Operation SPEAR
On 6 July 2021, in collaboration with the Bureau du patrimoine archéologique de la Seine-Saint-Denis, the Conseil départemental and the Direction de la culture, du patrimoine, du sport et des loisirs, our team will study a spear-shaped idiophone, an iron ring and copper-alloy pendants found in a grave of the 3rd century BC in the necropolis of the Avicenne hospital, at Bobigny, in Seine-Saint-Denis. In partnership with the Institut Technologique Européen des Métiers de la Musique (ITEMM), our team will follow a non-destructive methodology based on new-generation technologies (3D digitisation, photogrammetry, laser vibrometry, etc.). The data produced by our work will be useful in many fields (study, research, public engagement). This multidisciplinary approach will also make it possible to work back to the properties of the material in order to reconstruct the objects through an experimental archaeology protocol, the results of which will help us better understand the function of these artefacts. There will follow an exhibition (virtual and physical) with a dedicated route of photographs of the mission and facsimiles of the artefacts, lectures, the screening of a documentary and a concert, so that audiences can rediscover sounds 2,000 years old.
Context
These objects were discovered in 2004 on the site of the necropolis of the Avicenne hospital (Seine-Saint-Denis), in grave 195, dated to the beginning of the 3rd century BC. All the grave goods from this burial are now held in the collections of the Bureau du patrimoine archéologique de la Seine-Saint-Denis. In 2006, a first successful reconstruction of the spear was attempted, and its results were published in the Revue archéologique d'Île-de-France.
Our aim is to continue the work carried out in 2006 and to bring a fresh look at the spear and at all the grave goods found in grave 195.
We made reconstructions of these objects taking into account their exact composition, identified through a new-generation non-destructive methodology. We thus hope to contribute humbly to the advancement of research, thanks to innovative new technologies combined with experimental archaeology. This multidisciplinary approach will allow an overall reading of these remarkable objects and perhaps a better understanding of the musical customs of Antiquity.
Digitisation
This method creates a digital copy of an object using a scanner. It first enriches digital databases, making the work of researchers and students around the world easier.
The 3D document preserves the geometry of the object digitally, and even its colour when combined with photogrammetry, which proves invaluable when artefacts deteriorate (naturally, through vandalism, etc.) or are stolen or lost.
The 3D document also opens up many possibilities for public engagement: online virtual museums, technological mediation modules such as holograms, or the production of facsimiles.
Laser vibrometry
Laser vibrometry measures, without contact, the vibrations on the surface of an object. Analysis then determines the resonance modes of the structure, that is, the very particular ways in which it vibrates according to frequency. Combined with 3D digitisation and simulations, this approach identifies the mechanical properties of the object (stiffness, damping).
The musical spear
The sistrum belongs to the ancient instrumentarium. Probably linked to the sacred, it is found in Egypt, where it was used in the cult of Isis or Hathor, and in the Greek and Roman world. Although archaeology has not yet brought to light any other similar object, it seems clear that this type of instrument held an important place in Celtic Antiquity. The individual buried in grave 195 seems closely linked to the sacred, as the rest of the grave goods show, including a set of bronze pendants evoking a sistrum and an axe. Finally, this sistrum evokes a spear, which may refer either to the warrior past of the deceased, who died at an advanced age, or to the spear of the god Lugus.