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The Department of Art History and Archaeology of UNamur is participating for the first time in an experimental archaeology project, within the framework of a doctoral thesis on the production of glass in the Roman period. Conducted in partnership with Malagne, the Rochefort archaeopark, the Specularia project aims to gain a better understanding of the reality of the gestures and techniques of Gallo-Roman craftsmen and to scientifically validate hypotheses that are still debated today. To carry out this experiment, the Department of Art History and Archaeology is launching its first participatory funding.

At the end of January 2023, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) returned a real treasure to Belgium: a medieval charter bearing the seal of the Count of Flanders Philippe d'Alsace, formerly kept in the abbey of Messines (West Flanders), which had disappeared at the beginning of the First World War. A look back at the tribulations of this archival document, the restitution of which is the result of a fruitful collaboration between the PraME Centre of UNamur, the General Archives of the Kingdom and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

This is a first at the UNamur: a team of archaeologists will soon be testing an experimental protocol to reproduce the process of shaping glass in Roman times. Entitled Specularia (Latin for "glass"), this project has the support of several associations and companies, including AGC Glass Europe.

The documentary produced as part of the experimental archaeology research project, "Specularia", wins an award at an American festival, organized by the University of Pittsburgh and the University of South Carolina!

Angélique Aristondo, a C2W post-doctoral fellow at UNamur, has distinguished herself by winning the second 2023 Gender and Health Research Award from the ARES Women and Science Committee. Her research project focuses on violence against women in Senegal.

What exactly did the ancient Egyptians eat? How did they prepare and preserve their food? What was their nutritional value? René Preys, an Egyptologist at UNamur, is currently involved in this astonishing research. This expert is a major figure in Belgian Egyptology. Interview.

Space has become a major economic and strategic issue. As a member of the European UNIVERSEH Alliance, UNamur explores this space theme in its various departments, from physics to geology, via mathematics, computer science or philosophy. Without forgetting to address the general public, who still dream of the stars...

From 2020 to 2025, as part of her doctoral thesis in history, researcher Julie Duchêne conducted a ground-breaking investigation blending history and biology to trace the cohabitation between humans and wolves in Wallonia and Luxembourg, from the 18th to the early 20th century. Thanks to an innovative interdisciplinary approach, including DNA analysis of naturalized 19th-century specimens, her work sheds light on the mechanisms that led to the local extinction of the species. This research was made possible thanks to the support of numerous scientific and cultural partners.

In May 2025, the Department of Physics welcomed two special visitors: Serge Mathot and François Briard from Namur, both alumni of UNamur and members of CERN. Several activities were on the program, ranging from a visit to the particle accelerator, to science popularization and thematic seminars, particularly in heritage sciences. The aim? To identify areas or activities in which UNamur and CERN could strengthen their collaboration.

In 2025, two iconic Walloon products—Walloon honey and Liège white blood sausage—were awarded the prestigious European PGI designation. Behind this success lies the AgriLabel project, to which UNamur has been contributing for over a decade. Working alongside producers, specialists, and public institutions, our Department of History played a decisive role: demonstrating, through historical sources and scientific analysis, the close connection between these products and their local terroir. A project at the heart of economic, identity-related, cultural, and scientific issues.

This is a first in Wallonia! The Citadelle de Dinant now offers an augmented reality tour that plunges visitors right into the heart of its history. At the helm: the French company Histovery, specializing in heritage reconstructions, with scientific support from Axel Tixhon, professor in the History Department at UNamur.

The study of memory phenomena in ancient societies has been a growing field of research since the 1990s, and has been particularly dynamic over the last decade. Awareness of the impact of memory, due to its plasticity, on social and political actors in the ancient world opens up new perspectives for analyzing attested phenomena and events. The conference proposes to study the use of memory and its specific dynamics in the context of political competition, in various spheres and covering a broad chronological framework, from the 3rd century BC to the 4th century AD, with the aim of encouraging dialogue between respective specialists.Organizers: Simon Lambert (F.R.S.-FNRS Research Fellow), Pierre Assenmaker (Professor, UNamur), and Françoise Van Haeperen (Full Professor, UCLouvain)Information and registration: simon.lambert@unamur.be