Philosophy
Christiane Desroches Noblecourt
November 17th, 1913 to June 23rd, 2011
The Associated Press...
Christiane Desroches Noblecourt, a pioneering French Egyptologist who prodded Gen. Gamal Abdel Nasser to help salvage Nubia's vaunted antiquities, has died. She was 97.
Desroches Noblecourt died Thursday at a hospital in Epernay, east of Paris, where she had been taken after a recent stroke, said Anne Francoise, treasurer of a retirement home in the nearby town of Sezanne where Desroches Noblecourt lived the last few years.
Born Nov. 17, 1913 in Paris, Desroches Noblecourt developed an early passion for Egypt after reading about the discovery of King Tut's tomb in the early 1920s. She later studied at the Louvre and the Sorbonne.
After an initial trip to Egypt in the late 1930s, she became the first woman to be put on a stipend with the Cairo-based French Institute of Oriental Archaeology - cracking a male-dominated world of Egyptology.
In a statement, President Nicolas Sarkozy paid tribute to Desroches Noblecourt as the " grande dame of the Nile," who blended scientific rigor with the qualities of "the most passionate of educators."
After Egyptian officials began planning the Aswan High Dam project on the Nile in 1954, Desroches Noblecourt met Nasser to air concerns that 32 ancient temples and chapels in southern Nubia were facing submersion.
In an interview with Le Monde newspaper in 2007, she recalled how she told him "let me handle it, I'll go talk to UNESCO on your behalf," she was quoted as saying. "He trusted me and let me do it. He was brilliant."
Paris-based UNESCO then helped mobilize nearly 50 countries for a vast project in the 1960s to dismantle, move and reconstruct the antiquities - including massive statues of Pharaoh Ramses II at Abu Simbel, which were broken down into 1,000 pieces and rebuilt over four years.
Desroches Noblecourt helped organize a Louvre exhibit in 1967 about King Tut's treasure that drew more than 1 million visitors.
During World War II, Desroches frequented some members of the French Resistance and was arrested in December 1940. "I thought I was done for," she told Le Monde. "I told them what I thought of them, and I don't know why, they let me go after two days."
Christiane Ziegler, a former curator at the Louvre's Egyptology department, called Desroches Noblecourt "very dynamic, but also very tiring: she wanted everything done in a minute! She had a lot of charisma and spoke well, and really cared for the greater public."
Desroches Noblecourt wrote dozens of books, including "The Fabulous Heritage of Egypt" that was a best-seller in France in 2004 and 2005.
A funeral was planned Monday in the nearby town of Mondemont-Montgivroux, according to Francoise, of the retirement home. She is survived by a son.
Christiane Desroches Noblecourt [Wikipedia]
- Zahi Hawass Is Back...temporarily
After being abruptly sacked in an overhaul of the country's cabinet, Zahi Hawass has been reinstated, but only temporarily. "The Fall of Zahi Hawass" Removed as minister of antiquities, the high profile archaeologist no longer holds the keys to 5,000...
- Dissolution Of Egypt's Antiquities Ministry
It appears that Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities will not exist as a separate entity and to be placed under the control by the cabinet and operated by the current secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Mohamed Abdel Maqsoud....
- Karl Richard Lepsius...german Egyptologist
Karl Richard Lepsius December 23rd, 1810 to July 10th, 1884 I dedicate this to my London colleague [an Egyptologist] who has been stalled for hours with her retired Oxford don father at Heathrow Airport do to bad weather. They are on their way to Luxor...
- Before Zahi Hawass...gaston Maspero
Gaston Maspero June 23rd, 1846 to June 30th, 1916 Long before Zahi Hawass [current Secretary General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities] there was Gaston Maspero a French Egyptologist and director general of excavations and antiquities for...
- Papyrus Of Ani...complete Papyrus
Small section of Papyrus of Ani Utterly fantastic representation of The Papyrus of Ani. This is the complete text and if this were printed out, I wonder how many feet this would be...and how many ink cartridges it would consume. From Vassar College......
