Hugues Plisson

Hugues Plisson belongs to the first, self-taught, generation of French traceologists. After completing his thesis at Panthéon-Sorbonne University in December 1985, he expanded his expertise with a six-month postdoctoral fellowship at the Laboratory of Experimental Traceology of IIMK in Leningrad (Soviet Union), founded by S.A. Semenov. After practising for three years at the Seminar für Ur- und Frühgeschichte der Universität Basel (Switzerland) he joined the CNRS in 1991, in the laboratory of 'Prehistory and Technology' directed by Jacques Tixier, a leading figure in the study of lithic technology. He concluded his career at the University of Bordeaux in the laboratory PACEA, where he is a research associate since 2024. Working across Europe, the Levant, Russia and Central Asia, he explored various facets of traceology in terms of both methodology and archaeological research issues, ranging from the Middle Palaeolithic to the Late Neolithic.