Valérie MATOÏAN
Valérie MATOÏAN
e-mail : valerie.matoian@college-de-france.fr
Near Eastern archaeology and iconography
Since 2017 : CNRS research scientist UMR 7192 (CNRS – Collège de France, Paris)
2003-2017 : CNRS research scientist UMR 5133 Archéorient (CNRS – Lyon 2 University)
Since 2009 : French head of the "Mission archéologique syro-française de Ras Shamra - Ougarit"
Since 2009 : Editor of the serie "Ras Shamra – Ougarit"
Since 2009 : Editor of the Website of the "Mission archéologique syro-française de Ras Shamra - Ougarit" (www.ras-shamra.ougarit.mom.fr).
Since 2009 : Manager of the archives of the "Mission française de Ras Shamra - Ougarit" (1978-2017) and of the project of digitalization.
Since 1988 : Member of the "Mission archéologique syro-française de Ras Shamra - Ougarit"
Since 2015 : Member of the "Commission consultative des recherches archéologiques à l’étranger", Ministry of Foreign Affairs, France
2016-2017 : Co-manager of the project “Répertoire des archives de fouilles françaises en Syrie, SyrHumaNum” (Ministery of Culture / Ministry of Foreign Affairs, France).
Since 2017 : Member of audiovisual committee of the "Maison Archéologie & Ethnologie, René-Ginouvès, Nanterre".
Since 1986 : Lecturer at the "École du Louvre", Paris.
2016 : Scientific commissioner of the exhibition entitled “Ougarit, entre Orient et Occident” (25-23 sept. 2016), Collège de France, Paris.
2016 : Commissioner of the exhibition entitled “La mission d’Ougarit et son heritage”, within the event “L’archéologue du future”, Ministery of Foreign Affairs, France (30 novembre 2016, Paris).
2008 : Commissioner of the exhibition entitled “« L’Orient des palais », le Palais royal d’Ougarit au Bronze recent”, National Museum of Damascus, within the framework of the event “Damascus, Arab Capital of the Culture 2008”.
2006 : Commissioner of the exhibition entitled “Ougarit Blues ou les matières bleues de l’antique Ougarit”, National Museum of Damascus.
2005 : Commissioner of the exhibition entitled “Ougarit Blues ou les matières bleues de l’antique Ougarit”, "Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée", Lyon, and the "Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musées de France", Paris.
1998-1999 : Scientific commissioner of the exhibition entitled “Liban, l’autre rive”, "Institut du Monde Arabe" (Paris).
1997 : Commissioner of the exhibition entitled “Naissance de l’écrit”, within the framework of the event Deuxièmes Rencontres de l’écrit et de l’estampe de Bayeux, Baron Gérard Museum (Bayeux, Calvados).
1995-1996 : Assistant of the exhibition entitled “Exposition d’archéologie syro-européenne, miroir d’un partenariat”, National Museum of Damascus.
1994 : Commissioner of the exhibition entitled “L’Égypte dans les collections municipales de Bayeux”, Baron Gérard Museum (Bayeux, Calvados).
EDUCATION, GRANTS - FELLOWSHIPS
2017 Inscribed on the list of qualifications for university professors (CNU, section 21, France).
2016-2017 Grantees of The Shelby White and Leon Levy Programm for Archaeological Publications (Semitic Museum, Harvard University) for Material Culture and identities in Late Bronze Age Ugarit (Syria), Geo-urban sociology of a cosmopolitan Mediterranean capital. The Study of three areas : “South City”, “South-Acropolis”, “Aegean district”.
2014 Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches, Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne University – Title: “Ugarit, l’Égypte et les ‘Phéniciens’ ”.
2007 Prize “Jeunes chercheurs”, "Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée", Lyon.
2000 Laureate of the "11èmes Rencontres Régionales de la Recherche de la région Rhône-Alpes".
2000 Ph. D. in Archaeology (University of Paris I - Sorbonne, France)
Title: “Ras Shamra – Ougarit (Syrie) et la production des matières vitreuses au Proche-Orient au IIe millénaire avant Jésus-Christ”. Advisor: Prof. Jean-Louis Huot
1998 Prize "Jacques de Morgan - Pierre Vachon-France", Académie des Sciences, Lettres et Arts de Marseille.
1993/1996 Doctorate fellowship from the French Institute of Near-east (IFPO, Damascus)
1986 M.A., École du Louvre
1985 Graduate, École du Louvre
e-mail : valerie.matoian@college-de-france.fr
Near Eastern archaeology and iconography
Since 2017 : CNRS research scientist UMR 7192 (CNRS – Collège de France, Paris)
2003-2017 : CNRS research scientist UMR 5133 Archéorient (CNRS – Lyon 2 University)
Since 2009 : French head of the "Mission archéologique syro-française de Ras Shamra - Ougarit"
Since 2009 : Editor of the serie "Ras Shamra – Ougarit"
Since 2009 : Editor of the Website of the "Mission archéologique syro-française de Ras Shamra - Ougarit" (www.ras-shamra.ougarit.mom.fr).
