The TRACES Laboratory, UMR 5608, has 160 members and more than 100 statutory members including professors, researchers, curators, INRAP archeologists, ITA-ITAOS engineers, and around 50 PhD students.

It is one of the largest French and European archeological research laboratories.

Based at the University of Toulouse Jean Jaurès, TRACES plays an important role in training students of the University of Toulouse Jean Jaurès and the EHESS.

TRACES's work encompassess the scientific disciplines and methodological approaches used in the recdiscovery of past societies of all geographical or temporal periods. Technology, Population History, Types of Habitat, Economic Systems, Symbolic Expression, Exploitation of Resources and Dietary Choices are all brought into dialogue and interrogated from the Prehistory period to the Middle Ages and acrross the wide geographical area of Eurasia to Africa.

The Center's members include archeologists, historians, art historians, geophysicians, archaeometrists, materials specialists, architects, image and imagerie specialists, and geomaticians. TRACES researchers work in the field. The Center leads digs year on year in the Midi-Pyrenees and, more generally, in the south of France.

Outside France, TRACES researchers are currently leading or co-directing around 30 of the world-leading archaeological digs with the help of national authorities in the countries concerned.

The two regions that are covered by the Center's work are the Mediterranean and Africa. The main countries concerned are: Spain, Italy, Romania, Macedonia, Cyprus, Greece, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Marocco, Ethiopia, South Africa, Togo, Tchad, Nambia, Chili, and Siberia.