Discover Beidaud

The methods used to achieve these objectives were generally borrowed from other fields. To create a map of the settlements in the area we use tools from geography and geology — such as aerial orthophoto imagery, topographic plans, the digital elevation model (DEM), 3D modelling, and LiDAR mapping. Also from geography, we use geophysical methods (magnetometry, ground-penetrating radar, electrical resistivity) to map buried archaeological structures or to understand the geomorphological evolution of the area. For palaeoenvironmental reconstruction we also turn to palynology, palaeobotany and archaeozoology, which help us understand what plants and animals existed or were cultivated and raised in the area.

To these are added, of course, the archaeological excavations using the stratigraphic method. Furthermore, as we also investigate the funerary spaces — without which the settlements and the communities that created them cannot truly be understood — for the analysis of human remains we use a method from the medical sciences, namely physical anthropologyPhysical anthropology is the branch of anthropology that studies humans as biological organisms, analysing the origin, evolution, and biological variability of the human species. Its main fields include palaeoanthropology (the study of human evolution from hominin fossils), primatology, human population genetics, osteology and anthropometry, human ecology, and forensic anthropology. Methodologically, it draws on comparative anatomy, molecular genetics, radiometric dating, and biostatistics. Unlike cultural anthropology, it approaches humans from a biological-evolutionary perspective rather than a socio-cultural one, though the two intersect in the study of gene-culture co-evolution., and for the study of funerary spaces we use a cutting-edge method pioneered by the French archaeological school, beginning with Henri Duday: archaeothanatologyArchaeothanatology is a method of extremely rigorous excavation and recording of funerary structures, aimed at understanding not only their structure and function, but also at identifying the funerary gestures associated with each structure before, during, and after burial..