An Unconventional Museum Guardian of Biodiversity

The archaeology collection bears witness to the history of the Museum.

Rediscovered very recently thanks to a new inventory, the archaeological collection has proven to be of significant scientific and heritage value. Comprising approximately 1,200 artifacts, it was assembled primarily during^{the 20th} century through regional excavations, as well as through chance discoveries by amateurs, scientists, and professors at the Faculty of Sciences in Besançon. Acquired permanently by the municipality in 2020, this collection is part of the Museum’s holdings, just like the natural science collections.

A comprehensive inventory was conducted; each object or artifact was examined, digitized, and photographed, while the bibliography was updated. Condition assessments also provided an overview of the preservation conditions in the storage areas. This study resulted in a better understanding of the collection, revealing a clear representation of the Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age periods, primarily through flint tools and pottery.

Among this archaeological material, remains related toarchaeozoology (the study of animal remains in relation to past societies) andarchaeoanthropology (the study of human remains in an archaeological context) have been rediscovered.

In archaeozoology, the cave bear (Ursus spelaeus) is represented by numerous bones in the Museum’s collections. Most of the remains were found in local caves, the bears’ preferred hibernation sites. During this critical period, the animal could perish there if its food supplies ran out. During its time in the cave, it may have encountered Neanderthals or Homo sapiens, who, on rare occasions, hunted it.

In archaeological anthropology, several burial sites have been preserved. The burials date primarily from the early Bronze Age, as confirmed by the protohistoric pottery found in the caves. Contrary to popular belief, humans did not live in caves, but they might stay there temporarily to shelter from the rain and cold, or to bury their dead.

These examples from the Museum’s collection illustrate not only the diversity of materials but also the coherence of the collection as it pertains to certain themes, such as human and animal occupation of local caves from the Paleolithic through the Bronze Age.

The rediscovery of a collection often brings unexpected surprises. This is how more than 300 bioanthropological remains—that is, human bones from archaeological burial sites—were unearthed.

This discipline, which lies halfway between forensic science and archaeology, emerged under the name “archaeoanthropology” in the late 1980s. For the first time, human bones are being studied for their own sake, and the focus is no longer solely on beautiful grave goods or the architecture of the tomb. Based on these bones, the archaeoanthropologist is able to reconstruct the individual’s social status, material culture, and spiritual beliefs—in short, the entire picture of a vanished society, accessible only through the remains it left behind.

At the museum, the most complete skeleton preserved in the storage collection is that of a woman, discovered in the Saint-Romain cave in the Jura. She was found buried in a supine position (or decubitus dorsalis), accompanied by bone ornaments. This burial is a rare example of the funeral rites typical of the early Bronze Age in our region, dating back to 2000 BCE.

This type of collection, known as “sensitive,” is not intended for display at the museum because it is too fragile and fragmentary. The bones are cataloged and stored in specially designed preservation boxes to best uphold the principles of respect, dignity, and decency due to every individual. The goal is also to preserve this genetic material as effectively as possible for future studies, particularly to provide more precise dating through carbon-14 analysis.