Project description: The Romans' attraction to ornamental rocks is evident in private architecture, where colored marbles became a symbol of wealth and power as early as the 1st century BC. The development of archaeometric analyses to determine the origin of marbles is providing an increasingly accurate picture of the sources of the rocks used in Roman decoration and architecture. While the use of archaeometry is now part of the protocol for attributing the provenance of white marbles, colored
stone furnishings still suffer from the certainty with which we think we can attribute their provenance to the naked eye. However, in recent years, the discovery of sources of decorative rock that cannot be distinguished by the naked eye from those identified to date has overturned our understanding of the origin of some of these rocks: a new strategy for identifying these marbles is therefore essential. Archeometric characterization of decorative rocks will therefore be applied to a large Aquitaine corpus (both archaeological and geological) in order to answer questions about their origin and then their transport between quarries and buildings. This work will enable
us to examine the choice of the material's origin and its use in the buildings studied. Finally, a chronological perspective will be provided in order to assess the turning points in the supply of these materials.

Principal supervisors: Isabelle Pianet, Archéosciences Bordeaux, UMR 6034

Application:

• a letter of motivation (2 pages max., specifically focusing on defending the profile required for this position)
• a CV (including list of publications, if applicable)

Place of work: Archéosciences Bordeaux, Maison de l’Archéologie, Université Bordeaux Montaigne, 33600 PESSAC, France

Contract duration: 12 months

Expected starting date: March 1st 2026

Deadline for application: before 11:59pm on February 8th 2026