National Institute of Archaeological Research of France (Inrap) hails collaboration with the SoHP’s Max Planck-Harvard Research Center for Archaeoscience

This partnership has brought together Harvard’s Science of the Human Past [initiative], the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (Leipzig) and Inrap to study early societies in the territory of modern-day France through archaeology, genetics, and historical evidence.

The collaboration was celebrated during Michael McCormick’s recent visit with Inrap’s President Dominique Garcia and Scientific Director Marc Bouiron and their crack archaeological teams at Inrap headquarters in Paris. It builds on longstanding ties between Inrap researchers, including Isabelle Catteddu and Valérie Delattre, and Harvard scholars, strengthened by a 2021- project on the Justinian Pandemic (ca. 541–750 CE) funded by the Richard Lounsbery Foundation and carried out by SoHP/MHAAM post-doc Solenn Troadec. Inrap’s extensive archaeological data—particularly from its ARC-Archaeology of Disability program—combined with MHAAM’s cutting-edge genetic analysis, opens new pathways for interdisciplinary research into early medieval populations.