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’.
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.
She is a member of the Task-Force B (From the Deccan to Arakan) of the ERC DHARMA project. She will supervise the surveys and excavations conducted at Mahasthangarh and in its surroundings; she will encourage the sharing of expertise between the archaeological teams involved in the project; she will contribute to the creation of an archaeological atlas for the east part of the Indian peninsula.
Her hobbies are travelling, dancing, eating and enjoying life.
Selected publications
Forthc. “Pottery of ancient Bengal during the Early Medieval period”, in S. Sen, S. Varma, B.P. Sahu (eds.), The Archaeology of Early Medieval South Asia. Contesting Narrative from the Eastern Ganga-Brahmaputra Basin (Essays in Honour of Professor Brajadulal Chattopadhaya), New Delhi: Routledge.
Forthc. “Results relating to pottery of ‘Gauda era’ from the Mazar area in Mahasthangarh, Bangladesh”, in Proceedings of the International Seminar “Towards an Archaeology of Gauda?”, Indian Museum, Kolkata, and Institut de Chandernagor (18-19 février 2013)
2020 « Accepting Variation and Embracing Uncertainty: Creating a Regional Pottery Typology in South Asian Archaeology », Open Archaeology 6, 1, p. 269-328.[https://doi.org/10.1515/opar-2020-0112]
2020 “Circulation of Pots and People. Reflections on Trade-mark 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.
2020 [with Lefèvre V.] “2013-2015 Excavations at Mahasthangarh, Bangladesh. 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.
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.
2019 [with Hawkes J., C.M. Jaseera, Biswas N., Mohanty R.K.] “A Typology of Practice: The Archaeological Ceramics from Mahurjhari”, in Internet Archaeology 52 [https://doi.org/10.11141/ia.52.9]
2019 [with Mohanty R.K., Hawkes J., Abbas R.] “Report on the Dating of the Historical Period Site at Mahurjhari, Vidarbha”, in Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology 7, p. 15-28.
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.
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.
