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Parchment bindings under the microscope

To restore an old book correctly, it is essential to know the secrets of its manufacture and the reasons for its deterioration. Thanks to the King Baudouin Foundation's Jean-Jacques Comhaire Fund, the restoration workshop of the Moretus Plantin University Library has launched a new research project on parchment bindings in the Southern Netherlands in the 16th and 17th centuries. The aim is to gain a better understanding in order to improve conservation.
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AGC Glass supports the Specularia experimental archaeology project

This is a first at the UNamur: a team of archaeologists will soon be testing an experimental protocol to reproduce the process of shaping glass in Roman times. Entitled Specularia (Latin for "glass"), this project has the support of several associations and companies, including AGC Glass Europe.
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Producing glass like the Romans: scientific research with a life-size experiment!

On 15 and 16 July, as part of the Gallo-Roman Rendezvous, the Specularia research project, run by the University of Namur and the Malagne Archaeopark, will be put through its paces in Malagne. This unique and exceptional experiment will give visitors a hands-on opportunity to discover what experimental archaeology is all about and to witness the different stages in the production of Roman window glass. This life-size experiment is part of the second phase of the Spécularia research project led by Géraldine Frère, a doctoral researcher in archaeology at the Institut Patrimoines, Transmissions, Héritages (PaTHs).
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FED-tWIN funding programmes - Two is better than one!

Since 2019, the Federal Science Policy (BELSPO) has been funding FED-tWIN research programmes, run jointly by Federal Scientific Establishments and universities throughout Belgium. UNamur has been awarded two of them. One for the PraME research centre dedicated to the study of medieval writing practices and linked to the PaTHs Institute.
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Specularia" wins US film awards

The documentary produced as part of the experimental archaeology research project, "Specularia", wins an award at an American festival, organized by the University of Pittsburgh and the University of South Carolina!
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Understanding the history of violence against women in Senegal: research wins ARES "Gender and Health" award

Angélique Aristondo, a C2W post-doctoral fellow at UNamur, has distinguished herself by winning the second 2023 Gender and Health Research Award from the ARES Women and Science Committee. Her research project focuses on violence against women in Senegal.
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René Preys: the archaeologist who examines Egyptian menus

What exactly did the ancient Egyptians eat? How did they prepare and preserve their food? What was their nutritional value? René Preys, an Egyptologist at UNamur, is currently involved in this astonishing research. This expert is a major figure in Belgian Egyptology. Interview.
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The "Même pas peur! between education, experience and commitment

The wolf, long banished from our lands, has made a remarkable comeback in Wallonia since 2016. This mysterious being, now protected, arouses as much fascination as fear. Through an exhibition, held as part of the Cultural Project course, third-year history bachelor students have traced the history of the wolf. From April 11 to 27, 2024, the exhibition entitled "Même pas peur! Une évolution de l'image du loup à travers les siècles" invited audiences to plunge into the heart of a historical exploration.
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Partnership with the Entre-Sambre-et-Meuse National Park

With its expertise in the field of geology and biodiversity conservation, the UNamur is one of the partners of the new Entre-Sambre-et-Meuse National Park designated by the Walloon Government. Alongside the other actors and promoters of the project, the UNamur will make its knowledge and experience available to enhance and preserve this exceptional natural heritage!
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The PraME Centre contributes to the restitution of a charter from 1176

At the end of January 2023, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) returned a real treasure to Belgium: a medieval charter bearing the seal of the Count of Flanders Philippe d'Alsace, formerly kept in the abbey of Messines (West Flanders), which had disappeared at the beginning of the First World War. A look back at the tribulations of this archival document, the restitution of which is the result of a fruitful collaboration between the PraME Centre of UNamur, the General Archives of the Kingdom and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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Participatory funding: Specularia, experimental archaeology project

The Department of Art History and Archaeology of UNamur is participating for the first time in an experimental archaeology project, within the framework of a doctoral thesis on the production of glass in the Roman period. Conducted in partnership with Malagne, the Rochefort archaeopark, the Specularia project aims to gain a better understanding of the reality of the gestures and techniques of Gallo-Roman craftsmen and to scientifically validate hypotheses that are still debated today. To carry out this experiment, the Department of Art History and Archaeology is launching its first participatory funding.
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FNRS 2024 calls: Focus on the PaTHs Institute

Two researchers from the Institut Patrimoines, Transmissions, Héritages (PaTHs) have just been awarded funding from the F.R.S - FNRS following calls whose results were published in December 2024. The PaTHs institute is a federation of research centers and groups that have sprung up in and around the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters. The institute is distinguished by its emphasis on critical analysis of the "traces" of the past (written, material, monumental, landscape, visual, sound...), to the point of placing the "trace" itself at the heart of scientific questioning.
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