Even far from the department of her birth, Agnès Lamotte has never forgotten the south of Haut-Marne, where she frequently returns. Let's follow his trail!
Living in the Lille region for many years, Agnès Lamotte likes to come and recharge his batteries in Haute-Marneon the one hand to see loved ones again, particularly in Poinson-lès-Fayl, but also to better understand the lives of those who occupied this territory a long, long time ago.
Recharge your batteries
Before revealing her daily life, Agnès evokes her youth with emotion: ” Born in Langres, I spent my early years in the small village of Longeau where my father had an electricity company. Which led him, with his workers, to carry out major projects in the region. My mother, for her part, ran the household appliances store adjoining the workshop. I followed the beginning of my schooling in Langres, first at the Notre-Dame Institution then at the Jeanne-Mance college “.
Unfortunately, a serious health problem forced Daniel Lamotte to stop his activity, change direction to become a sales manager…and to take his whole family to Cambrai.
Archaeology, a revelation
While Agnès had just joined the sixth grade class, heading to the North of France. An upheaval which in no way affected his studies, quite the contrary! “II had always entertained the idea of becoming an ocean cartographer. I even started studying geography which was going very well until the day my archeology teacher told me that if I took this option I was going to do excavations, find bones, remains… a revelation “, remembers Agnès.
While she thought of returning to the University of Dijon or Besançon, it was in Lille thatshe continued her studies until she defended a thesis on bifaces of North-West Europe.
On the trail of mammoths
Agnès has been teaching prehistory for many years at the University of Lille, while also directing major excavation sites. In the North of France, of course, but also in the Carpathians in Romaniafor six years in the Bukk mountain in Hungary on Neanderthal sites… and in Haute-Saône.
” My heart remains in Haute-Marne and Haute-Saône, where I have been responsible for prehistoric excavations in this department for eighteen years. In addition to exploiting open-air deposits, I have been working on the Fouvent-le Bas cave, on the edge of Haute-Marne, for four years. “, underlines Agnès.
A site that a already unearthed mammoth teeth, cave hyena remainswoolly rhinoceroses, cave leopards… and of course carved flints proving that men, contemporaries of these animals, occupied the place. ” On Fouvent alone, thanks to the entire team of specialists who work with me, we noted, among other things, the presence of sixteen baby mammoths and ten to fifteen adults “
And when we know that our department is only about ten kilometers away! ” I would like to do similar work in Haute-Marne, in particular by taking over the Farincourt caves (some objects from old excavations are exhibited at the Langres Museum) where there are still many things to discover… And like I am at the end of my cycle at Fouvent-le Bas! “
When asked what would be his dream as an archaeologistAgnès, with a big smile, responds straight away: “tfind Neanderthal bones in the region… in Haute-Marne for example “.
