Étienne Anheim

History
is the science
of things which are not repeated.”


Paul Valéry

Towards an interdisciplinary,
reflective and collaborative science

By Professor Étienne Anheim

Mediaevalist, Research Director at the School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences and Vice-President of the Heritage Sciences Foundation

read moreRead the article

#1
Understanding
ancient civilisations

Various methods, including dating, are used to better understand the technical and cultural practices of our ancestors. This is essential when seeking to gain a more detailed understanding of how they lived and how they interacted with their environment.

#2
Preserving the
vestiges of the past

Whether they are made of organic, inorganic or ferrous materials, the vestiges of the past which have reached us frequently need to be cared for and sometimes even restored. Various processes, in which CEA specialises, have been successfully used for this.

#3
Helping with archaeological
investigations

High-definition muography, a cutting-edge technology originally developed to track particles in high-energy physics experiments, is proving to be a valuable tool in enabling archaeologists to probe the interior of objects, where photography can see only the surface.

Muon radiography

Muon radiography

Muons and
the pharaoh


BY SÉBASTIEN PROCUREUR

CEA - Fundamental Research Division

#4
From the past
to the future

What if the objects from the past helped us better predict the behaviour of materials in the future, more particularly to obtain reliable predictions of their alteration? This area of research, in which CEA is the leader, is only one of the promising avenues of a constantly changing overall approach.