French Literature Reviews - 2026

William Van Andringa, *Archéologie du geste*
History, Politics and Society

This book, grounded in precise and well-documented case studies from Pompeii, serves as a manifesto for an archaeology of gesture, pioneering a new way of writing history through an archaeological approach now fully equipped to detect and reconstruct the tangible reality of human action. The materials and structures uncovered by archaeology are the result of deliberate or induced human actions, which must be reconstructed through reasoned deductive processes based on rich and reliable field data. In doing so, the book reveals human agency and practice—how a society builds its daily routines and customs, how a tradition is continually reinvented, and how a human community inhabits spaces and territories. Ultimately, does this not capture the true essence of human societies, for too long confined to the rigid drawers of conventional, periodized history?

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William Van Andringa is Director of Studies at the École pratique des hautes études, and a member of the Institut universitaire de France and the UMR 8546 AOROC laboratory (ENS-PSL, Paris). He is a specialist in the religious and funerary practices of the Roman world, fields in which he has published numerous books and articles. His research focuses on Pompeii, where he has directed several archaeological excavations, notably the Roman necropolis of Porta Nocera, as well as the Gallic provinces—he is currently working on the Roman city of Lugdunum Convenarum (Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges) in the Pyrenees. The Institut de France awarded the Simone and Cino Del Duca Grand Prize for Archaeology to William Van Andringa and Henri Duday for their project: “The Porta Nocera Necropolis in Pompeii: A Unique Laboratory for the Study of a Funerary Tradition and the Development of Archaeothanatological Methods.”

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An article discussing this book can be read on laviedesidees.fr:

This volume contributes to the ongoing methodological evolution within classical archaeology and ancient history, where scholars increasingly seek to recover transient social practices and bodily routines from durable material remains. By focusing on the tangible residues of deliberate actions, such research aligns with broader anthropological efforts to understand how communities inhabit and appropriate physical spaces over time. Readers interested in Roman antiquity, funerary practices, and the development of field methodologies may find this work a relevant contribution to current discussions on historical agency and material culture.

The archaeological study of Roman sites like Pompeii has long served as a primary laboratory for examining the domestic, civic, and ritual behaviors of antiquity. Scholars working within this tradition examine stratigraphy, architecture, and grave goods not merely as static artifacts, but as the outcomes of specific behavioral patterns and social customs. William Van Andringa is a specialist in the religious and funerary practices of the Roman world who has directed several archaeological excavations, notably the Roman necropolis of Porta Nocera.

"If Pompeii Were Mime-Tested", by Axelle Bremont-Bellini (published online June 20, 2022)