Supported projects

Tracing the history of a Gothic cathedral and understanding the successive phases of its construction present a significant scientific challenge. The establishment of the chronology of medieval buildings relies primarily on the interpretation of textual sources, which are at times uncertain and disconnected from the physical remains. However, cross-analysis of historical sources and physical data is essential to achieving an in-depth understanding of this architectural heritage, in its technical, historical and societal dimensions. The case of Notre-Dame de Paris offers a pertinent illustration of this issue: research undertaken since the 2019 fire has raised numerous questions regarding the sequence of construction stages. As part of the CNRS/MC Notre- Dame scientific project, the restoration of the building has provided a unique opportunity to acquire unprecedented absolute and relative chronological data for this Gothic monument. However, their analysis and correlation remain to be fully developed in order to propose a comprehensive reconstruction of the evolution of the medieval construction of the cathedral. This interdisciplinary project aims to model of the chronology of the construction phases of Notre-Dame de Paris through an integrated approach that confronts the archaeological and analytical data obtained during the scientific project with known historical and textual sources for the period under study. To this end, Bayesian formalism applied to chronology will be used to construct historical scenarios. The final model will simulate age probability distributions and provide precise estimates of their uncertainties, from the commencement of the Gothic construction in the early 1160s to the alterations and completion of the structural work in the second half of the 13th century. In this perspective, the APIMOME project proposes an integrated, multi-technique approach aimed at developing an innovative methodology for the application of chronological modelling to the study of medieval building heritage.