Napoléon Antoine Aimé Péretié, commonly Aimé Péretié, (born 5 March 1808, Marseille, died 8 April 1882, Beirut), was a French diplomat in the Levant and as a collector of oriental antiquities.
Diplomatic career
From 1829 to 1834, he worked for the French consulate in Larnaca as a dragoman and chancellor.
In 1839, he was nominated “drogman sans residence fixe”, and by December 1850 he was chancellor of the French consulate general in Beirut. For a short period around 1853 he was French vice consul in Tripoli (Lebanon), and by 1855 was again chancellor of the French consulate general in Beirut.
In 1864 he was promoted vice consul of France in Beirut.
Antiquities
In 1855 he donated a collection of medieval coins to the
Bibliothèque nationale de France
The Bibliothèque nationale de France (, 'National Library of France'; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites known respectively as ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository ...
. In the same year he was involved in the discovery of the
Sarcophagus of Eshmunazar II
The sarcophagus of Eshmunazar II is a 6th-century BC sarcophagus unearthed in 1855 in the grounds of an ancient necropolis southeast of the city of Sidon, in modern-day Lebanon, that contained the body of Eshmunazar II (Phoenician language, Pho ...
. In 1869 he was involved in the discovery of the
Yehawmilk Stele.
He travelled to Cyprus for similar purposes. In 1850 he bought and sold several important objects including the
Idalion Tablet
Idalion or Idalium ( el, Ιδάλιον, ''Idalion'') was an ancient city in Cyprus, in modern Dali, Nicosia District. The city was founded on the copper trade in the 3rd millennium BC. Its name in the 8th century BC was "Ed-di-al" as it appears ...
.
Family
His son Alfred became the French consul in Baghdad.
References
{{reflist
External links
Items discovered by Aimé Péretié at the Louvre
French diplomats
French orientalists