Find links to all the personalities on the website

After studying the Coptic language and Egyptology under Eugène Grébaut and Gaston Maspero, Emile Amenlineau took part in the French archaeological mission to Cairo in 1883-1885.

From 1895 to 1898, he conducted the Abydos excavations in Egypt. He taught the Egyptian religions at the Ecole pratique des Hautes Etudes and left behind a number of texts on the Copts. His catalogue of Coptic manuscripts at the Bibliothèque nationale has remained in handwritten format.

Studying under Silvestre de Sacy, from 1806 he took up duties as a dragoman and consular official first in Cairo and then in Alexandria.

Jane Dieulafoy deservesd, just like her husband Marcel (1844-1920), to stand out in the annals of archaeology. They both became archaeologists in Persia during the initial exploratory mission in 1881-1882, then in 1884-1886 to inaugurate the first large-scale excavations of Susa.

Antonin Jaussen, who arrived in Palestine in the late 19th century, was a companion of Père Lagrange, the founder of the Ecole Biblique et Archéologique Française of Jerusalem, and a witness to and sometimes an actor in the major historical events that marked the Near East from the end of the Ottoman Empire to the era of Nasser.

Le dominicain Marie-Joseph Lagrange, fondateur de l’Ecole biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem, est considéré comme un des principaux fondateurs de l’exégèse catholique moderne. Son œuvre a eu le mérite de rendre à la pensée catholique sur la Bible droit de cité dans le monde savant et fait qu’il est encore respecté très au-delà des milieux chrétiens.

As a constant horizon of his research, the Orient occupied a prominent place in the literary and scholarly production of Ernest Renan, both in his large volumes covering the history of religions, and in his erudite works of linguistics, epigraphy or archaeology.

Egypt featured most prominently during the first part of Seymour de Ricci’s career, when this man of letters, art historian and collector served as representative for the Ministry of Public Instruction (now the Ministry of National Education) there in 1905, and again in 1908-1909.

Later, he went on to leave a number of publications on the history of books. He bequeathed part of his collections, including a series of papyrus, to the Bibliothèque Nationale.

For Rol, the photographic agency of the French press in the first third of the 20th century, it was rare to send operators abroad. The existence of a few series taken at the time in Palestine, Syria, Iraq or Turkey reveals a fallow period in the events which the agency judged to be interesting for its clients in the generalist or specialist illustrated national press.

La découverte des manuscrits de la mer Morte vers la fin des années 1940 a été une des aventures scientifiques majeures du XXe siècle dans le domaine de l’histoire du judaïsme et de la connaissance du milieu de la Bible. Un des artisans principaux de cette découverte a été le dominicain Roland de Vaux, archéologue et spécialiste de l’histoire de l’Ancien Israël.

Jean-François Champollion naît le 23 décembre 1790 à Figeac d’un père libraire. Passionné de langues anciennes, il a comme premier maître son aîné de douze ans, Jacques-Joseph dit Champollion-Figeac, qui joue un rôle déterminant dans son inclination pour l’Égypte.