Garments are a civilisation fact in ancient Mesopotamia. Made of linen, then wool, it is highly dependent on the development of agriculture and animal husbandry, born and developed from the 9th millennium on.

The presence of inscriptions frequently has the effect of eluding the materiality of the artifact. In many fields of knowledge, writing has thus earned a certain amount of autonomy about its physical support, and it became the focus of the analysis.

The analysis of an artefact and its contexts is the “reading” of the object, some archeologists even call it “making the remains speak”.

The structural weakness of States in the High Middle Ages explains the importance of social ties. This fact also justifies the central place of the notion of reciprocity, the real engine of social relations.

La Confiserie is an archaeological site located about 20 kilometres from the north of Paris. It was part of a peasant settlement built in the early Carolingian period.

Food crises are a recurring phenomenon in the history of ancient societies, whether in their catastrophic form, famine, a shortage of food or purchasing power that leads directly to excess mortality from starvation or hunger-induced diseases;

The female abbey of Hamage was founded, in the mid-seventh century, by a wealthy aristocratic family.

The connection between settlement patterns, settlement networks and production systems are fundamental to ancient societies.

The site of Ensérune (Hérault, France) is a major site of the Mediterranean Protohistory. At the centre of multiple linguistic and cultural contacts, this oppidum was occupied between the 6th and 1st c. BC by various populations who left several hundred inscriptions, evidence of this diversity.

In ancient societies, clothing is mostly made of organic materials. Their perishable nature, difficult to identify after several centuries underground, make them archaeological artefacts still often relegated to the background of the research.

The study of costume and clothing in ancient societies takes an important place in humanities research. However, from the 16th century onwards, their history was mainly considered as a minor art and used for its illustrative character serving to put History into images.

This collective work is the result of an exchange between the Universities of São Paolo (USP) and Bordeaux Montaigne (UBM) that was carried out between 2019 and 2023, thanks to funding from the French Committee for the Evaluation of University and Scientific Cooperation with Brazil (COFECUB).