Valentine Roux (born 1956) is a French

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

specialising in

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...

production in the

Levant The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is eq ...

between the 5th and 2nd millennium BCE with the aim of identifying the "evolutionary trajectories of ceramic traditions."

Education and career

Roux was born in Belleville-sur-Saône in 1956. She studied

prehistory Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use of ...

at the

University of Paris , image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of Arms , latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis , motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin) , mottoeng = Here and a ...

and obtained her doctorate in 1983. Her thesis was on the

ethnoarchaeology Ethnoarchaeology is the ethnographic study of peoples for archaeological reasons, usually through the study of the material remains of a society (see David & Kramer 2001). Ethnoarchaeology aids archaeologists in reconstructing ancient lifeways by s ...

of grinding material in Neolithic Mauritania. She has been affiliated with the

CNRS The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 ...

since 1986, and was appointed a research director there in 2003. Roux's research "combines

in India and archaeology in the Near East." She has devoted much research to developing "reference frameworks, whether about the diagnostic attributes of manufacturing techniques, their properties, the quantification of their constitutive components, the cognitive and motor skills involved, or, more recently, about the conditions favorable to their diffusion." Because her work demands collaborations among interdisciplinary researchers, she has worked and published with others in fields such as geosciences, economics, psychology and sociology. Roux has co-edited the ''

Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory The ''Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal which focuses on methodology and theory in archaeology. It is published quarterly by Springer Science+Business Media. The journal originated in an annual edite ...

'' since 2019. Her book ''Ceramics and Society: A Technological Approach to Archaeological Assemblages'' (2019) "encourages archaeologists to approach processing and recording pottery assemblages differently, moving away from a focus on typology towards understanding pottery from a technological perspective".

Awards

CNRS Silver Medal The CNRS Silver Medal is a scientific award given every year to about fifteen researchers by the French National Centre for Scientific Research The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherch ...

in 2015. * Legion d’Honneur under the Ministry of Scientific Research, 2016

Selected works

* Roux, V., Bril, B., & Dietrich, G. (1995). Skills and learning difficulties involved in stone knapping: The case of stone‐bead knapping in Khambhat, India. ''World archaeology'', ''27''(1), 63-87. * Roux, V., & Courty, M. A. (1998). Identification of Wheel-fashioning Methods: Technological Analysis of 4th–3rdMillennium B C Oriental Ceramics. ''Journal of archaeological Science'', ''25''(8), 747-763. * Roux, V. (2003). A dynamic systems framework for studying technological change: application to the emergence of the potter's wheel in the southern Levant. ''Journal of archaeological method and theory'', ''10''(1), 1-30. * Roux, V. (2003). Ceramic standardization and intensity of production: quantifying degrees of specialization. ''American Antiquity'', ''68''(4), 768-782. * Roux, V., & Brill, B. (2005). ''Stone knapping: the necessary conditions for a uniquely hominin behaviour'' (p. xxx). McDonald Institute for archaeological research. * Roux, V. (2007). Ethnoarchaeology: a non historical science of reference necessary for interpreting the past. ''Journal of archaeological method and theory'', ''14''(2), 153-178. * Roux, V. (2010). Technological innovations and developmental trajectories: social factors as evolutionary forces. ''Innovation in cultural systems. Contributions from evolutionary anthropology'', 217-234.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Roux, Valentine 1956 births Living people People from Belleville-en-Beaujolais French archaeologists French women archaeologists Archaeologists of the Near East University of Paris alumni Research directors of the French National Centre for Scientific Research