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). Entitled “Family memory and heritage in ancient and medieval societies”, it brought together researchers and doctoral students from both universities working on ancient Western societies, both in history and archaeology. These exchanges were very beneficial in terms of training, giving rise to ongoing interactions between French and Brazilian students. They were also the framework that led to the creation of a research axis dedicated to the medieval archaeological discipline, within the Laboratório de Estudos Medievais (LEME). European archaeology is still unevenly developed in Brazil. While it is well established in Antiquity and the contemporary periods, the archaeology of the medieval West is still in its infancy.

This context explains in some way the genesis of this book: it constitutes both a tool and an introduction to the archaeological sciences for students who would like to take up the subject, and it allows the innovative research of several young researchers to be disseminated. It is also the expression of an assumed interdisciplinarity between historians and archaeologists. The structure of the book is based on various action verbs that present the most significant activities of these ancient societies. The aim here is not to give an exhaustive account of these societies, but to give an overview of them, echoing the themes most frequently developed recently by researchers and taking into account the sources available to them. It is not intended to be an handbook either, as the content of the chapters does not systematically correspond to a chronological synthesis. Rather, it provides case studies, with the emphasis on the methods used in history and archaeology. It also gives an account of the different ways in which these disciplines are viewed in Brazil and in France. The aim is to discover these ancient societies and the daily life of the people through the examination of texts, archaeological remains and images, and to offer brief illustrated summaries of recent research.