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XI/2/2020
INTERDISCIPLINARIA ARCHAEOLOGICA
NATURAL SCIENCES IN ARCHAEOLOGY
homepage: http://www.iansa.eu
A look at the region
From
Amélie
to
Terrascope
: Creation, Development, Struggle and Re-birth
of a Small French Independent Archaeological Laboratory
Sabrina Save
a*
, Joseph Kovacik
a
a
Amélie, études environnementales & archéologiques/Terrascope Thin Section Slides, 120 boulevard Blanqui, 10000 Troyes, France
1. Introduction
Based in Troyes, France, in the southern Champagne
region, the laboratories named
Amélie
and
Terrascope
are the two heads of the same entity created in May 2007
by Joseph Kovacik and Sabrina Save. While
Amélie
constitutes the historical institution dedicated to palaeo-
environmental and archaeometric analysis,
Terrascope
is
a recent addition exclusively dedicated to the manufacturing
of micromorphological thin sections. Fully private and
independent, these two labs were conceived around
an unconventional way of thinking about archaeology,
commercial archaeology and archaeological research:
be an actor of the world archaeological community – do
innovative, sustainable research with people we like – all within
a commercial context. The philosophy and development of
the company is deeply linked to the personality and personal
history of its creators and directors, Joseph and Sabrina. In
this paper, we want to share with you our personal history
and the history of our company, and cast light on what we
think it means to be an independent archaeologist, how to be
innovative and conduct advanced research in a non-academic
environment, and how to build and maintain a successful
business by always being ready to reinvent oneself.
2. Creation of
Amélie
2.1 Portraits
2.1.1 Joseph James Kovacik
Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Joseph is the oldest
son of a carpenter and home-maker, and had a typical
1970s upbringing meaning lots of mucking about, mostly
unsupervised (swimming at the pond with friends and no
adults, riding mini-bikes miles from home with friends and
no adults). Average at school, although excellent in history
and geography, the only thing important for his parents
was for him to go to “University”. Starting in Chemistry
at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and quickly
failing, Joseph looked hard at what he was good at and
what he wanted, a large part of which was not to pass his
life inside a building. Rather than return to his long-time
Volume XI ● Issue 2/2020 ● Pages 219–226
*Corresponding author. E-mail: contact@terrascope-tss.com
ARTICLE INFO
Article history:
Received: 9
th
September 2020
Accepted: 29
th
September 2020
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24916/iansa.2020.2.6
Key words:
palaeo-environment
palaeo-pollution
pXRF
thin section
geochemistry
ABSTRACT
Created in France in May 2007 by Joseph Kovacik and Sabrina Save,
Amélie
is a small independent
laboratory, stafed and partnered with the best specialists in Europe, providing palaeo-environmental
and archaeometric services to the French Archaeology community. During its 13 years of existence,
Amélie
and its owners have been through many hurdles and run fantastic projects, always trying
to be forward-thinking and bring high-level research and academia into commercial archaeology,
while ensuring the sustainability of the company. One example of their endeavour to innovate is
the theoretical framework and methodology they developed to survey large mechanically-stripped
archaeological surfaces with pXRF to investigate human impact on soil chemistry. In February 2018,
while the future of
Amélie
was unclear due to three consecutive years of declining turnover, a short stay
in Cambridge as visiting scholars re-focused Joseph and Sabrina, with them deciding to launch a new
project: the creation of a new facility dedicated to the production of micromorphological thin sections,
Terrascope
. Since this Cambridge sabbatical, many exciting projects have emerged and reshaped the
future of
Amélie
, Joseph, and Sabrina. This is their backstory.
