronism, and multiscale approach. Suggested as the illustration of the well-founded of this triad, a case study regarding the exchanges between the Mediterranean world and middle Europe at the end of the second Iron Age (3rd-1st century BCE) provides an application of this method. Thus, the identification of interactions, the characterisation of networks and the study of the economic, political and social consequences linked to these exchanges are discussed.
Feugnet, Aurélia, Fabrice Rossi, et Clara Filet. 2017. « Co-Presence Analysis and Economic Patterns: Mediterranean Imports in the Celtic World ». Frontiers in Digital Humanities 4:1. doi: 10.3389/fdigh.2017.00001.
This article aims at exploring the diffusion patterns of Mediterranean imported goods in Late Iron Age Europe (250 to 25 BC), and the organisation of the commercial interactions of these goods. It brings together two archaeologists and a mathematician in the study of a wide inventory of 57,735 Italian and Greek imports discovered from England to Serbia. This large amount of new and unpublished data is analysed through the joint use of network analysis tools and formal statistical methods. The analysis focuses on detecting patterns in the association of imported artefacts that are significantlly found on the same sites (bipartite networks). The objectives are to highlight groups of imports that may have circulated together, and to emphasise regional selections by local populations. Two main systems of imports have been highlighted, used respectively in West and Central Europe. Interesting leads that will need further investigation include the imports status and the role they played in Celtic societies, as acculturated objects or more as objects for acculturation.
Filet, Clara. 2017. « An Attempt to Estimate the Impact of the Spread of Economic Flows on Latenian Urbanization ». Frontiers in Digital Humaninites (3:10). doi: 10.3389/fdigh.2016.00010.
Over a relatively short period between the end of the fourth and the middle of the first century BC, an unprecedented process of urbanization developed in non-Mediterranean Europe. Among all the factors contributing to the rise of the first agglomerations possessing urban characteristics in this area, this article focuses on the role of commercial interactions. The ability of settlements to interact within the trade network is approached by modeling of interactions. The aim is to provide new material to estimate the extent to which this factor could have impacted the known hierarchy of settlements on the one hand, and its role in the development of the Latenian urbanization process on the other hand.
During the last four centuries BC, non-Mediterranean Europe
undergoes deep economic and social transformations exemplified
by the appearance of large agglomerations that already had urban
characteristics is one of the most important landmarks. The
development of such urbanisation process in this area, beginning
four centuries before the Roman conquest, has raised questions to
protohistorian archaeologists for a long period of time.
A better understanding of this phenomenon requires two main
revaluations. The first is to reconsider the extent of agglomeration
diversity, not in the light of morphological (open vs fortified
settlements) but in a functional sense. Secondly, the urbanisation
process needs to be perceived not only through the agglomerations
themselves, but as a long-term territorial phenomenon, which
affects the entire range of settlements. Rhythms of creation,
networks and functions of those sites have to be studied in aim to
follow the development of the urbanisation in Central and Western
Europe. It will also highlight the close ties of this process with the
emergence of the first state structures in this area.
Edited books by Clara Filet
https://una-editions.fr/les-agglomerations-dans-le-monde-celtique-et-ses-marges/
Résumé
En Europe tempérée, les premières villes apparaissent plus tardivement que dans le monde méditerranéen. Elles se développent dans des contextes différents sur les plans économiques et politiques et selon des dynamiques qui leur sont propres. On a longtemps pensé que les oppida, habitats fortifiés de hauteur, qui émergent à la fin du IIe s. a.C. représentaient les premières villes du domaine celtique (plus précisément laténien). Mais les découvertes des trente dernières années montrent que des formes urbaines plus anciennes les ont précédés. Il en va ainsi des vastes agglomérations non fortifiées qui émergent dans le monde celtique aux IIIe et IIe s. a.C., longtemps ignorées en raison de la modestie des traces archéologiques qu’elles ont laissées. Ces agglomérations concentrent plusieurs innovations majeures : un accroissement démographique sans précédent ; une grande superficie d’habitat (plusieurs dizaines d’hectares) et l’amorce d’une organisation rationalisée de l’espace (places publiques, sanctuaires, quartiers spécialisés, etc.) ; des productions artisanales à grande échelle ; d’intenses activités commerciales et économiques marquées par la première apparition de la monnaie dans les échanges.
Cet ouvrage recueille les Actes du premier workshop de l’IRN (International Research Network) NEMESIS qui s’est tenu à Bordeaux (Musée d’Aquitaine) les 2 et 3 décembre 2021. Il rassemble plusieurs contributions de chercheurs européens qui travaillent sur les agglomérations dans le monde celtique et ses marges, de l’Atlantique à la mer Noire. Il s’agit de confronter ce phénomène apparemment spécifique au domaine celtique avec la situation contemporaine dans d’autres régions de l’espace étudié (péninsule Ibérique, Dacie, Eurasie…).
