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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Les sarcophages mérovingiens en trachyte. Des carrières aux lieux d'enfouissement (Massif central)

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A multi-disciplinary team is currently working on trachyte, a volcanic rock from the Chaîne des Puys (French massif central), within a research program supported by the French ministry of Culture. Although it has been known at least since the 19th century that this rock was used for construction and sculpture in antiquity, and in the making of sarcophagi in the middle ages, the systematisation of the research on trachyte, carried out since 2008, has enabled us to make significant advances in the knowledge of its exploitation and dissemination. Geologists have established a detailed identity card of the six volcanoes where massive lava is available, thereby allowing the classification of each type of trachyte. Merovingians quarries, identified in four of these volcanoes, and perfectly preserved, are currently being studied by archaeologists. The production of trapezoidal sarcophagi in the 5th-8th centuries ad has been established. Samples from such sarcophagi have been found up to 100 km away from the quarries. A study is currently being carried out regarding the dissemination area of these products and the itineraries used to transport them, bearing in mind the fact that no through road has been identified by archeologists for the period.