Un nouvel essai de classification des batu Aceh de la péninsule malaise

Daniel Perret This article presents an attempt at classifying a family of old Moslem tombstones found in the Malay World, called batu Aceh because several elements point at North Sumatra as the origin of their artistic tradition. The corpus consists in 450 tombs found in the Malay Peninsula during surveys carried out since 1996. They are distributed in five groups according to the general shape of the main part of the tombstone. Each group includes one or more specific forms (20 on the whole). This classification is a tool of comparison intended to help the historical interpretation of the tombs in a context where inscriptions of a historical nature are very scarce.