Since 2009 : Manager of the archives of the "Mission française de Ras Shamra - Ougarit" (1978-2017) and of the project of digitalization.
Since 1988 : Member of the "Mission archéologique syro-française de Ras Shamra - Ougarit"
Since 2015 : Member of the "Commission consultative des recherches archéologiques à l’étranger", Ministry of Foreign Affairs, France
2016-2017 : Co-manager of the project “Répertoire des archives de fouilles françaises en Syrie, SyrHumaNum” (Ministery of Culture / Ministry of Foreign Affairs, France).
Since 2017 : Member of audiovisual committee of the "Maison Archéologie & Ethnologie, René-Ginouvès, Nanterre".
Since 1986 : Lecturer at the "École du Louvre", Paris.
2016 : Scientific commissioner of the exhibition entitled “Ougarit, entre Orient et Occident” (25-23 sept. 2016), Collège de France, Paris.
2016 : Commissioner of the exhibition entitled “La mission d’Ougarit et son heritage”, within the event “L’archéologue du future”, Ministery of Foreign Affairs, France (30 novembre 2016, Paris).
2008 : Commissioner of the exhibition entitled “« L’Orient des palais », le Palais royal d’Ougarit au Bronze recent”, National Museum of Damascus, within the framework of the event “Damascus, Arab Capital of the Culture 2008”.
2006 : Commissioner of the exhibition entitled “Ougarit Blues ou les matières bleues de l’antique Ougarit”, National Museum of Damascus.
2005 : Commissioner of the exhibition entitled “Ougarit Blues ou les matières bleues de l’antique Ougarit”, "Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée", Lyon, and the "Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musées de France", Paris.
1998-1999 : Scientific commissioner of the exhibition entitled “Liban, l’autre rive”, "Institut du Monde Arabe" (Paris).
1997 : Commissioner of the exhibition entitled “Naissance de l’écrit”, within the framework of the event Deuxièmes Rencontres de l’écrit et de l’estampe de Bayeux, Baron Gérard Museum (Bayeux, Calvados).
1995-1996 : Assistant of the exhibition entitled “Exposition d’archéologie syro-européenne, miroir d’un partenariat”, National Museum of Damascus.
1994 : Commissioner of the exhibition entitled “L’Égypte dans les collections municipales de Bayeux”, Baron Gérard Museum (Bayeux, Calvados).
EDUCATION, GRANTS - FELLOWSHIPS
2017 Inscribed on the list of qualifications for university professors (CNU, section 21, France).
2016-2017 Grantees of The Shelby White and Leon Levy Programm for Archaeological Publications (Semitic Museum, Harvard University) for Material Culture and identities in Late Bronze Age Ugarit (Syria), Geo-urban sociology of a cosmopolitan Mediterranean capital. The Study of three areas : “South City”, “South-Acropolis”, “Aegean district”.
2014 Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches, Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne University – Title: “Ugarit, l’Égypte et les ‘Phéniciens’ ”.
2007 Prize “Jeunes chercheurs”, "Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée", Lyon.
2000 Laureate of the "11èmes Rencontres Régionales de la Recherche de la région Rhône-Alpes".
2000 Ph. D. in Archaeology (University of Paris I - Sorbonne, France)
Title: “Ras Shamra – Ougarit (Syrie) et la production des matières vitreuses au Proche-Orient au IIe millénaire avant Jésus-Christ”. Advisor: Prof. Jean-Louis Huot
1998 Prize "Jacques de Morgan - Pierre Vachon-France", Académie des Sciences, Lettres et Arts de Marseille.
1993/1996 Doctorate fellowship from the French Institute of Near-east (IFPO, Damascus)
1986 M.A., École du Louvre
1985 Graduate, École du Louvre
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Papers by Valérie MATOÏAN
In the perspective of preparing an overall summary, taking into account the various sources documenting religious and magical practices in Ugarit, over the course of the last few years we have been interested in several categories of objects that seem to have a connection with materia magica.
Several “types” of cobalt seem to coexist in the studied corpus.
In the vast majority of cases, the source of this cobalt is Egypt (alums from the oases of the Egyptian Western Desert, Kharga and Dakhla) and most of the objects that contain it are considered to be Egyptian imports. The faience mostly illustrates a specific, well-represented category called “monochrome blue-grey faience”, which is characterised by a glaze and a body of the same colour. This Ugaritic repertoire, which is very varied, is by far the most important outside Egypt. The presence of high concentrations of manganese, particularly in a series of rosette-decorated beads with a dark blue-grey glaze, may indicate a specific colouring mixture for the production of this shade, which is not common and raises the question of possible local production.
