François Auguste Ferdinand Mariette

Background

Auguste Mariette was born on February 11, 1821, at Boulogne-sur-Mer, where his father was town clerk.

Education

Mariette was educated at the Boulogne municipal college, where he distinguished himself and showed much artistic talent, he went to England in 1839 when eighteen as professor of French and drawing at a boys' school at Stratford-on-Avon. In 1840 he became pattern-designer to a ribbon manufacturer at Coventry; but weary of ill-paid exile he returned the same year to Boulogne, and in 1841 took his degree at Douai.

Career

He now became a professor at his old college, and for some years supplemented his salary by giving private lessons and writing on historical and archaeological subjects for local periodicals. Meanwhile his cousin died, and the task of sorting his papers filled Mariette with a passion for Egyptology. He thenceforth became passionately interested in Egyptology, devoted himself to the study of hieroglyphs and Coptic, and in 1847 published a Catalogue analytique of the Egyptian Gallery of the Boulogne Museum; in 1849, being appointed to a subordinate position in the Louvre, he left Boulogne for Paris. Entrusted with a government mission for the purpose of seeking and purchasing Coptic, Syriac, Arabic and Ethiopic MSS for the national collection, he started for Egypt in 1850; and soon after his arrival he made his celebrated discovery of the ruins of the Serapeum and the subterraneous catacombs of the Apisbulis. His original mission being abandoned, funds were now advanced for the prosecution of his researches, and he remained in Egypt for four years, excavating, discovering and dispatching archaeological treasures to the Louvre, of which museum he was on his return appointed an assistant conservator. In 1858 he accepted the position of conservator of Egyptian monuments to the ex-khedive, Ismail Pasha, and removed to Cairo. His history thenceforth becomes a chronicle of unwearied exploration and brilliant success. The museum at Bula was founded immediately. The pyramid-fields of Memphis and Sakkara, and the necropolis of Meydum, and those of Abydos and Thebes were examined; the great temples of Dendera and Edfu were disinterred; important excavations were carried out at Karnak, Medinet-Habu and Deir el-Bahri; Tanis (the Zoan of the Bible) was partially explored in the Delta; and even Gebel Barkal in the Sudan. The Sphinx was bared to the rock-level, and the famous granite and alabaster monument miscalled the "Temple of the Sphinx" was discovered. Mariette was raised successively to the rank of bey and pasha in his own service.

In 1877 his health broke down through overwork. He lingered for a few years, working to the last. His chief published works are: Le Sérapéum de Memphis (1857 and following years); Dendérah, five folios and one 4to (1873-1875); Abydos, two folios and one 4to (1870-1880); Karnak, folio and 4to (1875); Deir el-Bahari, folio and 4to (1877); Listes géographiques des pylénes de Karnak, folio (1875): Catalogue du Musée de Boulaq (six editions 1864-1876); Apergu de l'histoire d'Egypte (four editions, 1864-1874); Les M astabas de l'ancien empire (edited by Maspero) (1883).

François Auguste Ferdinand Mariette died at Cairo on January 19, 1881

Achievements

• François Auguste Ferdinand Mariette was an outstanding archaeologist, who conducted major excavations throughout Egypt, revealing much about the earlier periods of Egyptian history.
  
  The monument to Auguste Mariet was installed in the Garden of the Egyptian Museum, Cairo.
  
  Honours and orders were showered on him: the Legion of Honour and the Medjidie in 1852; the Red Eagle (first class) of Prussia in 1855; the Italian Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus in 1857; and the Austrian Order of Franz Joseph in 1858.
  
  In 1873 the Academy of Inscriptions decreed to him the biennial prize of 20, 000 francs, and in 1878 he was elected a member of the Institute. He was also an honorary member of most of the learned societies of Europe.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Monuments of Upper Egypt (Classic Reprint)

    (An unpretending little volume was published in 1869 under...)

Views

Quotations: "The Egyptian duck is a dangerous animal: one snap of its beak and you are infected with Egyptology for life. "

Membership

In 1878, Auguste Mariette was elected a member of the Academy of Inscriptions. He was also an honorary member of most of the learned societies of Europe.

Connections

On June 5, 1845, François Auguste Ferdinand Mariette married Eléonore Millon.

Father:

François Paulin Mariette

Mother:

Eugénie Sophie Mélanie Delobeau

Wife:

Eléonore Millon