One of the subtleties of the journalistic art of portraiture is to carefully balance quotes from the portrayed character. Do not give too much echo to your “I” while making your personality resonate. Like the archaeologist Jean-Pierre Brun, we must forget about this recipe and the usual exercise tricks. Because, if he receives us in his office, at the Collège de France, where he held the chair of Techniques and Economies of the Ancient Mediterranean from 2011 until this year, Jean-Pierre Brun cannot tell us his life: that- This changed one day in November 2019, on a TGV between Toulon, in his native Var, where he lives, and Paris. That morning, struck by a stroke, the researcher lost the use of words (except for “no”!), both orally and in writing.
When we meet him, his wife, Victoria Leitch, and his scientific collaborator, Despina Chatzivasiliou, literally become his spokespersons, reading his face and the tone of the onomatopoeia he utters. Based on riddles, a dialogue with several voices develops, interspersed with plans and sketches that the interested party draws in a notebook if we cannot intuit what the aphasia prohibits him from saying. Because Jean-Pierre Brun is not one of those who let himself be fooled by this useless brain or let himself be carried away.
After her stroke, Despina Chatzivasiliou recalls, “He was missing for several months, then Covid-19 came. When I saw him again in October 2020, he made me understand that he wanted to continue his studies at the Collège de France. I was surprised but, at the same time, it was a challenge. Seeing this strength of character and this intelligence that was always there impressed everyone. » Yes, but how to do it? “Then he spent two days scribbling things that were quite incomprehensible, but I understood that it was a map, a list of places that he wanted to “explore” in his course. » Which was going to happen in writing and online, which, in the post-Covid period, did not surprise anyone. Despina Chatzivasiliou read all of Jean-Pierre Brun’s production and listened to his online courses to assimilate his style and write the texts under his direction.
Gap in history
“His life is full, full, full of archaeology, summarizes Victoria Leitch. He thinks everyone should be an archaeologist! » Although the event that triggered this vocation has been lost in limbo, this memory remains in which, at the age of 7 or 8, young Brun put a sign on the door of his room that said: “Do not disturb, archaeologist in the job”. . » His parents took him to archaeological sites, and the one the family nicknamed “the scholar” began excavating, writing reports, drawing plans, when he was only about ten years old.
You have 64.22% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
