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- Convenors:
-
Amrit Gomperts
(independent)
Michel Pichon (INRAP)
- Location:
- Salle 211 G MAE
Short Abstract
This is a panel for paper submissions from those who feel that their work does not fit in existing panels. The organisers will seek to reallocate to either existing or new panels.
Long Abstract
If you cannot find a panel where you feel your work would be at home, you may submit a paper proposal to this holding panel. The organisers will consider all proposals and seek to either reallocate to existing panels, if a fit becomes apparent; or create new panels out of the remaining papers.
Accepted papers
Session 1Paper short abstract
Certain traditions, originally from South Asia, survived in Southeast Asia. The representation of a chariot is one of them
Paper long abstract
The Vessantara Jataka, the most elaborate of all the stories of the previous births of the Buddha, contains a lengthy description of an elephant, of the elephant. A certain passage in that description compares the tusks of the stately animal with the drawbar of a carriage. This passage is translated variably in different languages. With the help of Burmese (Myanmari) and Siamese (Thai, Cambodian, Laotian) works of art and early photographs, this paper attempts to explain the true sense of that passage.
Paper short abstract
Our paper will focus on how the Dutch architect, Henri Maclaine Pont’s (1884-1971), ‘hypotheses’ (1924-7) have affected professional research in Majapahit-Trowulan archaeology up to the present day.
Paper long abstract
In 1924-6, the Dutch architect, Henri Maclaine Pont (1884-1971), published his reconstructive plans of the vanished fourteenth-century royal capital of Majapahit based on Prapañca’s description in the Old Javanese text Nāgarakĕrtāgama (1365), literally presenting them as ‘hypotheses’. In 1925-6, the Dutch colonial sugar industry commissioned the architect for a reconnaissance survey on potential irrigation reservoirs in the Mojokĕrto regency. In 1927, Maclaine Pont forwarded this study as his archaeological ‘hypothesis’ on Majapahit hydrology. Despite the Dutch archaeologist, W.F. Stutterheim’s, earlier warnings (1932, 1948), mainstream archaeology continues to laud the architect’s ‘hypotheses’ up to the present day, building on his hydrological theory in a highly irrational manner. In reference to Garrett G. Fagan’s 2006 edited volume «Archaeological Fantasies: How Pseudoarchaeology Misrepresents the Past and Misleads the Public», we analysed Maclaine Pont’s ‘hypotheses’ and their legacy in contemporary Indonesian archaeology. The five themes, which eclipsed the progress in Majapahit-Trowulan archaeology during the past thirty-five years, can all be traced back to the architect’s ‘hypotheses’: namely, (i) his denial of Kĕdaton as the site of the fourteenth-century Majapahit royal palace, (ii) his megalomaniac evocation of Majapahit’s urban sprawl in Prapañca’s description, (iii) his fake identification of irrigation reservoirs, (iv) his anti-Islamic catastrophist theories and (v) his tendency to fight controversial archaeological debates via the media rather than being prepared to defend them in the normal scholarly manner in front of his academic peers.
Paper short abstract
Experimental way to approach Khmer double-opposite-bows crossbows figured on the reliefs of the Bayon and Banteay-Chhmar temples.
Paper long abstract
Recorded and published for the first time by G. Groslier in the early twentieth century, double-opposite-bows crossbows from buddhist temples of Bayon and Banteay-Chhmar, were only slightly studied. Perhaps from China, these remarkable weapons are almost absent in the history of weapons and were hastily considered as siege weapons. The way the highest form, the Banteay-Chhmar model, was operated had never been understood. Experimental archeology has allowed us to restore the way these devices were operated and to understand that it is dedicated to the moving fight.
Paper short abstract
This paper examines the iconographic evidence of naval warfare in Angkor from the temples of Bayon and Banteay Chmar.
Paper long abstract
The natural environment of Angkor is an amphibious landscape where boats ought to have been just as relevant as other forms of land transport. This is reflected in the large number of nautical panels represented in the bas-reliefs of the temples, particularly toward the 12th century. The scenes represent a variety of activities, from festivals to parades. Violence is also depicted; two large panels showing nautical warfare in Angkor can be found in the temples of Banteay Chmar and Bayon. Both images depict the Angkorian forces overpowering their enemies; boarding and sinking their ships employing tactics that suggest a recurrence of this type of nautical events. Recent conservation work done in the Bayon has brought to light further details of the carvings that need to be integrated into our current knowledge on the matter. This paper will re-examine the traditional boundaries attributed to the scenes, particularly that of the Bayon, and will discuss military advancements in nautical technology and the organization of the Angkorian fleet.