# Francis Anfray (1926-2022) In Memoriam

Jean-François Breton

► To cite this version:

Jean-François Breton. Francis Anfray (1926-2022) In Memoriam. Annales d'Éthiopie, 2024, 35-2024 (35), pp.9-10. hal-05175002

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Submitted on 21 Jul 2025

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# Francis Anfray (1926-2022)

## In Memoriam

Francis Anfray began his career as a seminarian in Paris. Then, seconded to the École biblique in Jerusalem, he submitted – in a premonitory manner – a thesis on the Queen of Sheba. Following his thesis, F. Anfray undertook excavation campaigns in Iran.

In 1958, he moved to Ethiopia where he joined the Archaeology Section of the Ethiopian Institute for Studies and Research, which was founded in 1952 by Jean Leclant. The Institute was directed by Hervé de Roux and managed for a time by André Miquel. Francis Anfray then helped to organise the Imperial Museum located within the palace. It was at this time that he met Anne Saurat, who worked extensively for various museums, notably the one in Addis Ababa, but also in Iran and Yemen (in Aden). From 1960 to 1963, he consistently led important excavation campaigns in northern Ethiopia. The first of these campaigns, at Matâra in November 1959, brought together Guy Annequin and the photographer Kebede Bogale, with whom he would forge friendships for more than thirty years. At Matâra, he directed four excavation campaigns: the first from November 1959 to January 1960, the second from 27 April to 25 May 1961, the third from 8 April to 16 May 1962 and finally the fourth from 9 April to 1 June 1963. Matâra and its houses, residential quarters, stelae, and churches was, and long remained, the largest Aksumite town to be excavated. Francis Anfray also carried out an excavation campaign at Yeha in February and March 1960, as well as two campaigns at Adulis from 31 March to 22 April 1961, and from 8 February to 8 March 1962. These were undoubtedly the most fruitful years of his career as an archaeologist; he regularly published the results in very detailed reports in the *Annales d'Éthiopie* from 1963 to 1965.

After a few years of respite, he then undertook the excavation of the Dungur site in Aksum over two campaigns from 1966 to 1968. He quickly published these results in *Paideuma* (XVIII, 1972, 60-78).

<footnote>* CNRS, UMR 7041: ArsCAN, Nanterre, France.
breton.jeanfrancois2015@yahoo.com</footnote>
For all of his archaeological work in Ethiopia, Francis Anfray was awarded the *Prize Trust* by His Majesty Haile Selassie 1st. According to Anfray's relative, he would also always remain nostalgic for the emperor, his entourage, his court, and his splendour.

From 1974, during the time of the Derg, the institutions with which Francis Anfray was involved evolved. Within the Ministry of Culture and Information, the “Center for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage” was created, which forged close links with the Archaeology Section. Francis Anfray and his colleagues Roger Schneider (epigraphist) and Yves Baudouin (professional of restoration), former Ethiopian civil servants, were now fully employed by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A few years later, he finally became Director of the Archaeology Section.

Unable to pursue his work in northern Ethiopia due to conflicts, Francis Anfray started, with Eric Godet and Kebede Bogale, a general inventory and mapping of the stelae sites spread in the area around Silté and Butajira. In March and April 1978, he undertook the excavation of the cemetery of Gattira-Demma, and these results were published in the 1982 volume of the *Annales d'Éthiopie*. This volume was dedicated entirely to the southern Ethiopian stelae sites and contained no fewer than 25 articles, amongst which was “Des milliers de stèles au cœur du Sidamo” (*Annales d'Éthiopie*, 12, 1982, 121-129). The discovery (or rather the rediscovery after Cholet and Neuville and then Azaïs and Chambard) of the decorated stelae of Soddo owes a great deal to Francis Anfray and also to his colleague Roger Joussaume.

From 1982 to 1991, Francis Anfray taught as a professor at Addis Ababa University. He wrote *Les anciens Éthiopiens* (Armand Colin, 1990), which became a reference book in French for many students. It was at this time that the Maison des Études Éthiopiennes was founded under the direction of Berhanu Abebe, Jacques Bureau, and Gérard Prunier.

Francis Anfray finally returned to Paris, where he settled into Ricardo Bofill's buildings, Place de Catalogne. He never ceased to receive friends, professors, researchers, and students from Ethiopia and Europe with the utmost friendliness and availability. This was how he opened up all his archives on Adulis to me. His last public lecture, with Eric Godet and Henri de Contenson, was delivered in 2016 in Paris at the Colloque International and was titled “Lieux de culte et transferts culturels en Éthiopie antique. Ier millénaire avant – Ier millénaire de notre ère. Actualité de la recherche archéologique” or “International Conference on the archaeology of ancient Ethiopia. Cult places in ancient Ethiopia. Recent archaeological research”.

Francis Anfray left an important body of work: no fewer than 43 contributions in the *Annales d'Éthiopie* from 1963 to 2003, which are available online (Persée). In his latest book, *Recherches archéologiques à Adoulis (Erythrée)* (Presses universitaires du Midi, 2016), he retraced his steps, “nomadic in his
own footsteps” (as André Velter would write), and bore witness to his passion
for Ethiopia, which he loved so much.

He died in Paris on 11 April 2022.