Auguste Mariette. Deux siècles après

On the occasion of the bicentenary of the birth of Auguste Mariette (Boulogne-sur-Mer 1821 - Cairo 1881), we wished to return to his personality, but also to consider the role he played in this new science, Egyptology, which was then in its infancy, some thirty years after the deciphering of the hieroglyphs by another Frenchman, Jean-François Champollion.

There are biographies of Auguste Mariette, but no other work deals with the place of his work in the political and cultural history of Egypt in the 19th century and in that of archaeological discoveries.

The book benefits from a diverse and multidisciplinary approach (archaeologists, historians, curators and museographers from France and abroad) and from unpublished archival sources: twenty-four contributors from different geographical and professional backgrounds have contributed to the book by presenting new documents or points of view.