Bio

Coline Lefrancq (b. 1986) has a MA in Archaeology and Art History (2009) from the Université libre de Bruxelles – ULB, Brussels, Belgium, a MA in Oriental Languages and Letters (2010) from the Université catholique de Louvain – UCL, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, and a PhD in Archaeology, History and Art History (2015) from the Université libre de Bruxelles – ULB, Brussels, Belgium.

She has worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the École française d’Extrême-Orient – EFEO, Paris, France, and in the European Research Project ‘Asia. Beyond Boundaries: Religion, Region, Language and the State’ affiliated to French Institute of Puducherry (IFP), India.

Since 2010, she is involved in the French-Bangladeshi archaeological mission of Mahasthangarh, Bangladesh, and she is supervising the excavations program since 2014. During her formation process, she took part to several archaeological missions in Italy, in Syria and in Uzbekistan. Specialist of pottery, her main research interests include also the urbanisation in South Asia and the exchanges between South Asia and South-East Asia through the material culture with a focus on the period from the 6th c. to 14th c. CE.



Research

As part of the ERC project - DHARMA, she will supervise the surveys and excavations conducted at Mahasthangarh, Bangladesh, and in its surroundings; she will encourage the sharing of expertise between the archaeological teams involved in the project (in Indonesia and in Cambodia); she will contribute to the creation of an archaeological atlas for the east part of the Indian peninsula; she is also involved in the ANR project - Landscapes and Waterscapes in Asia. Monsoon, Climatic Anomalies and Societal Dynamics in Medieval India - MANDU led by Prof. Anne Casile (IRD - Paloc); finally she is working on the vulgarisation of archaeological heritage by leading with Prof. Dominic Goodall (EFEO Puducherry) the production of scientific content of the new Centre of Information of the archaeological site of Arikamedu.



Publications

Click here for list of publications.



Other Publications

Articles in peer-reviewed journals

Hawkes J.D., Abbas R., Casile A., C.M. J., Lefrancq C., Toraskar S., 2020: « Grounding Texts and Theories of Societal Change », Antiquity, 14 p. (Forth.)

Lefèvre V. &Lefrancq C., 2020:«Vingt-huit ans de fouilles franco-bangladaises à Mahasthangarh », Arts Asiatiques 75. (Forth.)

Lefrancq C. & Hawkes J., 2020: « Accepting Variation and Embracing Uncertainty: Creating a Regional Pottery Typology in South Asian Archaeology », Open Archaeology Vol. 6 Issue 1, p. 269-328.

[https://doi.org/10.1515/opar-2020-0112]

Lefrancq C., Hawkes J., C.M. J., Mohanty R.K., 2019: « A Typology of Practice: The Archaeological Ceramics from Mahurjhari », Internet Archaeology 52, 80 p. [https://doi.org/10.11141/ia.52.9]

Mohanty R.K., Hawkes J.D., Lefrancq C., Abbas R., 2019: « Report on the Dating of the Historical Period Site at Mahurjhari, Vidarbha », Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology 7, p. 15-28.

Lefrancq C., 2016:«Northern Black Polished Ware versus Fine Black Slipped Ware: towards a new designation for the ‘NBPW of the second generation’ in Bengal », in Puravritta, under the aegis of Directorate of Archaeology and Museums, Govt. of West Bengal, Vol. 1, pp. 1-26.

Lefrancq C.,2013:« Aperçu de la céramique d’époque kouchane à partir du matériel issu du ‘complexe cultuel’ de Termez», in Annales d’Histoire de l’Art & d’Archéologie, Vol. 35, pp. 87-106.

Articlesin collective works

Lefrancq C., 2020: “Pottery of ancient Bengal during the Early Medieval period”, in The Archaeology of Early Medieval South Asia. Contesting Narrative from the Eastern Ganga-Brahmaputra Basin (Essays in Honour of Professor BrajadulalChattopadhaya), edited by S. Sen, S. Varma, B.P. Sahu, Routledge, New Delhi, 20 p. (Forth.)

Lefrancq C., 2020: « Circulation of Pots and People: Reflections on Trade-Marked Potteries from Bengal to South-East Asia », in Cross-Cultural Networking in the Eastern Indian Ocean Realm, c. 100 – 1800, edited by K.R. Hall, S. Ghosh, K. Gangopadhyay, R. Mukherjee, New Delhi: Primus Books, p. 85-120.

Articles in conferenceproceedings

Lefrancq C., 2021: « A reappraisal of the archaeological sites and associated pottery dated from the 7th c. to 14th c. CE and located in Odisha, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh », in South Asian Archaeology and Art 2018. Papers presented at the Twenty-Fifth International Conference of the European Association for South Asian Archaeology and Art held at Universitàl’Orientale di Napoli, Naples, 2nd – 6th July 2018. (Forth.)

Lefrancq C., 2020: « The pottery from Mazar excavations at Mahasthangarh (Bangladesh) and its implications for the Early Medieval Period of Ancient North Bengal », in South Asian Archaeology and Art 2014. Papers presented at the Twenty-Second International Conference of the European Association for South Asian Archaeology and Art held at the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities/National Museums of World Culture, Stockholm, Sweden, 30th of June to 4th of July 2014, edited by Eva Myrdal, New Delhi: Dev Publishers & Distributors, p. 205-2014.

Lefèvre V. &Lefrancq C., 2020: « 2013-2015 excavations at Mahasthan. Preliminary results of the third phase of the France-Bangladesh cooperation », in Religions, Society, Trade and Kingship: Archaeology and Art in South Asia and along the Silk Road, 5500 BCE-5th Century CE, Research Presented at the Twenty-third Conference of the European Association for South Asian Archaeology and Art, Cardiff, 2016. Volume 1: Archaeology, Seals and Inscriptions, Iconography and Artistic Expression, edited by Laxshmi Rose Greaves and Adam Hardy, New Delhi: Dev Publishers & Distributors, p. 105-116.