Maspero

On June 23, 1846 AD, Gaston Maspero was born to Italian parents who immigrated to France in Paris. Maspero showed a particular interest in history when he was at school, and at the age of fourteen, he was interested in learning the ancient Egyptian language “hieroglyphics. “

Maspero won the general competition for literature at the age of thirteen and joined the École normale supérieure. He met the archaeologist Auguste Mariette, who gave him two hieroglyphic texts recently discovered by Mariette, which were difficult to study and understand. Still, Maspero was able to translate it in only eight days, and This impressed Mariette. Maspero studied Egyptology alone by informing him of the Egyptian antiquities preserved in the Louvre Museum and the inscriptions of the Egyptian obelisk in the square de la Concorde. His name began to be known in the scientific community after he translated Mariette’s texts.

The Collège de France scholars admired him and thought of him filling the chair of Egyptology in it. Still, because of his young age at that time, they decided to give him the title  “assistant professor”  for two days, after which he occupied the chair, and that was in 1874 AD.

Maspero was fluent in the Arabic language. He had not yet visited Egypt until the opportunity came when Mariette fell  Director of the Egyptian Antiquities Authority, which he founded.

Maspero came to Egypt on January 5, 1881 AD, thirteen days before Mariette’s death. He became chief of the Egyptian Antiquities Authority and the Secretary of the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities in Bulaq when he was thirty-four years old.

Maspero completed the excavations carried out by Mariette in Saqqara and expanded the scope of the search. He was particularly interested in tombs that contain important Pharaonic texts enriching the hieroglyphic language, and he found 4000 fragments that he photographed and printed.

Maspero established the French Institute of Archeology in Cairo and was the first director of this institute, which was not limited to Pharaonic antiquities, but extended to studying all Egyptian antiquities, whether Islamic or Coptic.

Maspero continued the excavations of Mariette in the temples of Edfu and Abydos. He also completed Mariette’s work in removing sand from the Great Sphinx in Giza, where he released more than 20 meters of sand from it, trying to find graves under it, but did not find it, but recently a  lot of tombs were found in the places where he was excavating. Maspero and rearranged the Egyptian Museum in Bulaq and transferred its contents to the current Cairo Museum. During his reign, a cache was discovered in Karnak containing hundreds of statues belonging to different eras and the publication of numerous archaeological studies

. Maspero was very active in confronting the thefts that were taking place in ancient Egyptian antiquities. He helped the Egyptian scientist Ahmed Kamal Bey transfer hundreds of mummies and looted antiquities to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. He enacted a new law issued in 1912 AD that stipulates that people are not allowed to excavate. Excavation is limited only to scientific missions after the approval of their project. The excavators did not have the right to obtain half of what they find, But they only get the pieces with a replica in the Cairo Museum. The excavator is not granted an exit visa from Egypt unless he leaves the archaeological site satisfactorily, which angered him. He hated foreign smugglers and antiquities dealers and imposed a fee for viewing the archaeological sites to meet the expenses needed for excavation and maintenance work.

In 1881 AD, the most crucial discovery of Maspero was the cache of Deir al-Bahari, in which the mummies of Kings Seqenenre, Ahmose I, Thutmose III, Seti I, Ramses II, and others were found.

There were frictions and competitions between the English occupying Egypt and the French, dominating the Egyptian Antiquities Department. As a result of these English disagreements, Maspero submitted his resignation in 1892 AD. Still, the representative of France in Egypt demanded his return and returned to Egypt in 1899 AD. In the same year of his return, he made Maspero appointed Howard Carter, chief inspector of antiquities in Upper Egypt, and he was also the one who introduced him to Lord Carnavon in 1905 AD.

Maspero returned to Paris in 1914 AD and was appointed as a permanent advisor to the Academy of Arts and Letters.

Gaston Maspero died on June 30, 1916 AD, and was buried in France. Maspero in Egypt was given to Cairo’s radio and television building to honor his great works and contributions to the research and preservation of ancient Egyptian monuments. And his presence in Egyptian cinema was recorded in the beautiful feature film The Mummy by the genius director Shadi Abdel Salam.