Originating with the exploration of underwater shipwrecks in the mid-20th century, the archaeology of the modern era (16th–18th centuries) has developed very recently, following the famous excavations at the Grand Louvre that began in 1984, and especially over the past twenty years, notably under the decisive impetus of preventive archaeology. Over the past twenty years, this archaeology of the modern era has been joined by the archaeology of the contemporary era (19th–20th centuries), allowing both disciplines to shed light on the past—periods marked by profound technical, economic, social, cultural, and environmental upheavals that have shaped our world today.

But curiously, even though modern and contemporary archaeology has gained recognition on par with prehistoric, ancient, and medieval archaeology—and even as publications on the subject have proliferated—no national-scale conference has yet been devoted to it in France.
This is why the 10 members of the scientific committee detailed below, bringing together specialists from INRAP, universities, and local authorities, decided to organize a symposium entitled Modern and Contemporary Archaeology in France, which will be held at the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme – Alpes, on the campus of Université Grenoble Alpes, from Tuesday, October 6 to Friday, October 9, 2026. It will be organized by the Rhone-Alpes Historical Research Laboratory (LARHRA, UMR 5190) and by Alain Belmont, professor of early modern history and archaeologist at Université Grenoble Alpes (alain.belmont@univ-grenoble-alpes.fr).

This conference will feature 36 presentations organized into seven themes: the archaeology of the Alpine region; architectural archaeology; material culture and ceramology; agriculture and the environment; industry and crafts; the archaeology of conflict; and the archaeology of the overseas territories and slavery.
The scientific committee decided to include in these presentations both seasoned and particularly well-known archaeologists and doctoral students who are nearing the completion of their dissertations or have just defended them, in order to provide an overview of both the research conducted over the past twenty years and the research currently underway.

The proceedings of this event will subsequently be published by Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA Éditions).