ThoseRomanesque figure –
Death of Daniel Paunier, pioneer of Vaud archeology
He was one of the founders of the Institute of Archeology of the University of Lausanne, wanting to promote our regional antiquity in the first place.
Published today at 10:12 a.m.
Daniel Paunier in the corridors of the University of Lausanne, photo published in 2008 in “Allez Savoir”.
Nicole Chuard/Unil
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We owe him a lot. Genevan Daniel Paunier, former professor of archeology at the University of Lausanne, died Tuesday in his 89th year.e year. At a time when archeology was still a discipline focused on Mediterranean antiquity, it was he who set up a course devoted to the Gallic and Roman subsoil of our regions, managing over the years to train generations of archaeologists still at work today, in Switzerland and abroad.
“We teach students not to fixate on the sensational, but to learn that shards of pottery or traces of posts can provide information as important, or even more important, than a gold coin,” he wrote in 2008.
Field archeology
Born in Avusy in 1936, he studied at the end of the lake, taught Greek there, began excavating there in 1965, then gained attention with a doctorate on “Gallo-Roman ceramics of Geneva. From the final Tène to the Burgundian kingdom”, a far cry from the Athenian red-figure vases which still monopolized interest. This is what propelled him to the nascent archeology institute at UNIL, following Denis van Berchem and Pierre Ducrey.
“It was the Trente Glorieuses, with all the consequences that it had for heritage,” remembers Denis Weidmann, former Vaud cantonal archaeologist. We opened construction sites everywhere, having to recruit abroad. Daniel Paunier finally made field archaeologists. A time when everything fell into place, in small offices in the City or at the table at the Golden Crown.” With some success. The projects led by Daniel Paunier, such as the excavations of the villa of Orbe-Boscéaz or Bibracte (F), continued for decades.
-Daniel Paunier in 1986. He officially retired in 2001, remaining an active observer of French-speaking archeology.
University of Geneva
A legacy that is still very tangible today, continues his current successor in Dorigny, Matthieu Demierre. “Returning to the field to improve knowledge about the “provinces” but without any preconceptions, being able to base ourselves on ceramics but also on all historical sources, this still remains our trademark today. Daniel Paunier knew how to touch people with fine erudition. He was still a humanist in the great tradition, but accessible, smiling like an American actor.”
Investing in the Swiss National Fund (SNF), consultant for the Federal Commission on Historic Monuments, Daniel Paunier also placed emphasis on the publication – he is credited with 200 – of the results of excavations and research, including the “Cahiers of French-speaking archeology”, which remain the true printed sum of our knowledge.
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