101.53.29.182: IPA pronunciation added

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{{Short description|French archaeologist and Egyptologist (1821–1881)}}
{{more citations needed|date=January 2016}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Auguste Mariette
| image = Auguste Mariette photography.jpg
| caption = Auguste Mariette. Photo by [[Nadar]], {{c.|1861}}
| birth_name = François Auguste Ferdinand Mariette
| birth_date = {{birth date|1821|02|11|df=yes}}
| birth_place = [[Boulogne-sur-Mer]], France
| death_date = {{death date and age|1881|1|18|1821|02|11|df=yes}}
| death_place = [[Cairo]], Egypt
| nationality = French
| education =
| alma_mater =
| occupation = [[Egyptology|Egyptologist]]
| employer =
| television =
| movement =
| spouse =
}}
'''François Auguste Ferdinand Mariette''' ({{IPA|fr|ɔɡyst(ə) maʁjɛt}}; 11 February 1821{{snd}}18 January 1881) was a French scholar, archaeologist and [[Egyptology|Egyptologist]], and the founder of the Egyptian Department of Antiquities, the forerunner of the [[Supreme Council of Antiquities]].

==Early career==
Auguste Mariette was born in [[Boulogne-sur-Mer]], where his father was town clerk. 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-upon-Avon]]. In 1840 he became pattern-designer to a ribbon manufacturer in [[Coventry]], but he returned the same year to Boulogne, and in 1841 took a degree at the [[University of Douai]]. Mariette proved to be a talented draftsman and designer, and he supplemented his salary as a teacher at Douai by giving private lessons and writing on historical and archaeological subjects for local periodicals.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Mariette, Auguste Ferdinand François|volume=17|page=716}}</ref>

Meanwhile, his cousin [[Nestor L'Hôte]], the friend and fellow-traveller of [[Jean-François Champollion|Champollion]], died, and the task of sorting his papers filled Mariette with a passion for Egyptology. Largely self-taught, he devoted himself to the study of [[Egyptian hieroglyph|hieroglyph]]s and [[Coptic language|Coptic]]. His 1847 analytic catalogue of the Egyptian Gallery of the Boulogne Museum got him a minor appointment at the [[Louvre|Louvre Museum]] in 1849.<ref name="EB1911"/>

He was elected as a member of the [[American Philosophical Society]] in 1869.<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?year=1869;year-max=1869;smode=advanced;startDoc=1|access-date=2021-04-26|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>

==First trip to Egypt==
[[Image:Pedro II of Brazil in Egypt 1871.jpg|thumb|right|300px|alt=A large group of men and women are gathered below the head of the Sphinx with the Great Pyramid looming behind|Auguste Mariette (seated, far left) and Emperor [[Pedro II of Brazil]] (seated, far right) with others during the monarch's visit to the [[Giza Necropolis]] at the end of 1871.]]
Entrusted with a government mission for the purpose of seeking and purchasing the best Coptic, [[Syriac language|Syriac]], [[Arabic language|Arabic]] and [[Ge'ez language|Ethiopic]] manuscripts for the Louvre collection so that it retained its then-supremacy over other national collections,{{efn|Their acquisition by national and private collections was then a competitive endeavour - the English had the advantage of being able to pay higher prices, although that did not prevent ruthlessness and ambition by all sides.}} he set out for Egypt in 1850.<ref name="EB1911"/>

After little success in acquiring manuscripts due to inexperience, to avoid an embarrassing return empty-handed to France and wasting what might be his only trip to Egypt, he visited temples and befriended a Bedouin tribe, who led him to [[Saqqara]]. The site initially looked "a spectacle of desolation...[and] mounds of sand" (his words), but on noticing one [[sphinx]] from the reputed avenue of sphinxes, that led to the ruins of the [[Serapeum of Saqqara]] near the [[Pyramid of Djoser|step-pyramid]], with its head above the sands, he gathered 30 workmen. Thus, in 1851, he made his celebrated discovery of this avenue and eventually the subterranean tomb-temple complex of catacombs with their spectacular [[sarcophagus|sarcophagi]] of the [[Apis (Egyptian mythology)|Apis]] bulls. Breaking through the rubble at the tomb entrance on November 12, he entered the complex, finding thousands of statues, bronze tablets and other treasures, but only one intact sarcophagus. He also found the virtually intact tomb of Prince [[Khaemweset]], [[Ramesses II]]'s son.

Accused of theft and destruction by rival diggers and by the Egyptian authorities{{Citation needed|date=May 2018}}, Mariette began to rebury his finds in the desert to keep them from these competitors. Instead of manuscripts, official French funds were now advanced for the prosecution of his researches, and he remained in Egypt for four years, excavating, discovering and despatching archaeological treasures to the Louvre,<ref name="EB1911"/> following the accepted Eurocentric convention. However, the French government and the Louvre set up an arrangement to divide the finds 50:50 with Egypt, so that upon his return to Paris 230 crates went to the Louvre (and he was raised to an assistant conservator), but an equal amount remained in Egypt.

