Collections
The EFEO's collection of photographs and glass plates constitutes an exceptional documentary resource (archaeology, statuary, architecture, epigraphy, ethnography, etc.) covering many different countries (Cambodia, Vietnam, India, China, Thailand, Laos, etc.). Based on photographs taken during archaeological excavations and expeditions carried out by the School since 1910, the collection gradually expanded thanks to a number of gifts (the Dalet, Bacot, Boulbet, and Bénisti holdings, among others). The photographs, most of them as yet unpublished, will all eventually be digitised.
The photographic collection is of major historic interest. Some of the images feature archaeological sites and monuments before they suffered the irreparable effects of war and pillage; used in conjunction with diaries from archaeological excavations, they make it possible to recreate the way in which restoration work and research was conducted on a day-to-day basis.
Some figures:
- CAMBODIA: 30,000 indexed digital photos (archaeology, architecture, statuary, iconography, epigraphy, ethnography, etc.);
- VIETNAM: approximately 7,000 photos (archaeology, iconography, museum collections, etc.) as well as 1,500 indexed digital photos of the Champa region;
- CHINA: approximately 3,000 photos (archaeology, ethnology, art, museography, graphic documents, etc.);
- INDIA: several thousand photos;
- LAOS: 3,000 photos, of which approximately 1,200 dealing with ethnology;
- SIAM: approximately 2,000 photos (archaeology, various sites, museum collections, etc.)
- 7,000 glass plates - mostly of Cambodia and Vietnam - have been digitised (the H. Marchal, H. Parmentier, J. Bacot, L. Finot, Ch. Carpeaux collections).
On June 29, as part of the Annual EFEO-Faculty of Archaeology Seminar on "Inscriptions, manuscrits et archéologie en Asie du Sud-Est [Inscriptions, manuscripts, and archaeology in Southeast Asia]," at Silpakorn University in Bangkok, the following spoke for the EFEO:
- Gregory Kourilsky gives a talk entitled "Relative Dating of a Code of Law from Luang Prabang (Laos)"
- Christophe Pottier gives a talk entitled "Archaeology beyond monumentality: some recent works in Cambodia"
- Dominique Soutif gives a talk entitled "Continuing the K. Number inventory"
From 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., the EFEO Centres in Tokyo and in Kyoto are co-organising with the French Institute for Research on Japan (UMIFRE 19 MEAE-CNRS), at the Maison franco-japonaise in Tokyo, a lecture-debate on the topic "Vingt-deux ans à la tête du musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac" [Twenty-two years at the head of the musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac], with Stéphane Martin (former president of the musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac) and Ozawa Kei (University of Tokyo), moderated by François Lachaud (EFEO).
Friday 23 June 2023 at 10.30 a.m., in the Grand Salon of the Maison de l'Asie
Maria Chauveau, EFEO post-doctoral fellow, is organizing a study day on Les relations humains/non-humains à la mesure de l'expansion des pratiques agricoles productivistes en Inde et en Asie de Sud-Est [Human/non-human relations in the context of the expansion of productivist agricultural practices in India and Southeast Asia].
From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Grand Salon of the Maison de l'Asie.
As part of the "Kyoto lectures", Antonio Manieri (University of Naples "L’Orientale") gives a lecture on "“Everyday Uncertainties”: Sharing and Learning Terminologies in Eighth-century Japan".
At 6pm (Japan time), online on the Zoom platform: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82464622137
