Death of Françoise Audouze

Françoise Audouze, born in 1943, passed away on 12 August.

With the passing of Françoise Audouze, a member of our collective history has gone. To describe her place in our community is to describe the history of archaeology over nearly three quarters of a century. For she has been a rigorous participant in every important moment, both politically and scientifically.

Françoise spent her entire career at the CNRS. Initially a Bronze Age specialist, she became a Magdalenian specialist through the excavation and study of the Verberie site, which she oversaw for many years. Following several visits to the United States, she was closely involved with the Anglo-Saxon school and the New Archaelogy, and drew on Bindford’s models to interpret this reindeer-hunting camp.
She was an active witness to the Leroi-Gourhan epic and, in 2011, wrote a very instructive text for the young and not-so-young colleagues in our team on the development of A. Leroi-Gourhan’s research in the 1970s and 1980s and its impact to the present day. An active participant in the development of the Laboratoire d’Ethnologie Préhistorique, to which she has always remained loyal, Françoise has also maintained strong links with the UMR Préhistoire et Technologie. Always involved in theoretical discussions about the life of her laboratory, she supported our decision to merge, which led to the creation of UMR TEMPS in 2022.

Between 1988 and 1997, she directed the CNRS’s Centre de Recherches Archéologiques (CRA) in Valbonne, with its 12 national sites. She played an important role in the collective national debate on the development of research in archaeology and prehistory, as well as in the transformation of research structures in connection with their attachment to universities. At the time, it launched a process of reflection, and then negotiation, in response to the CNRS’s wish to drastically modify the research department at Valbonne and its various branches, by making cuts and reallocating staff and resources. This virtuous process led to the creation of CEPAM (Centre d’Etudes Préhistoire Antiquité Moyen Âge, which recently became Cultures et Environnements Préhistoire Antiquité Moyen Âge).

As a member of the National Committee, she promoted environmental studies, which were still in their infancy. She was an active member in the creation of the journal Les Nouvelles de l’Archéologie which, at a time when the Internet was not widely available, provided information on archaeological research policy and the future of archaeologists, and which played an important role in the creation of INRAP.

Verberie was one of the pillars of her battle against illness, so great was her concern for the future of this publication that she did not have the time to complete it; she was very touched to know that members of the team were ready to take up the torch thanks to the documents that she recently passed on to them to take Verberie where she wanted to take it.

Right up to the end, she remained formidably true to herself, always attentive to everyone’s future and generous with her time and advice. Until recently, she enjoyed coming to the laboratory to work alongside young people.

Her laboratory and the scientific community will miss her.

UMR8068 Technology and Ethnology of Prehistoric Worlds

An excellent interview between Françoise and Gwendoline Torterat, produced in 2020 as part of an audiovisual series on Shared Memories, is available on Canal-U: https://www.canal-u.tv/chaines/umrtemps/pincevent-france/francoise-audouze-nanterre-2020