==Director of Antiquities==
[[Image:Auguste Mariette statue, Boulogne-sur-Mer.jpg|thumb|A statue of Auguste Mariette in his home city of [[Boulogne-sur-Mer]].]]
After his discoveries at Saqqara, Mariette could not be content with a purely academic role. He said: "I knew I would die or go mad if I did not return to Egypt immediately" and, after less than a year, he returned to Egypt at the insistence of the Egyptian government under [[Sa'id of Egypt]], who created the position of Conservator of Egyptian monuments for him, in 1858.<ref>{{cite book|first=Zachary|last=Karabell|title=Parting the desert: the creation of the Suez Canal|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|page=[https://archive.org/details/partingdesertcre00kara/page/150 150]|date=2003|isbn=0-375-40883-5|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/partingdesertcre00kara/page/150}}</ref>

Moving with his family to Cairo, Mariette's career blossomed into a chronicle of unwearying exploration and brilliant successes:
*gaining government funds open the [[Egyptian Museum|museum in Cairo]] at [[Bulaq]] in 1863 in order to take the pressure off the sites and stop the trade in illicit antiquities.<ref>[http://www.egyptsites.co.uk/lower/cairo/museums/antiquities.html Egyptsites.co.uk] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071109071249/http://www.egyptsites.co.uk/lower/cairo/museums/antiquities.html |date=November 9, 2007 }}</ref>
*the pyramid-fields of [[Memphis, Egypt|Memphis]] and (exploiting his previous success to find a cache of ca. 2000BC painted wooden statues such as [[the Seated Scribe]]) the tombs of [[Saqqara]]
*the necropolis of [[Meidum]], and those of [[Abydos, Egypt|Abydos]] and [[Thebes, Egypt|Thebes]]
*the great temples of [[Dendera]] and [[Edfu]] were disinterred
*important excavations were carried out at [[Karnak]] (marking the first full Egyptian use of the [[stratification (archaeology)|stratigraphic methods]] first developed by [[Karl Richard Lepsius]] and of photographing every object prior to its excavation), [[Medinet Habu]] and [[Deir el-Bahri]]
*[[Tanis, Egypt|Tanis]] (the Egyptian capital in the [[Late Period of Ancient Egypt|Late Period]]) was partially explored in the Delta
*even [[Jebel Barkal|Gebel Barkal]] in [[Sudan]] was explored
*He cleared the sands around the [[Great Sphinx of Giza|Sphinx]] down to the bare rock, and in the process discovered the famous granite and alabaster monument, the "Temple of the Sphinx".<ref name="EB1911"/>

In 1860 alone, Mariette set up 35 new dig sites, whilst attempting to conserve already-dug sites. His success was aided by the fact that no rivals were permitted to dig in Egypt, a fact that the British (who had previously had the majority of Egyptologists active in the country) and Germans (who were politically allied with the country's Ottoman rulers) protested at as a 'sweetheart deal' between Egypt and France. Nor were Mariette's relations with the Khedive always stable. The Khedive, like many potentates, assumed all discoveries ranked as treasure and that what went to the museum in Cairo went only at his pleasure. Even early on, in February 1859, Mariette dashed to Thebes to confiscate a boatload of antiquities from the nearby tomb of Queen [[Ahhotep I]] that were to have been sent to the Khedive.

In his position as Director of the Antiquities Service, Mariette made concerted efforts to stifle the careers of Egyptians such as Ahmad Kamal within the Service.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Reid|first=Donald M.|date=April 1985|title=Indigenous Egyptology: The Decolonization of a Profession?|journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society|volume=105|issue=2|pages=233–246|doi=10.2307/601703|issn=0003-0279|jstor=601703}}</ref> [[Heinrich Karl Brugsch|Heinrich Brugsch]], a German philologist documented how Mariette was suspicious of Egyptians and forbade Egyptians from copying hieroglyphs in the Cairo Museum. Mariette was concerned, Brugsch states, that Egyptians might be appointed into official positions within the Museum and was dedicated to stopping that from occurring.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Mein Leben und mein Wandern|last=Brugsch|first=Heinrich|author-link=Heinrich Karl Brugsch|date=1894|publisher=Allg. Verein für Dt. Litteratur|oclc=1067283260}}</ref>

In 1867, he returned to oversee the ancient Egyptian stand at the [[Exposition Universelle (1867)|Exposition Universelle]], to a hero's welcome for keeping France pre-eminent in Egyptology. In 1869, at the request of the Khedive, he wrote a brief plot for an opera. The following year this concept, worked into a scenario by [[Camille du Locle]], was proposed to [[Giuseppe Verdi]], who accepted it as a subject for ''[[Aida]]''.{{efn|The Khedive had asked Verdi to compose an ode in honour of the opening of the [[Suez Canal]] and the new Royal Opera House in Cairo in November 1869, but the composer declined. The Opera House opened with a performance of ''[[Rigoletto]].''}} For ''Aida,'' Mariette and Du Locle oversaw the scenery and costumes, which were inspired by the art of [[Ancient Egypt]]. The premiere of ''Aida'' was originally scheduled for February 1871, but was delayed until 24 December 1871, due to the siege of Paris at the height of the [[Franco-Prussian War]] (which trapped Mariette with the costumes and scenery in Paris). The opera met with great acclaim.