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Sabrina Save, Joseph Kovacik: From Amélie to Terrascope: Creation, Development, Struggle and Re-birth of a Small French Independent Archaeological Laboratory
220
passion for history (lots of time in buildings), Joseph fell
into Anthropology, and particularly Archaeology. Enchanted
by a series of inspiring professors and graduate students at
UWM, Joseph started working for the UWM Archaeological
Research Laboratory (geoarcheology coring of lake
sediments in the middle of a Wisconsin winter), as well
as for other university commercial feld units, museums,
and the US Forest Service. Turning things around after his
disastrous start (why-oh-why did he choose chemistry?),
he found himself accepted into the Master’s programme at
Southern Illinois University – Carbondale. Again having
good fortune and inspiring professors, he was awarded the
Center for Archaeological Investigations graduate research
assistant position, giving him the chance to work on both
feld and laboratory projects throughout southern Illinois
and the American Southwest (including archiving the
remains of Lewis Binford’s frst archaeological excavation
carried out for SIU; what great letters between Binford,
the University and the communities in which the feldwork
was being undertaken!). It was at SIU that he meets Robert
Preucel (then a simple Post-doc), a meeting that changed
his life forever, introducing him to both a diferent kind of
archaeology (post-processualism) and also to Ian Hodder.
Encouraged by Robert, Joseph applied to the University of
Cambridge to study with Ian Hodder, and was accepted – it
is a good thing he worked hard at SIU and was able to show
that even students with a poor undergraduate grade-point
average can make good in the right circumstances: the right
motivation, good grades in the relevant classes, and a lot of
feld experience. So of to Cambridge, where in addition to
working on his thesis and participating in all that Cambridge
has to ofer, he also began to work in France, in particular at
the site of Vix, which became the starting point for another
obsession: France.
Following the completion of his thesis, Joseph returned
to both the United States and to commercial archaeology,
with the latter the true constant archaeological presence
throughout his time as an archaeologist, helping to pay for
his undergraduate education, and paying for his Master’s
degree. Moving to Albuquerque (New Mexico), Joseph took
up the position of Principal Investigator for a large civil
engineering frm, directing archaeological investigations for
them across the American Southwest. However, transformed
by his Cambridge experience, he longed to return to the UK,
and eventually secured a position as the London Director
for one of the principal cultural resource frms there.
Managing both small and large, urban and rural projects,
and having the chance to direct an excellent team, as well
as developing and directing a long-term research project in
France, disagreements with the company owners prompted
a change, leading to a similar position in the Republic of
Ireland. More of the same – great projects, great team, great
research project in France, less great bosses – led him to
pose the question, why could not I be my own boss, work
on great projects, with great people and do great research?
And so, after more than 20 years working for others, and
with the encouragement and support of a series of senior
French archaeologists, and with one of his French colleagues
(Sabrina) as a business partner, he decided to quit the UK
and set up his own company,
Amélie
, in France.
2.1.2 Sabrina Save
Sabrina was born in December 1983 in Saudi Arabia, where
her parents lived for two years (her father was teaching at the
University of Petrol and Minerals of Dhahran). Returning
to France at 6 months old, she never had the chance to see
her birthplace again. After moving homes several times
in the suburbs of Nantes, the whole family moved near to
Aix-en-Provence in 1999. In 2001, she started University
at Aix-Marseille University, initially wanting to combine
Earth Sciences and Archaeology, something impossible in
the French system as Hard and Social Sciences are totally
separate, both administratively and physically (the campus
of each are 50 km apart). Finally, she chose Archaeology,
which was at the time linked to Art History (although
not anymore). During her frst years she feels attracted to
Middle East Archaeology (identity crisis?), but as very
little Middle Eastern Archaeology courses were available
at Aix-Marseille, she started studying, on the side, Semitic
languages: Sumerian, Akkadian, Arameen, Arabic, Ugaritic,
Hittite, and Moabite. For a moment, she thought about
pursuing a Master’s in that discipline, but she liked feldwork
too much to give up Archaeology for a pure desk job (she
spends at least 3 months per year, the most she can, digging
on research excavations – which is how she met Joseph in
2004); like so many female students, her own #metoo moment
made the choice easier. She convinces her Archaeology
professors to supervise her on a Master’s on some topic in
the Middle East and fnally ends up doing her degree on
Cyprus (that is the most “east” her supervisor would agree
to go). She thinks about doing a PhD afterwards, but cannot
fnd an appropriate laboratory in France for what she wants
to do. Luckily a new commercial unit in Aix-en-Provence
was just opening and they were looking for people for their
frst rescue excavation. She applied and was recruited as site
supervisor. It was during this period that Joseph contacted
her and ofered her to be his business partner in
Amélie
. She
thus resigned her position in Aix-en-Provence after 9 months
and joined Joseph in Lorraine. She was then 23 years old.
