BIBRACTE EPCC

Built around the site of the ancient town of Bibracte, in Burgundy (F), and the long-term archaeological research programme dedicated to it, the Bibracte - Morvan des Sommets Grand Site de France is designed as a multi-disciplinary experimental project that addresses the various issues facing the area (agriculture, forestry, water resources, tourism, social cohesion), as well as the challenges of climate change. Its work is unified by the use of the landscape approach, defined as ‘a collective process in which everyone's opinion is taken into account, in which the specific nature of the area is the starting point, the ecological substratum and the historical continuum the foundation, and which is capable of imagining complex projects in which the attachment to places feeds their capacity for sustainable development’. It is based on the belief that the ability of local residents and stakeholders to act can be enhanced by forming an active heritage community within the meaning of the Faro Convention, based on the common that is the landscape, understood as the assemblage of reasons for attachment that they share for their territory. The presentation will show how, starting with the initial archaeological project, the public body managing the site has gradually been led to set up a multi-disciplinary and participatory ‘territorial laboratory’. It will also look at the possible levers for sustaining such experimentation over the long term, at a time when its funding depends almost entirely on public funds acquired through calls for projects. The reflections and experiments presented in this lecture benefit from two successive projects, INCULTUM (2021-2024) and SECreTour (2024-2027), funded by the H2020 and Horizon Europe programmes.