Ces Actes s’intéressent plus particulièrement aux stratégies qui permettent d’appréhender ces agglomérations sur de grandes surfaces. Les articles concernent les expériences passées, actuelles et à venir, qui incluent de préférence des approches intégrées : LIDAR, prospections archéologiques (géophysiques, pédestres, aériennes), SIG, cartographie, fouilles archéologiques, reconstitution de réseaux, études du paléo-environnement, etc. Ces travaux permettent de poser les jalons d’une réflexion commune autour des stratégies, des protocoles et des bonnes pratiques à mettre en œuvre pour aborder un grand site.
Abstract
In temperate Europe, the first cities appeared later than in the Mediterranean world. They developed in different economic and political contexts and according to their own dynamics. It was long thought that the oppida, fortified settlements on high ground, which emerged at the end of the 2nd century BC, represented the first towns in the Celtic (more precisely Latin) domain. But the discoveries of the last thirty years show that older urban forms preceded them. This is true of the vast unfortified settlements that emerged in the Celtic world in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, long ignored because of the modest archaeological traces they left behind. These agglomerations concentrated several major innovations: an unprecedented demographic growth; a large area of habitat (several tens of hectares) and the beginning of a rationalised organisation of space (public squares, sanctuaries, specialised districts, etc.); large-scale craft production; intense commercial and economic activities marked by the first appearance of money in trade.
This book gathers the proceedings of the first IRN (International Research Network) NEMESIS workshop held in Bordeaux (Musée d’Aquitaine) on 2 and 3 December 2021. It brings together several contributions from European researchers working on settlements in the Celtic world and its margins, from the Atlantic to the Black Sea. The aim is to compare this phenomenon, apparently specific to the Celtic domain, with the contemporary situation in other regions of the area studied (Iberian Peninsula, Dacia, Eurasia, etc.).
These Proceedings are particularly interested in the strategies that make it possible to apprehend these agglomerations on large surfaces. The papers concern past, present and future experiences, preferably including integrated approaches: LIDAR, archaeological surveys (geophysical, pedestrian, aerial), GIS, cartography, archaeological excavations, network reconstruction, paleoenvironmental studies, etc. This work allows us to lay the groundwork for a common reflection on the strategies, protocols and best practices to be implemented to approach a large site.
Ce volume prend appui sur la richesse des aires chrono-culturelles étudiées par les doctorants de l’ED 112 pour témoigner et débattre des manières dont nous percevons les transformations et leurs effets sur les sociétés du passé. Sur un temps court, les changements, brusques ou discrets, esquissent une dynamique évolutive. Il s’agit alors de les expliquer : déterminisme environnemental, fonctionnel, culturel, influence externe ou innovation locale. Mais il faut aussi estimer sur un temps long l’impact réel de ces bouleversements dans l’histoire. Les rythmes des mutations deviennent ainsi un indicateur de la stabilité d’une société et peuvent révéler sa transformation profonde.
De la révolution de l’agriculture à la Révolution française, le dynamisme des sociétés humaines ne tient-il pas de leur capacité à toujours se renouveler ?
Organisation by Clara Filet
The Research School ‘MOSAICnet: Networks in archaeological research’ aims at bringing together young and senior researchers around this transdisciplinary issue of networks. The Research School offers the state of the art of several methodological approaches (such as Social Network Analysis, Spatial Network Analysis, etc.), resulting from the dialogue between the Human and the Exact Sciences.
It also intends to discuss their contributions to the research on past social, cultural and economic interactions.
The Research School will last 6 days, and will address the matters of the theoretical context of the research on interaction systems, the empirical data we can rely on to grasp them, as well as provide an overview of several available methods of system analysis and reconstruction. Those tools will be applied using the Rstudio software.
announcements by Clara Filet
Actualités de la recherche 1ère journée du GRAAP 19 avril 2024 Musée d'Aquitaine-Bordeaux
La journée marquera la première édition d'un cycle annuel du GRAAP (Groupe de Recherche Aquitain en Archéologie Protohistorique), qui vise à consolider le réseau régional des archéologues travaillant sur la Protohistoire. Ces rencontres cherchent à faire émerger une dynamique collective de recherche sur la Protohistoire en Aquitaine.
UISPP Paris 2018
Iron Age Commission
Session 104 : Modelling spheres of Interaction in the european first millennium BC
Field Reports by Clara Filet