Auguste Mariette

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Portrait of Auguste Mariette von Nadar , ca.1861

François Auguste Ferdinand Mariette , also Auguste-Édouard Mariette (born February 11, 1821 in Boulogne-sur-Mer , †  January 18, 1881 in Bulaq near Cairo ) was a French Egyptologist . He was the founder of monument preservation in Egypt and the Egyptian Museum in Cairo .

life and work

Auguste Mariette was initially a teacher in his hometown and in 1849 got a job at the Egyptian Museum in Paris . In October 1850 he traveled to Egypt on behalf of the Louvre to buy Coptic, Syrian and Ethiopian manuscripts. The negotiations were tough, and Mariette passed the time with excursions to historical sites. On one of these trips he discovered a sphinx near Saqqara and believed to have found the serapeum , the underground burial place of the Apis bulls . Without official approval, he began to dig and actually found the entrance to the sanctuary in 1851. Inside there were 24 large stone sarcophagi, each carved from a single 80-ton granite block. Because the lids of these stone boxes were all pushed aside and the sarcophagi were completely empty, the researchers always took the view that they must have been systematically looted. In the following years, Mariette smuggled around 7,000 objects into France. On his return in 1854 he was appointed Second Curator of the Louvre's Egyptian Department.

Sarcophagus and monument by Auguste Mariette in the garden of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo

In 1855 Mariette visited Berlin at the invitation of Alexander von Humboldt . He met the Egyptologist Heinrich Brugsch , the composer Franz Liszt , the painters Eduard Hildebrandt , Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg and Christian Daniel Rauch as well as the banker Alexander Mendelssohn .

In 1857 he traveled a second time to Egypt to continue his excavations. He opened the graves with explosive charges regardless of the findings . In 1858 he was appointed director of the Antiquities Service ( Service des Antiquités de l'Égypte ) by Viceroy Said Pasha and was henceforth entrusted with the overall management of the excavations initiated by the government . In 1862 he was appointed First Class Bey and in 1879 received the title of Pasha .

Monument to Auguste Mariette in his hometown of Boulogne-sur-Mer

In this position, Mariette campaigned with all her energy to ensure that the ordinance for the protection of antiquities was respected in Egypt. In 1859 he founded the later Egyptian Museum in Cairo to store the numerous finds . He prevented precious jewels from Queen Ahhotep I's grave treasure , which were shown at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1867 , from ending up as a "gift" for the French Empress Eugénie .

Most important monuments were brought to light under Mariette; his most important work of this kind is the excavation of the temples of Abydos and Edfu . His last success was the opening of three pyramids of the 6th Dynasty included at Saqqara, which are important in their inner chambers grave inscriptions.

Mariette died ten years after the premiere of Verdi's opera Aida in Cairo, the libretto of which is based on a story by Mariette. A memorial was erected to him in his hometown in 1882.

In 1869 he became an elected member of the American Philosophical Society .

Publications

  • 1864: Aperçu de l'histoire d'Égypte. Depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'à la conquête musulmane. F. Mourès, Alexandrie, online , digitized by the BNF.
  • 1864: Notice des principaux monuments exposés dans les galeries provisoires du musée d'antiquités Égyptiennes de SA le vice-roi, à Boulaq. A. Mourès, Alexandria.
  • 1869-1880: Abydos. Description of the fouilles exécutées sur l'emplacement de cette ville.
    • Tome 1: Ville antique. - Temple de Séti. A. Franck, Paris 1869, online , digitized by Heidelberg University Library;
    • Tome 2: Temple de Séti (Supplement). - Temple de Ramsès. - Temple d'Osiris. Petit temple de l'ouest. - Necropolis. Imprimierie Nationale, Paris 1880, online , digitized by Heidelberg University Library.
  • 1869: Une visite au Musée de Boulaq. Description of the principaux monuments conservés dans les salles de cet établissement. A. Franck, Paris.
  • 1870-1875: Dendérah. Description general du grand temple de cette ville. Tome 1: Text, Tome 2–5: Atlas. A. Franck et al., Paris et al., Online , digitized by the BNF.
  • Les papyrus égyptiens du Musée de Boulaq. A. Franck, Paris
    • Tome 1: Papyrus no.1 à 9. 1870/1871;
    • Tome 2: Papyrus no.10 à 20. 1872;
    • Tome 3: Papyrus no.21 à 22. 1876.
  • 1871/1872: Hippolyte Délié, Émile Béchard: Album du Musée de Boulaq. Comprenant quarante planches photographiées. Avec un texte explicatif rédigé par Auguste Mariette-Bey. A. Mourès, Cairo.
  • 1872: Itinéraire de la Haute-Egypte, comprenant une description des monuments antiques des rives du Nile entre Le Caire et la première cataracte. Mourès et Cie, Alexandria.
  • 1885: Karnak, étude topographique et archéologique, avec un appendice comprenant les principaux textes hiéroglyphiques découverts ou recueillis pendant les fouilles exécutées à Karnak. Paris 1875; Heinrichs, Leipzig 1875; Reprint d. Ed. Leipzig 1875: LTR-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1982, ISBN 3-88706-095-4 .
  • 1875: Les listes geographiques des pylônes de Karnak comprenant la Palestine, l'Ethiopie, le pays de Somâl. JC Hinrichs, Leipzig;
    • Tome 1: text. (Reprint. LTR-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1981, ISBN 3-88706-059-8 );
    • Tome 2: Atlas. online , digitized by Heidelberg University Library.
  • 1880: Catalog général des monuments d'Abydos découverts pendant les fouilles de cette ville. 'Imprimierie Nationale, Paris (reprint. Olms, Hildesheim et al. 1998, ISBN 3-487-10720-1 ), (is often referred to as “Volume 3” of the “Abydos volumes” 1869–1880).
  • 1889: Les Mastabas de l'Ancien Empire. Fragment du dernier ouvrage de August Edouard Mariette. Publié d'apres le manuscrit de l'auteur par Gaston Maspero. F. Vieweg, Paris, online , digitized by Heidelberg University Library.
  • La fiancée du Nile. - Original for the opera Aida by Giuseppe Verdi

literature

Media reception

  • Video Troy is everywhere: The hiding place of the Pharaohs (docu-drama and documentary, 45 min., Production: ZDF Expedition, first broadcast: November 18, 2007)  in the ZDFmediathek , accessed on January 25, 2014. (offline)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Member History: Auguste Mariette Bey. American Philosophical Society, accessed May 2, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Mariette, Auguste
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mariette, François Auguste Ferdinand (full name); Mariette, Auguste Edouard; Mariette, Auguste-Édouard (other names)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French Egyptologist
DATE OF BIRTH February 11, 1821
PLACE OF BIRTH Boulogne-sur-Mer , France
DATE OF DEATH January 18, 1881
Place of death Bulaq near Cairo , Egypt