This jubilee aims to raise awareness of the progress made in Reunion Island archaeology among the general public, students, and the academic community, by highlighting the diversity of the projects carried out, the richness of the results obtained, and the contemporary challenges related to heritage preservation. A series of conferences has therefore been created for the 2025-2026 academic year at the Saint-Denis University Library on the theme: 15 years of archaeology in Reunion Island.

Tuesday September 16, 2025 from 16:00 p.m. to 17:30 p.m.

Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences, Moufia campus, Ottino amphitheater
Archaeology in the French territories of the Indian Ocean: functioning, initial assessment and perspectives (2010-2025)
by Fabien Delrieu, Regional Curator of Archaeology at the Department of Cultural Affairs of Réunion

Conference followed by a visit to the exhibition “Archaeologists through the lens” presented at the Saint-Denis Sciences university library

Summary : Archaeology is a young discipline in Réunion, as in Mayotte or the TAAF. The Regional Archaeology Service at the DAC of the Indian Ocean and then of Réunion was only created in 2010. The work of the first archaeologists working in these territories has led to the development of fruitful research since then. This intense activity now allows us to better understand the genesis and then the development of human occupation in these French territories, which have proven innovative in many aspects of the discipline.

Biography : Currently Regional Curator of Archaeology at the DAC of La Réunion, Fabien Delrieu trained as a protohistorian at the universities of Clermont-Ferrand and then Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne. For 25 years, he developed research on the Bronze Age and the 1st Iron Age of Western Europe concerning fortified settlements as well as funerary practices and the phenomenon of deposits of metal objects. Before arriving in the Indian Ocean in 2025, he has worked as an archaeologist since 2003 at the Ministry of Culture, as well as in local authorities, in several regions such as Normandy, Alsace, Rhône-Alpes and Auvergne.

Free admission

Other upcoming conferences

• Tuesday, October 28: 17:00 p.m. – 18:30 p.m. (Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences, Moufia campus)
  Glass archaeology in Reunion, the possibility of an island by Laurence Serra, Doctor of archaeology (Aix-Marseille University), specialist in medieval and modern glass.
• Tuesday, November 25: 17:00 p.m. – 18:30 p.m. (Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences, Moufia campus)
  On the margins of the world, the archaeology of the Scattered Islands: vestiges of the past, issues and logistical challenges by Guillaume Teillet, Archaeologist.