This oasis cobalt has also been identified in three manufactured glass objects. While the hypothesis of an Egyptian import is advanced for two pieces (a vase and a bead), the third object, a bird-shaped bead, could be a Mycenaean import (made from blue glass imported from Egypt). Finally, the same cobalt was found in a block of raw glass, confirming the import of raw material from Egypt to Ugarit.
A second type of cobalt, whose origin remains unknown, was identified in a specific group of faiences, which present a “white” siliceous body covered with a blue-grey glaze. The characteristics of this cobalt seem to correspond to those of the so-called “R low Mn” cobalt, highlighted by Japanese researchers (Y. Abe et al. 2012) in faience and glass of the Ramesside period.
These results complement the work of A. Kaczmarczyk who identified a third type of cobalt, of Iranian origin, in some Near Eastern faience discovered at Ugarit.
This research is also likely to shed light on the know-how of other civilisations and to re-launch investigations into materials or technologies that have so far gone unnoticed: witness the fragments of the alabaster vase whose engraved decoration is highlighted by a cobalt pigment (cobalt spinel) that was previously known only on the paintings of certain Egyptian ceramic vases from the New Kingdom.
In 2019, a first article published in the volume RSO XXVI was devoted to the study of two stelae with figurative decoration preserved in the Louvre Museum (RS 3.487, Louvre AO 14919; RS 9.226, Louvre AO 20382). The present study deals with the inscribed stelae and the undecorated stelae from Ugarit. On the one hand, we present the results of the technical study of a third work from the Louvre Museum, one of the two inscribed stelae from the Ugaritic repertoire (RS 6.021, Louvre AO 19931). On the other hand, for
the two stelae without decoration (RS 23.219 and RS 29.[300]), we present the technical and contextual data from the scientific exploitation of the excavation archives. In particular, the investigation has enabled us to identify and contextualise stele RS 29.[300]. Presented until now as an unlocated chance discovery, this small monument was in fact discovered in 1966 in the sector known as the “Residential Quarter”.
In the perspective of preparing an overall summary, taking into account the various sources documenting religious and magical practices in Ugarit, over the course of the last few years we have been interested in several categories of objects that seem to have a connection with materia magica.
Several “types” of cobalt seem to coexist in the studied corpus.
In the vast majority of cases, the source of this cobalt is Egypt (alums from the oases of the Egyptian Western Desert, Kharga and Dakhla) and most of the objects that contain it are considered to be Egyptian imports. The faience mostly illustrates a specific, well-represented category called “monochrome blue-grey faience”, which is characterised by a glaze and a body of the same colour. This Ugaritic repertoire, which is very varied, is by far the most important outside Egypt. The presence of high concentrations of manganese, particularly in a series of rosette-decorated beads with a dark blue-grey glaze, may indicate a specific colouring mixture for the production of this shade, which is not common and raises the question of possible local production.
This oasis cobalt has also been identified in three manufactured glass objects. While the hypothesis of an Egyptian import is advanced for two pieces (a vase and a bead), the third object, a bird-shaped bead, could be a Mycenaean import (made from blue glass imported from Egypt). Finally, the same cobalt was found in a block of raw glass, confirming the import of raw material from Egypt to Ugarit.
A second type of cobalt, whose origin remains unknown, was identified in a specific group of faiences, which present a “white” siliceous body covered with a blue-grey glaze. The characteristics of this cobalt seem to correspond to those of the so-called “R low Mn” cobalt, highlighted by Japanese researchers (Y. Abe et al. 2012) in faience and glass of the Ramesside period.
These results complement the work of A. Kaczmarczyk who identified a third type of cobalt, of Iranian origin, in some Near Eastern faience discovered at Ugarit.
This research is also likely to shed light on the know-how of other civilisations and to re-launch investigations into materials or technologies that have so far gone unnoticed: witness the fragments of the alabaster vase whose engraved decoration is highlighted by a cobalt pigment (cobalt spinel) that was previously known only on the paintings of certain Egyptian ceramic vases from the New Kingdom.
In 2019, a first article published in the volume RSO XXVI was devoted to the study of two stelae with figurative decoration preserved in the Louvre Museum (RS 3.487, Louvre AO 14919; RS 9.226, Louvre AO 20382). The present study deals with the inscribed stelae and the undecorated stelae from Ugarit. On the one hand, we present the results of the technical study of a third work from the Louvre Museum, one of the two inscribed stelae from the Ugaritic repertoire (RS 6.021, Louvre AO 19931). On the other hand, for
the two stelae without decoration (RS 23.219 and RS 29.[300]), we present the technical and contextual data from the scientific exploitation of the excavation archives. In particular, the investigation has enabled us to identify and contextualise stele RS 29.[300]. Presented until now as an unlocated chance discovery, this small monument was in fact discovered in 1966 in the sector known as the “Residential Quarter”.