9
Presentations
Draft summary results obtained by the national experts’missions
Chantal Radimilahy, Lecturer - Institut de Civilisations/Musée d’Art et d’Archéologie,
University of Antananarivo
“As national experts appointed by the Malagasy Government with Professor Rafolo Andrianaivoarivony
to be in charge of the monitoring of the Ambatovy archaeological works, we reviewed periodically if the
methods comply with the Environmental Permit. We were also required to conduct field visits to see the
state of cultural and religious sites. Sometimes, our recommendations are to apply the methods under the
broad sense of the term“heritage protection”with an aim to preserve a forest containing medicinal plants
that are useful for the local population.
In the laboratory, our role was to verify and validate the data and artifact processing protocol. This work
was done in collaboration with CEREL (Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches Ethnological and Linguistic) and
the Museum of the University of Toamasina.
From a scientific point of view, the results build upon knowledge of the archaeological sites. Before
Ambatovy’s initiative, only ten archaeological sites were identified on the eastern part of Madagascar. Now,
we have identified more than one hundred sites and have gathered traditional stories.
The work was also a great learning experience for our young students. The open sites were a life-size
practical.
In the future, Ambatovy should conduct restitution activities and make the results available to the local
communities with the possibility of enhancing the archaeological and historical sites such as the worship
sites.”
