In Greece, French archaeology is still concerned with the traditional sites mentioned previously. The School of Athens plays a decisive role, though no longer an exclusive one. The harvest is very rich and covers the different fields of history, especially Hellenistic (thousands of epigraphic texts have been published and analyzed, more than 2,000 for Delos alone). Also of interest is the evolution of the great sanctuaries—their organization and monumentalization—most notably Delos and Delphi, and the history of art, painting, and sculpture plays a role—the excavation of Delphi made a huge contribution to the field of archaic art. Since 1990 research perspectives have changed in accordance with general movements in field archaeology toward landscape archaeology and submarine archaeology, excavations of farms, and studies of workshops. The School of Athens is extending its center of interest to the Balkans, and France also has bases in turkey at the Greek and Roman sites of Xanthos and Claros.

Since World War II, new impetus has come as much or even more from digs at Greek settlements in the peripheral zones, such as Ai Khanoum in Afghanistan, or Greek colonies in the West (southern Italy and Sicily, to say nothing of the work of French archaeologists in southern Gaul and Marseilles). The School of Rome has played a major role in this domain by excavating the site at Megara Hyblaea on the east coast of Sicily and by participating in numerous ventures that have helped lead to a better understanding of colonial Hellenism in the West. Issues such as regular town planning, contact with the “natives” and acculturation phenomena, and types and forms of exchange have all been investigated by French archaeologists. The School of Rome was also responsible for the Etruscan dig at Bolsena. Even though there is no university course in Etruscan studies, the French school dealing with this subject is a very vigorous one (CNRS, Louvre, Aix-en-Provence).

France is represented in different capacities in numerous Roman and Greek sites around the Mediterranean. Of particular note is a strong presence in spain and portugal, in North Africa (especially in Tunisia, where the French are still working on traditional sites such as Bulla Reggia and Carthage), the upkeep of a mission in Libya, sustained activity in Syria and jordan, and, of course, the French School’s excavation in Rome. More recently, France has been taking part in the archaeological opening up of the eastern bloc countries. The work, done by the Service Archéologique National en France, deserves recognition as its specially commissioned digs and emergency conservation digs have contributed data and given rise to numerous syntheses. One of the most striking features of contemporary French archaeology is that France, which until World War II favored the pursuit of classical archaeology abroad in Italy and Greece, has developed a national archaeology that, richly endowed (largely by developers) and using the most modern of techniques, has become one of the leading exponents of experimental research even in classical antiquity, as the excavations of Greek and Roman Marseilles illustrate so magnificently.

Roland and Françoise Etienne;

translated Judith Braid

See also

Society of Dilettanti

References

Dondin-Payre, Monique. 1988. Un siècle d’epigraphie classique: Aspects de l’oeuvre des savants français dans les pays méditerranéens. Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

Etienne, Roland, and Francoise Etienne. 1990. La Grece antique: Archéologie d’une decouverte. Paris: Gallimard.

Gras, Michel. 1986. “Les Etrusques.” La Recherche 182: 1310–1320.

Hubert, Emmanuelle. 1982. “Un precurseur de l’archéologie: N. Claude Fabri de Peiresc.” Archeologia 170: 73–76.

Radet, Georges. 1901. Histoire et oeuvre e l’Ecole Française d’Athenes. Paris.

Schnapp, Alain. 1975. L’Ecole française de Rome 1875–1975: Exposition organisee a l’occasion de son centenaire. Paris: Archives de France.

———. 1982. Paris-Rome Athenes: Le voyage en Grece des architectes français aux XIXe et XXe siècle. Paris.

———. 1985. L’archéologie française a l’etranger: Recherches et decouvertes. Paris: Edition Recherches sur les Civilisations.

———. 1992. La redecouverte de Delphes, Ecole Française d’Athenes. Paris.