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Michèle Casanova passed away on December 22, 2020, a victim of Covid19, in her sixty-first year. She had just been appointed professor at Sorbonne Université. Her Parisian students will not have had time to appreciate her qualities. Esteemed by all, Michèle was a recognized specialist in prestige objects, their creation, their circulation, from Afghanistan to the Mediterranean, over four millennia, from the Chalcolithic to the Iron Age.

Born in Nice on October 23, 1960 to parents who were teachers and researchers, Michèle had a vocation for teaching. She taught for sixteen years in secondary school, then twenty years at the university, in Rennes 2, then in Lyon 2 and finally at Sorbonne Université in Paris. While she was working as a secondary school teacher, Michele learned Russian and Farsi, which she spoke fluently together with English and Italian. A fervent believer in intercultural exchanges, she soon specialized in long-distance trade, ancient crafts, and prestige stone objects. She made her enthusiasms the subject of her Masters and her Doctorate, under the direction of Jean-Louis Huot (Panthéon-Sorbonne University), which gave existence to two major works, on alabaster and lapis lazuli (Casanova 1991, 2013).

Hence she continued to explore the avenues thus opened in numerous publications, focusing on themes as varied as cosmetics and perfumes (Casanova 2008), the prestige objects of the Royal Cemetery of Ur (Casanova 2009, 2012, 2014b) or the question of the rise of commerce and the market economy (Casanova 2019, 2020). The very rich theme of exchange networks, around which she had co-organized several international conferences (two of which were published, Casanova and Feldman 2014a, Meyer, Vila, Mashkour, Casanova and Vallet 2019), had led her to greatly expand her field of investigation, from Central Asia to Corsica, via Egypt, where she was interested in the Tôd treasure (Casanova et al. 2015). In 2009, again at Panthéon-Sorbonne University, but under the direction of Serge Cleuziou, she defended her Professorial Thesis, the synthesis of which was entitled Sur la route des échanges, de la Corse à l’Oxus.

Michèle was also a field archaeologist. As early as 1975, she was trained on French sites. First in Renaghju and Tizzano, with J. Liégeois, in the Corsica of her origins, always dear to her heart and omnipresent throughout her life. In 2014, she returned to undertake excavations there, in Capu di Luogo, with F. Léandri. Then on all the major school sites of the time (the Aisne valley, Etiolles, Lattes…). In 1990, Roland Besenval took her to Sarazm in Tajikistan, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, where for ten years she exerted her competence, before taking on the co-management of the mission in 1999, with A. Razzakov. In 2005, she succeeded in reopening Shahr-i Sokhta in Iran, with M. Sajjadi. She cleared part of the Craftsmen’s Quarter and the surrounding wall of this major site from the Bronze Age. However, the local situation forced her soon to close down the enterprise, together with excavations in the Araxes Valley, also in Iran, with H. Nobari in 2009-2011. Never discouraged, she then turned to Azerbaijan, on the other side of the Araxes border, to relaunch the exploration of the Lenkoran valley together with Abuzar Alakbarov. This field mission went together with a study and publication program of the collections retrieved from the excavations carried out in Lenkoran by Jacques de Morgan in the late 19th century, now preserved in St-Germain-en-Laye in France.

The Lenkoran mission aimed to document the occupation of the region during the transition from the Bronze Age to the beginning of the Iron Age, a pivotal period for cultural interactions between the Caucasus, Iran and Anatolia. It also intended to gain a better understanding of funeral practices and to discover the habitat of the period, which is still unknown today in this region. Among its most significant results, we must mention the discovery, on the site of Monidigah I, a vast necropolis perched at an altitude of 1200m, of three cist tombs containing rich items of furniture and an engraved stele representing a warrior (Casanova, Lorre et al. 2016, Casanova, Alakbarov and Haze, forthcoming). Radiocarbon dates indicate that these tombs were in use over a long period, between the 12th century and the 9th century BC. The restoration of a sword from one of the tombs has also revealed unknown decoration patterns, incised on a gilded background on both sides of the blade: this kind of iconographic repertoire had never been seen before.

Owing to her interest in certain categories of furniture, Michèle played an important role in the field of valorization. Together with her close scientific collaboration with the Louvre Museum and the Museum of National Archaeology, she participated in the design and catalogue of several exhibitions, in France and abroad. The most recent was the exhibition “10 Years of Franco-Azerbaijani Archaeology” organized at the Museum of Fine Arts in Baku in 2019, which presented the results of three Franco-Azerbaijani missions. It was followed by an exhibition on the same theme in the Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée in Lyon. She was also involved in the battle against the smuggling of cultural goods. She was associated with the POLAR group (“POLicemen and ARchaeologists against the smuggling of cultural property”) and coordinated a series of conferences (entitled “Heritage in danger, looted heritage”) and a seminar to raise awareness among the public and all students on these issues.

Michèle was always involved in the organization of teaching and research. It would be difficult to list all the responsibilities she has taken on in her career. It should be noted, however, that she had set up several multidisciplinary university courses, Masters and Doctorates. Michèle was a member of the executive council of each of her lab, elected member of Section 31 of the Comité National de la Recherche Scientifique (2008-2012), which she represented on the Paléorient editorial board during the same period, a member of the CNRS Archaeology Committee, and the elected member (in 2019) of the National Council of Universities (CNU, Section 21), to mention only her most important responsibilities.

Michèle was a committed teacher and researcher, generous, spontaneous and courageous. She was personally involved in humanitarian programs, bent on rescuing scientists and students in danger, and welcoming some in France. She was always ready to assist students and colleagues, well aware of the difficulties that foreign students and colleagues may encounter. The students’ attachment to her was deep and lasting. She will be remembered as a person with a great soul.

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