Le cosmopolitisme entre chaos et république

Sans résumé PierreHassner est agrégé de philosophie. Directeur de recherche émérite au Centre d'études et de recherches internationales (CERI) de la Fondation nationale des sciences politiques, il a publiéLa Violence et la paix. De la bombe atomique au nettoyage ethnique (Paris, Esprit, 1995; 2^e éd. remaniée Paris, Seuil, 2000)La Terreur et l'Empire (Paris, Seuil, 2003) et a dirigéTotalitarismes (avec JacquesRupnik et GuyHermet, Paris, Economica, 1984) etVents d'Est. Vers l'Europe des états de droit? (avec PierreGrémion, Paris, Presses universitaires de France, 1990). Il a réalisé de nombreux travaux de philosophie politique (en particulier sur Kant et Hegel) et en relations internationales (surtout sur le nationalisme, le totalitarisme et la guerre). Ce texte a été écrit à l'occasion d'une conférence, présentée en anglais, à un colloque de l'Institut Nexus à Tilburg (Pays-Bas) en 1998, puis actualisé pour une conférence à la New School of Social Research de New York en 2000.     

The canopic jars of Rameses II: real use revealed by molecular study of organic residues

Four blue-glazed faience jars, on exhibition in the Louvre Museum, are referred to as the canopic jars of Rameses II. Their recent typological re-examination rendered this original assignment questionable. In order to clearly determine their use, a study of two successive organic residues from the canopic jars, using molecular biomarkers analysed by GC-MS and LC-MS and absolute dating by ¹⁴C, was initiated. The results revealed that these two materials were not contemporary to the reign of Rameses II. The first one, scraped from the interior face of one jar, was identified as an unguent made of coniferous oil and animal fat and dated from the Third Intermediate Period. The second one, originally stored with glued linen inside one jar, is likely an embalming substance, made of pure vegetable resin (Pistacia) and dated from the Ptolemaic Period. These results clarify a controversy which has been lasting over a century. The famous blue-glazed faience jars are not the canopic jars of Rameses II but are confirmed as situlae which were reused at least two times: first to store unguents during the Intermediate Period and later to store embalming packages of an unknown person during the Ptolemaic period.     

Le Grand Abri aux Puces,a Mousterian site from the Last Interglacial: paleogeography,paleoenvironment, and new excavation results

Le Grand Abri aux Puces (GAP), located on the right bank of the Ouvèze River of southern France, has been known to contain well-preserved stone tools and faunal remains, but our work in 2008 was the first professional, controlled excavation at the site and has exposed at least 1 archaeological layer with a very rich and diverse faunal assemblage (23 macrofaunal species, as many for the microfauna, 27 land snail species), abundant charcoals (fragments are large and preserve small twigs with their pith and bark still intact), and stone tools with immaculate surface preservation (retaining their original freshness and preserving microscopic use wear). The information issuing from paleontology, micropaleontology, malacology, and anthracology all place the principle GAP human occupation unambiguously in a temperate climatic phase. Different biometric and biochronological characters of the fauna converge to place the layers found thus far from before the last glacial, and most likely in MIS 5e (127–117 kya). The lithic elements, mainly composed of tools of superior quality, demonstrating particular technical investment, and made from widely distributed raw material sources, lead us to hypothesize brief passages of hunting groups in the cave focused around an anticipated activity. This hypothesis will be refined and tested during further excavations.     

Fruit and seed biomineralization and its effect on preservation

Mineralised fruits and seeds are frequently found in archaeological sediments but their chemical nature has not been often examined. The nature and the origin of these archaeobotanical remains have to be investigated to understand their taphonomic history. Fruits or seeds can be mineralised not only by replacement mineralisation but also by biomineralisation during the plant life. The mineral components of three fossil fruits sampled on the Pleistocene site of Dmanisi were analysed and compared with their modern analogues. Analyses were carried out by means of an environmental scanning electron microscope, equipped with an energy dispersive X-ray device and by means of a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer. Biogenic carbonates and/or biogenic silica were identified in the fossil and modern fruits of some taxa. Comparison between fossil and modern specimens has shown that molecular reorganisation occurred in carbonate and in biogenic silica during fossilisation, through diagenetic processes. The resulting stable mineral structures confer an exceptional preservation to fruits in sediments. Taking into account these taphonomic specificities (transformation and differential preservation), the chronological and palaeoenvironmental aspects of the mineralised fruits are discussed.