No abstract

Rescue excavations carried out around Guimps (Charente, France) in 2011 unearthed several medieval structures, including a silo containing a single dog burial. The animal, a young adult, exhibits numerous skeletal lesions. The excellent preservation of the remains allowed us to carry out a retrospective diagnosis and to demonstrate the presence of two independent pathologies, a radius-curvus and a medial patellar dislocation. These conditions are of traumatic origin, as are the many fractures the animal also displays. The possible causes of such multiple injuries are discussed and the chronology of the lesions and their skeletal distribution are examined in light of modern data. This leads us to suggest animal abuse as a probable cause and, as almost no comparable cases were found in the bibliographical record, raise the profile of the identification of animal abuse in archeology.

Deux fouilles archéologiques préventives menées en 2010 et 2013 à Saintes (17) ont permis d’étudier plusieurs tronçons d’une voie arrivant à Mediolanum Santonum par l’est, traversant un paysage vallonné. Une partie au moins de cet axe correspond probablement à la voie dite d’Agrippa. Un autre chemin venant du sud-est la rejoint formant un carrefour dans une zone à vocation funéraire. Ces grandes fenêtres de fouille ont permis de mieux caractériser la morphologie des voies. Elles ont aussi apporté d’intéressants éléments concernant les modes d’installation et d’entretien de ces axes importants, de leurs accotements et des fossés associés.

A methodological didactic experience is presented on the unit «the soil as nexus between Geology and Biology)) as an example of learning through discovering.