Variety in Archaeo-Geophysics: The French Example

As a result of a long history in both archaeology and geophysics, France exhibits a wide panel of practices in archaeo-geophysics, going from archaeologists using geophysics as a supplementary tool for understanding their sites to applied geophysicists using archaeological sites as better constrained features and potential ground feedback. This chapter tries to scan this variety in the practices which overlap with a variety of contexts. After a brief overview of the backgrounds which control the practices in France, we show several examples that illustrate this diversity. Firstly, we will show a set of surveys of rural areas coming from both public and private institutions. Secondly, we will present how archaeological sites in urban areas are assessed with the geophysical techniques. Thirdly, we will address what can be done in what we define as the “specific” context. In each context, we will highlight how geophysical techniques could improve itselves with the help of archaeological sites took as the place for an intensive interdisciplinary research. We conclude that archaeology can be a way to make geosciences progress by bringing together geology, soil science, geotechnics, geochemistry, and geophysics.