Philosophy
Deceased--Christiane Desroches Noblecourt
Christiane Desroches NoblecourtNovember 17th, 1913 to June 23rd, 2011
The Associated Press...
Christiane Desroches Noblecourt, a pioneering French Egyptologist who prodded Gen. Gamal Abdel Nasser to help salvage Nubia's vaunted antiquities, has died. She was 97.
Desroches Noblecourt died Thursday at a hospital in Epernay, east of Paris, where she had been taken after a recent stroke, said Anne Francoise, treasurer of a retirement home in the nearby town of Sezanne where Desroches Noblecourt lived the last few years.
Born Nov. 17, 1913 in Paris, Desroches Noblecourt developed an early passion for Egypt after reading about the discovery of King Tut's tomb in the early 1920s. She later studied at the Louvre and the Sorbonne.
After an initial trip to Egypt in the late 1930s, she became the first woman to be put on a stipend with the Cairo-based French Institute of Oriental Archaeology - cracking a male-dominated world of Egyptology.
In a statement, President Nicolas Sarkozy paid tribute to Desroches Noblecourt as the " grande dame of the Nile," who blended scientific rigor with the qualities of "the most passionate of educators."
After Egyptian officials began planning the Aswan High Dam project on the Nile in 1954, Desroches Noblecourt met Nasser to air concerns that 32 ancient temples and chapels in southern Nubia were facing submersion.
In an interview with Le Monde newspaper in 2007, she recalled how she told him "let me handle it, I'll go talk to UNESCO on your behalf," she was quoted as saying. "He trusted me and let me do it. He was brilliant."
Paris-based UNESCO then helped mobilize nearly 50 countries for a vast project in the 1960s to dismantle, move and reconstruct the antiquities - including massive statues of Pharaoh Ramses II at Abu Simbel, which were broken down into 1,000 pieces and rebuilt over four years.
Desroches Noblecourt helped organize a Louvre exhibit in 1967 about King Tut's treasure that drew more than 1 million visitors.
During World War II, Desroches frequented some members of the French Resistance and was arrested in December 1940. "I thought I was done for," she told Le Monde. "I told them what I thought of them, and I don't know why, they let me go after two days."
Christiane Ziegler, a former curator at the Louvre's Egyptology department, called Desroches Noblecourt "very dynamic, but also very tiring: she wanted everything done in a minute! She had a lot of charisma and spoke well, and really cared for the greater public."
Desroches Noblecourt wrote dozens of books, including "The Fabulous Heritage of Egypt" that was a best-seller in France in 2004 and 2005.
A funeral was planned Monday in the nearby town of Mondemont-Montgivroux, according to Francoise, of the retirement home. She is survived by a son.
Christiane Desroches Noblecourt [Wikipedia]
- Zahi Hawass Is Back...temporarily
After being abruptly sacked in an overhaul of the country's cabinet, Zahi Hawass has been reinstated, but only temporarily. "The Fall of Zahi Hawass" Removed as minister of antiquities, the high profile archaeologist no longer holds the keys to 5,000...
- Dissolution Of Egypt's Antiquities Ministry
It appears that Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities will not exist as a separate entity and to be placed under the control by the cabinet and operated by the current secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Mohamed Abdel Maqsoud....
- Karl Richard Lepsius...german Egyptologist
Karl Richard Lepsius December 23rd, 1810 to July 10th, 1884 I dedicate this to my London colleague [an Egyptologist] who has been stalled for hours with her retired Oxford don father at Heathrow Airport do to bad weather. They are on their way to Luxor...
- Before Zahi Hawass...gaston Maspero
Gaston Maspero June 23rd, 1846 to June 30th, 1916 Long before Zahi Hawass [current Secretary General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities] there was Gaston Maspero a French Egyptologist and director general of excavations and antiquities for...
- Papyrus Of Ani...complete Papyrus
Small section of Papyrus of Ani Utterly fantastic representation of The Papyrus of Ani. This is the complete text and if this were printed out, I wonder how many feet this would be...and how many ink cartridges it would consume. From Vassar College......