Pierre Lacau (25 November 1873 – 26 March 1963) was a French
Egyptologist
Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious ...
and
philologist
Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...
. He served as
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
's director of antiquities from 1914 until 1936, and oversaw the 1922 discovery of the
tomb
A tomb ( grc-gre, τύμβος ''tumbos'') is a :wikt:repository, repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be ...
of
Tutankhamun
Tutankhamun (, egy, twt-ꜥnḫ-jmn), Egyptological pronunciation Tutankhamen () (), sometimes referred to as King Tut, was an Egyptian pharaoh who was the last of his royal family to rule during the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty (ruled ...
in the
Valley of the Kings
The Valley of the Kings ( ar, وادي الملوك ; Late Coptic: ), also known as the Valley of the Gates of the Kings ( ar, وادي أبوا الملوك ), is a valley in Egypt where, for a period of nearly 500 years from the 16th to 11th ...
by
Howard Carter
Howard Carter (9 May 18742 March 1939) was a British archaeologist and Egyptologist who discovered the intact tomb of the 18th Dynasty Pharaoh Tutankhamun in November 1922, the best-preserved pharaonic tomb ever found in the Valley of the K ...
.
Early life
Pierre Lacau was born in the
French commune
The () is a level of administrative division in the French Republic. French are analogous to civil townships and incorporated municipalities in the United States and Canada, ' in Germany, ' in Italy, or ' in Spain. The United Kingdom's equi ...
of
Brie-Comte-Robert
Brie-Comte-Robert () is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France.
Brie-Comte-Robert is on the edge of the plain of Brie and was formerly the capital of the ''Brie française''.
"Brie" comes ...
.
[ Wikipedia - French edition] He was raised and educated as a
Jesuit
, image = Ihs-logo.svg
, image_size = 175px
, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders ...
.
[Pharaoh Season In Egypt: Monumental Unravelings](_blank)
/ref>
Career
Lacau's first appointment in Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
was to the International Commission for drafting the general catalogue of the Museum of Cairo.
In 1912 he was appointed director of the French Institute of Eastern Archaeology, succeeding Émile Chassinat
Émile Gaston Chassinat (5 May 1868 - 26 May 1948) was a French Egyptologist. Director of the French Institute for Oriental Archaeology in Cairo in Cairo from 1898/9 to 1911/2, Chassinat acquired two of the Amarna tablets in 1903.
Publications
...
, whose work he continued by excavating new structures within Abu Rawash
Abu Rawash (also spelled ''Abu Roach'', Abu Roash; ar, ابو رواش , , , "flesh of sensual pleasures"), north of Giza, is the site of Egypt's most northerly pyramid, also known as the lost pyramid – the mostly ruined Pyramid ...
, the funerary complex of Djedefre
Djedefre (also known as Djedefra and Radjedef – Modern Greek: ) was an ancient Egyptian king (pharaoh) of the 4th Dynasty during the Old Kingdom. He is well known by the Hellenized form of his name Rhatoisēs (Ῥατοίσης) by Manetho. ...
to the east of the pyramids of Giza
Giza (; sometimes spelled ''Gizah'' arz, الجيزة ' ) is the second-largest city in Egypt after Cairo and fourth-largest city in Africa after Kinshasa, Lagos and Cairo. It is the capital of Giza Governorate with a total population of 9.2 ...
.
From 1914 to 1936 he served as director general of the Department of Antiquities of Egypt. He was appointed in 1914 to succeed Gaston Maspero
Sir Gaston Camille Charles Maspero (23 June 1846 – 30 June 1916) was a French Egyptologist known for popularizing the term "Sea Peoples" in an 1881 paper.
Maspero's son, Henri Maspero, became a notable sinologist and scholar of East Asia.
...
but could not take up the position until after World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. He immediately announced that excavation concessions would be limited to representatives of
public institutions and societies. He then reinterpreted the law covering division of finds so that the Egyptian National Museum could take all unique finds and give the excavator all the rest.[Giza Pyramids.org - The Dead Hand (PDF)](_blank)
/ref>
Lacau oversaw the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922 by the English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
archaeologist
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
s Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon
Earl of Carnarvon is a title that has been created three times in British history. The current holder is George Herbert, 8th Earl of Carnarvon. The town and county in Wales to which the title refers are historically spelled ''Caernarfon,'' havi ...
in the Valley of the Kings
The Valley of the Kings ( ar, وادي الملوك ; Late Coptic: ), also known as the Valley of the Gates of the Kings ( ar, وادي أبوا الملوك ), is a valley in Egypt where, for a period of nearly 500 years from the 16th to 11th ...