Mariette was raised successively to the rank of [[bey]] and [[pasha]], and European honors and orders were bestowed on him.<ref name="EB1911"/>

In 1878, his museum was ravaged by floods, which destroyed most of his notes and drawings. By the spring of 1881, prematurely aged and nearly blind, Mariette arranged for the appointment of the Frenchman [[Gaston Maspero]] (a linguist rather than an archaeologist, who he had met at the Exposition in 1867), to ensure that France retained its supremacy in Egyptology in Egypt, rather than an Englishman.

==Death==

He died in Cairo and was interred in a [[sarcophagus]] which is on display in the Garden of the [[Egyptian Museum]], Cairo.<ref>Whose Pharaohs?: Archaeology, Museums, and Egyptian National Identity from Napoleon to World War I (2002), by Donald Malcolm Reid, published by Dar El Kutub</ref>

The bust of other famous Egyptologists, including [[Charles Wycliffe Goodwin]], have been placed on a semi-circular memorial around the sarcophagus.

== List of selected publications ==
{{Expand section|date=June 2008}}
Though not all his discoveries were thoroughly published, the list of his publications is a long one.

;Publications
*Mariette, Auguste. 1857. (Le) Sérapéum de Memphis. Paris: Gide.
*Mariette, Auguste. 1875. Karnak: étude topographique et archéologique avec un appendice comprenant les principaux textes hiéroglyphiques découverts ou recueillis pendant les fouilles exécutées à Karnak. Leipzig: J.C. Hinrichs.
*{{Cite book |last=Mariette-Bey |first=Auguste |title=Deir-el-Bahari. Documents topographiques, historiques et ethnographiques recueillis dans ce temple |url=https://meretsegerbooks.cld.bz/mariettedeirelbahari/2/|publisher=J C Hinrichs |year=1877 |location=Leipzig |language=fr}}
*Mariette, Auguste. 1880. Catalogue général des monuments d'Abydos découverts pendant les fouilles de cette ville. Paris: L'imprimerie nationale.
*Mariette, Auguste. [1888] 1976. Les mastabas de l'ancien empire: Fragment du dernier ouvrage de Auguste Édouard Mariette. G. Olms. {{ISBN|3487059878}}
*Mariette, Auguste. 1890. The monuments of Upper Egypt. Boston: H. Mansfield & J.W. Dearborn.
*Mariette, Auguste. 1892. Outlines of Ancient Egyptian History. New York: C. Scribner's Sons.
*Mariette, Auguste. 1981. Monuments divers recueillis en Egypte et en Nubie. LTR-Verlag. {{ISBN|3887060636}}
*Mariette, Auguste. 1999. Voyage dans la Haute-Egypte: Compris entre Le Caire et la première cataracte. Errance. {{ISBN|2877721779}}

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}
*{{cite book | last = Budden| first = Julian| year = 1981| title = The Operas of Verdi, Vol. 3| publisher = Cassell| location = London| isbn = 0-304-30740-8| pages = 163–187}}

==Further reading==
* ''Auguste Mariette'' by [[Amandine Marshall]], 2010<ref>{{Cite book|title=Auguste Mariette|last=Marshall, Amandine.|date=2010|publisher=Bibliothèque des introuvables|isbn=9782845753419|location=Paris|oclc=718253204}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Suez Canal Company]]

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* [http://members.tripod.com/~ib205/apis_4.html ''The Monuments of Upper Egypt,'' 1877]: (excerpt: discovery of the Serapeum, in English)
* [http://www.aldokkan.com/geography/serapeum.htm Mariette and the Serapeum at Saqqara]
* [http://dlib.nyu.edu/awdl/sites/dl-pa.home.nyu.edu.awdl/files/monumentsofupper00mari/monumentsofupper00mari.pdf The monuments of Upper Egypt] by Mariette.
* [http://www.ancientegyptfoundation.org/auguste_mariette-bey_denderah.shtml ''Denderah'', 1870-74, by Mariette]
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=nAfJ1xBD664C&pg=PA58 Section on Mariette in ''Archaeologists: Explorers of the Human Past'', by Brian Fagan, 2003]
* [https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%28Auguste%20Mariette%29 Works by Mariette on the] [[Internet Archive]]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mariette, Auguste}}
[[Category:1821 births]]
[[Category:1881 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century French archaeologists]]
[[Category:People from Boulogne-sur-Mer]]
[[Category:French Egyptologists]]
[[Category:Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres]]
[[Category:Egyptian Museum]]
[[Category:Tanis]]
[[Category:University of Douai alumni]]
[[Category:International members of the American Philosophical Society]]

Auguste Mariette - Revision history

101.53.29.182: IPA pronunciation added