2.1.3 Amélie
The initial idea for
Amélie
was for it to gain an agreement
issued by the French Ministry of Culture, allowing the
company to carry out developer-funded excavations within
France. After the frst unsuccessful attempt (in total we made
three, unsuccessful, applications; the main criticism being
our overtly Anglo-Saxon approach), and as an efort to start
working and bolster our chances for future applications, we
decided to start ofering palaeo-environmental services to
the French developer-funded sector. We had been working
for years, in England, Ireland, and France on research
excavations, with a group of world-renowned specialists, all
of whom were familiar with the constraints of commercial
archaeology – research questions that are not your own,
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Sabrina Save, Joseph Kovacik: From Amélie to Terrascope: Creation, Development, Struggle and Re-birth of a Small French Independent Archaeological Laboratory
221
limited budgets and, of course, tight deadlines. Friends,
colleagues, and even some enemies in French archaeology
had all told us how difcult it was to fnd reliable specialist
services while working on commercial projects. The
professional contacts – throughout Europe and the United
States – we had. We also knew what we wanted, whether
doing excavations or specialist services: to work with the
best people, people we liked, and do great archaeology.
3. Development and Struggles
3.1 Growth and innovation
It took several years for
Amélie
to establish a clientele
and make a decent turnover from palaeo-environmental
studies – and allow Sabrina and Joseph to receive a salary.
From mid-2008 to early 2010, Joseph worked full time for
a temping agency, doing night shifts in “agro-industry” (do
not buy industrially-made brioche!), and building side walks
(pavements) and roundabouts during the day. Sabrina also
worked occasional night shifts in a lemonade factory or in
the lab of a factory turning liquids into powder. In March
2010, Joseph was recruited as the regional director (Grand
Est) for a young commercial excavation company,
Eveha
,
a role he still holds today (again working for others, but
c’est
la vie!
). From 2011 to 2015,
Amélie
’s turnover continued to
grow with Sabrina working full time (paid!) to help French
archaeologists investigate and understand their sites.
Projects run by
Amélie
vary considerably in size and
complexity, from plant macro-remains analysis of a single
bulk sample to the processing of several hundred buckets of
sediment and large pluri-disciplinary analysis. The majority
of our projects, however, involve a mean of three diferent
disciplines, with plant macro-remains being the most in-
demand study (mostly done in partnership with Lisa Gray,
UK), and complemented with other palaeo-environmental
studies (
Quest
, University of Reading) or chemical analysis
(
Amélie
, University of Bristol, University of Durham).
Over the past 13 years we have undertaken numerous “big
projects” involving up to a dozen specialists. For example,
near La Rochelle,
Amélie
teamed with
Quaternary Scientifc
,
to direct several large-scale, palaeo-environmental studies on
the evolution of the coastline, taking boreholes (Figure 1) and
applying a large suite of palaeo-environmental approaches to
the sediments collected, the aim of which was to reconstruct
the ancient coastal environment and shorelines as they related
to the Neolithic occupation of the uplands (Lang
et al.
, 2020;
Save, 2011; Save
et al.
, 2012; Soler
et al.
, 2013).
Being a company built on restlessness and a desire to
innovate and experiment, in 2011
Amélie
acquired a portable
X-ray fuorescence spectrometer (pXRF), paid for in part
through State subventions awarded to the company – in
large part due to our innovation. Joseph and Sabrina chose
the most versatile pXRF available at the time (Innov-X
Delta Premium) as they wanted to be able to analyse all
types of archaeological materials: metal, ceramic, glass,
sediment, etc, both in our lab, in the labs of others, and
(why not) in the feld if necessary. As the possession and
use of devices emitting ionising rays (a pXRF) falls under
the control of the French Nuclear Safety Authority, it was
necessary for someone within
Amélie
to become certifed
in radioprotection: Sabrina undertook the special training
and passed the exam: she is now lead scientist, commercial
director and a
Personne Compétente en Radioprotection.
Our initial idea was to ofer pXRF analysis to museums for
conservation and archiving purposes, but, as with so many
things, the “business” of pXRF analysis of archaeological
artefacts did not really take of. Commissioned for a few