Bio/Contact 

André MARBACH

Ex-Post-Doctoral Research Associate at “Centre de Recherche en Histoire de l’Université Metz-Nancy (France).
amj.marbach@wanadoo.fr

After a career as an engineer, I focused on History.

A doctoral thesis in Roman History was defended at the University of Lorraine (Metz Nancy), under the authority of Mrs. Jeanne Demarolle, Professor of Roman History.
This thesis was published at the British Archaeological Reports -Oxford.

-Recherches sur les instruments aratoires et le travail du sol en Gaule Belgique,

- BAR, International Series1235, 2004.

To this is added a new catalog.

-Les instruments aratoires de Gaules et de la Germanie Supérieure.

Catalogue des pièces métalliques.

-BAR International Series1236, 2004.

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François Sigaut, then Director of Research at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris, who was on my jury, asked me to continue my research on scythes with the same working method (technical approach).

 This has been done with a new publication at the B.A.R, entitled.

-Catalogue et étude des faux et outils agricoles de coupe à lame et à manche en Gaule.

 BAR,-International Series 2376, 2012.

In his introduction, François Sigaut highlighted this personal approach.

“There remains the "Marbach method". It has proved its worth with ploughing tools. Will it do as well with scythes? I am not sure, but I am optimistic for two reasons. First, it is a new method that had not yet been tried. Secondly, because it is a rigorous method, it allows us to think outside the box ― or, better, obliges us to do so. I mentioned above how difficult it was for us to let go of our habits when they had become obvious. In its stripping rigor, the engineer's gaze is a particularly effective way to achieve this. Mr Marbach has not solved all the problems; he explains it quite frankly. But it poses them in a whole new way, and I am convinced that following it in the path it has opened will allow us to break the deadlock in which we have been for at least three-quarters of a century.”

These few words, with the support of my professor of Roman History, Mrs. Jeanne Demarolle, whose influence has been constant, are at the origin of the realization of this site.