The aim of the SerialKey project is to carry out a technological and geometric morphometric study of mass-produced items from the European Late Bronze Age in order to gain a better understanding of the organisation of their production, diffusion and consumption on a large scale. The Bronze Age was marked by the outbreak of seriality. With the introduction of metallurgy and the development of moulds, it became possible to create series of visually identical-objects. This practice was particularly important at the end of the period (Late Bronze III / Ha B2-3, 10th-9th centuries BC) with the introduction of bronze moulds dedicated to the production of series of metal objects, the manufacture and use of which remain poorly understood. The production of these series of hundreds or even thousands of almost identical objects is still to be investigated. These items, by their large number, the presence of moulds and their wide distribution mean that they hold great potential for understanding the organisation of this type of production and the ways in which they were disseminated. However, these series have been little studied due to the lack of a suitable method capable of identifying fine variations corresponding to different moulds or groups of producers. This research project is therefore based on the creation of a new methodology for studying serial productions. Production techniques will be studied using X-ray imaging methods, while metallographic analyses will provide information on the use of moulds. Finally, geometric morphometrics will enable the identification of series within objects that are visually very similar. This interdisciplinary approach will provide a better understanding of the socio-economic organisation and relationships between producers and consumers, as well as between the regions that produced and consumed these objects.

The research project “MONACORALE – History and Archaeology of Monasteries and Ecclesiastical sites in the Eastern Adriatic (4th-12th c.)”, is born from the collaboration of French, Croatian and Italian researchers working on archives, texts and ecclesial, and notably monastic sites of the Istrian and Dalmatian Adriatic coast between the 4th and the 12th century. It aims to constitute a reasoned corpus of these sites synthesizing all available sources and to study a "workshop area" (island of Cres, Croatia) including several major sites. Through a resolutely multidisciplinary approach combining the sources of archeology, history, history of art, literature, epigraphy, paleo-environmental study and landscape archeology, the objective will be to study : 1. the topographical aspects and the historical conditions of their foundation (relations with the natural environment, human context, reuse of ancient sites, etc.) ; 2. their territorial and social organization in the eastern Adriatic context (expansion of Benedictine monasticism and Romanesque architecture, recruitment and mobility of monks, cultural exchanges with Italy, etc.) ; 3. their functions in spreading reformist ideas and, more broadly, pontifical authority in a period of confrontation between the powers present in the Adriatic (Franks, Byzantines, Normans, Venetians, Slavs).

The publication of medieval charters is an important issue for the European diplomatics since a long time. A great work has been done since the first publications during the 17th century but there still is a great lot of work to be done. Even for the 12th cent. Many archives never have been systematically edited. So, the first stakes of CharCis is to relaunch the edition of medieval charters. From the years 1970’, computer science has been applied to Human Sciences, on which it had a great impact. But, if there are today many databases of charters, in France and in Europe, there is a too big diversity in the making of these databases and of their query interfaces, although data grammars have been developed, like the TEI or the CEI, which is a kind of extension of the former, and although the generalization of the XML-language. So, the second stakes of the CharCis project, is to organize a new and generalized format of databases charters and to create a new query interface, efficient for thematic as for lexical queries, which could become a model adaptable for European diplomatics in its diversity. Some years ago, a new kind of texts publication has been proposed: the idea that it should be possible to publish what should not be a critical edition in the usual meaning of the word, but a first step towards a critical edition. A simple transcription, from one single manuscript, without authenticity critics, without identification of the place and person-names, but published on the net in a database, so that it could be interrogated. The 3rd stakes of the project is the publication of a great lot (about 2,000) of unpublished charters; a simple publication, 1st step towards a critical edition, for giving a first access to the texts. One of the most spectacular movements of the 12th century is the development of the Cistercian order. This Cistercian history seems to be well known, but actually, many parts of this tremendous expansion are only known on a simplifying way. This is because many Cistercian texts are still unpublished, and this is mainly true for the Cistercian charters. So, the 4th stakes of our project is, thanks to the publication of unedited Cistercian charters, to give way to a better knowledge of the Cistercian abbeys, and mainly of the growth of the order and of the uses of literacy among the Cistercian monasteries. Finally, the aim of the project is to create a spur to action on the development of scientific research, and especially on the production of tools in two directions: the production of a system of text edition working following the rules of the CEI/TEI, which actually should be a ready-to-use system for the basis element but thanks to which the researcher could go further; the production of maps tanks to IGS, which localize with a maximal accuracy the historical datas, and give way to an analysis and representation. So the 5th stakes of the project is to create a spur to action for the production of new tools.