Nicolaus Engelhard and Thomas Stamford Raffles: Brethren in Javanese Antiquities

This paper is about the connections and relationship between Nicolaus Englehard and Thomas Stanford Raffles. Raffles is often considered to have contributed positively to the development of Javanese archaeology, while Englehard is represented as an ignorant and destructive temple looter. The detailed discussion of new archival information in the present article casts a light not only on the early beginnings of Javanese archaeology, but also on some less familiar aspects of Raffles’s personality and career, and on his special relationships with prominent Dutch contemporaries in Batavia, Engelhard in particular. Toward the end, this article deals with the political context and the ideological motives that led the British and the Dutch to collaborate with each other, both in Java’s civil administration and in the research of the island’s ancient past.