. Relations with Carter were rarely cordial and were exacerbated by both the monopoly of publication rights which Lord Carnarvon sold to ''The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'', and pressure from the Egyptian government
The politics of Egypt are based on republicanism, with a semi-presidential system of government. The current political system was established following the 2013 Egyptian military coup d'état, and the takeover of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. ...
who resented the lack of Egyptian involvement in the Tutankhamen excavation.[Politics and the King Tut Discovery by Jimmy Dunn](_blank)
/ref>
In 1924 Lacau, acting under the orders of the new Minister of Public Works, forbade the wives of Howard Carter's team to enter the tomb. Carter closed the tomb in protest, locked it, refused to hand over the keys, and posted an explanatory notice in the Old Winter Palace Hotel, Luxor
The Sofitel Winter Palace Hotel, also known as the Old Winter Palace Hotel, is a historic British colonial-era 5-star luxury resort hotel located on the banks of the River Nile in Luxor, Egypt, just south of Luxor Temple, with 86 rooms and 6 ...
, thus breaking the terms of his license and relinquishing full control to Lacau.[Ancient Egypt - The History, People and Culture of the Nile Valley, Audrey Carter gives insight into the life of Howard Carter for Ancient Egypt magazine](_blank)
/ref>
In 1938 Lacau was appointed professor
Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...
at the Collège de France
The Collège de France (), formerly known as the ''Collège Royal'' or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment (''grand établissement'') in France. It is located in Paris ne ...
in Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, where he held the chair in Egyptology
Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious ...
until 1947; he was elected to the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres in 1939.
In popular culture
Lacau was portrayed by Valentine Pelka
Valentine Pelka (born 23 February 1956) is an English actor who has starred in film and on television.
Biography
Pelka was born in Dewsbury, West Riding of Yorkshire, to a Polish civil engineer father and an Irish actress mother, and attended ...
in the 2005 BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
docudrama ''Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
'', and Nicolas Beaucaire in the 2016 ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
drama ''Tutankhamun
Tutankhamun (, egy, twt-ꜥnḫ-jmn), Egyptological pronunciation Tutankhamen () (), sometimes referred to as King Tut, was an Egyptian pharaoh who was the last of his royal family to rule during the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty (ruled ...
''.
Publications
* General Catalogue of Egyptian Antiquities Museum in Cairo. Sarcophagi before the New Kingdom. Published by the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology, 1904.
* Pierre Lacau / Jean-Philippe Lauer
Jean-Philippe Lauer (7 May 1902 – 15 May 2001), was a French architect and Egyptologist. He was considered to be the foremost expert on pyramid construction techniques and methods.
Biography
Arrival in Egypt
He was born in the 8th arrondi ...
, excavations at Saqqara
Saqqara ( ar, سقارة, ), also spelled Sakkara or Saccara in English , is an Egyptian village in Giza Governorate, that contains ancient burial grounds of Egyptian royalty, serving as the necropolis for the ancient Egyptian capital, Memphis. ...
. The step pyramid
A step pyramid or stepped pyramid is an architectural structure that uses flat platforms, or steps, receding from the ground up, to achieve a completed shape similar to a geometric pyramid. Step pyramids are structures which characterized several ...
. Volume V. Inscriptions in ink on Vases. Published by the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology, 1965.
* Pierre Lacau 1933. Une stèle juridique de Karnak. SASAE 13. Cairo.[Digital Egypt](_blank)
/ref>
* Pierre Lacau / Henri Chevrier 1956. Une Chapelle de Sésostris Ier à Karnak. I.Cairo.
References
Florida State University - Thesis - Discovering Tutankhamen (Chapter 6) Pdf
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lacau, Pierre
1873 births
1963 deaths
French Egyptologists
French archaeologists
French philologists
Collège de France faculty
People from Seine-et-Marne
Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
Members of the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale