of Mouhot, de Lagrée, and Pavie that images of a glorious and vanished Cambodian past were lodged in the minds of Europeans, whose countries were then colonizing most of Southeast Asia.

Cambodian Archaeology through–Nineteenth-Century Research

Investigations also began at archaeological sites throughout the colony during this period. The earliest of these endeavors were carried out by army and naval officers, administrators, and missionaries who lacked formal training in archaeology. They concentrated their efforts in Vietnam (particularly in the north) and in northwestern Cambodia and studied art history, epigraphy, and archaeology. Most work focused on the period that began with the Roman Empire and ended in the European Middle Ages; in Indochina this period is characterized by monumental Khmer and Cham architecture. From 1879 to 1885 Etienne Aymonier undertook his exhaustive study of archaeological sites and Khmer inscriptions throughout Cambodia. Visits to the Cambodian site of Samrong Sen, together with archaeological work conducted there by several notables (e.g., Noulet, Fuchs, Moura, emile cartailhac), yielded bronze weapons and tools and established the notion of an Indochinese Bronze Age. In 1886 Gustave Dumoutier and Paul Bert arrived in Hanoi and launched the first systematic archaeological and historical research in Vietnam.

The end of the nineteenth century witnessed a turning point in colonial research on Indochina’s archaeological past. This shift was marked by Gen. Paul Doumer’s establishment, on December 15, 1898, of a permanent archaeological mission in Indochina. This institution was to be under the control of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, and its mission was to coordinate all historical, epigraphical, art-historical, and archaeological research in the region. The governor-general then created the Geological Service of Indochina in 1899, headed by Henri Mansuy and M. Lantenois. Most prehistoric archaeological research during the colonial period was done through this institution. In 1901 Louis Finot was appointed the first director of the permanent archaeological mission, which was then renamed the École Française d’ Extrême Orient (EFEO).

Louis Finot earned degrees in law and literature before he began his research on Sanskrit and assumed the directorship of EFEO, the institution that would become the premier organization to focus on Indochina’s cultural heritage for the rest of the colonial period. Interestingly, few of the early and important EFEO archaeologists had technical training in the field: Lunet de Lajonquière was a military officer, Henri Mansuy had no formal college degree, Louis Bezacier and Henri Parmentier were architects, and Louis Malleret went to Indochina as a language teacher. The field of Southeast Asian studies was so underdeveloped in Europe at the time that even those with professional training (such as Victor Goloubew, whose background lay in art history) had little familiarity with the region before their arrival.

EFEO’s explicit goal was to conserve and restore the ruined Khmer and Cham monuments of Indochina; safeguarding monuments that would otherwise be destroyed involved not only their study but also their restoration or conservation. In 1907 France signed a treaty with Siam (Thailand) that assured the return of three western provinces of Cambodia containing Angkor and its associated monuments. In 1908 EFEO launched its systematic program to conserve and restore the monuments of Khmer (and, to a far lesser extent, Cham). EFEO founding directors Louis Finot and Alfred Foucher also established the Service Archéologique as one arm of the institution.

Understanding the history of archaeological research in Cambodia requires a dual focus on developments in both prehistoric and historical archaeology. Colonial archaeological research in these two realms began in earnest in the second decade of the twentieth century and continued vigorously until the outbreak of World War II. The effective end of EFEO archaeological service occurred in 1945, and the French withdrawal from Vietnam in 1954 resulted in the transfer of authority from France to the newly independent countries of Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos. In Cambodia the period before World War II was the