Victor Guérin (15 September 1821 – 21 Septembe 1890) was a French intellectual, explorer and amateur archaeologist. He published books describing the

geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, an ...

, archeology and

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

of the areas he explored, which included

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...

Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus lie ...

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

and Palestine.

Biography

Guérin, a devout Catholic, graduated from the ''École normale supérieure'' in Paris in 1840. After graduation, he began working as a teacher of

rhetoric Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate par ...

and member of faculty in various colleges and high schools in France, then in

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

in 1850, and 1852 he became a member of the French School of Athens. While exploring

Samos Samos (, also ; el, Σάμος ) is a Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese, and off the coast of western Turkey, from which it is separated by the -wide Mycale Strait. It is also a sepa ...

, he identified the spring that feeds the Tunnel of Eupalinos and the beginnings of the channel. His doctoral thesis of 1856 dealt with the coastal region of Palestine, from Khan Yunis to Mount Carmel. With the financial help of

Honoré Théodoric d'Albert de Luynes Honoré Théodore Paul Joseph d'Albert, 8th Duke of Luynes (15 December 1802 – 15 December 1867) was a wealthy French nobleman and scholar. He is most remembered for the collection of exhibits he gave to the Cabinet des Médailles in 1862, and f ...

he was able to explore Greece and its islands, Asia Minor,

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

Nubia Nubia () ( Nobiin: Nobīn, ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the first cataract of the Nile (just south of Aswan in southern Egypt) and the confluence of the Blue and White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sud ...

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

, and the

Levant The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is ...

. He published many unknown Punic and Roman inscriptions from Tunisia, as well as a detailed map of the country. He spent some time as a professor of foreign literature in

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of ...

and Grenoble, and in 1878 he joined the faculty of the Institut Catholique de Paris. He was a member of the

Société des Antiquaires de France The Société des Antiquaires de France (Society of Antiquaries of France) is a Parisian historical and archaeological society, founded in 1804 under the name of the Académie celtique (Celtic Academy). It is now based at the Louvre, in the pavil ...

from 1862, and of the

Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

from 1866. He died on 21 September 1891 in Paris.

Expeditions

Guérin visited the Holy Land eight times in 1852, 1854, 1863, 1870, 1875, 1882, 1884, and 1888. He won a French Academy of Sciences prize for his 7-volume ''Geographical, Historical, and Archaeological Description of Palestine''. Much of Guérin's seminal work is spent in describing the ruins (khirbas) in those places he visited.

Works

In his books Guerin writes about the identification and history of archaeological sites, often referring to passages from the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
'' Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities o ...

, and contemporary explorers and scholars such as Robinson and

Titus Tobler Titus Tobler (25 July 1806 – 21 January 1877) was a Swiss Oriental scholar. Biography Tobler was born on 25 July 1806 in Stein, Appenzell, Switzerland. He studied and practised medicine. He travelled to Palestine and, after taking part in the ...

. He also quotes from other Jewish sources such as the Mishna and

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the ce ...

, as well as Jewish travelers such as

Benjamin of Tudela Benjamin of Tudela ( he, בִּנְיָמִין מִטּוּדֶלָה, ; ar, بنيامين التطيلي ''Binyamin al-Tutayli'';‎ Tudela, Kingdom of Navarre, 1130 Castile, 1173) was a medieval Jewish traveler who visited Europe, Asia, an ...

and Isaac Chelo. Guérin designed large scale maps to accompany the books, printed separately. His published works include: *Description de l'île de Patmos et de l'île de Samos. (1856) *Voyage dans l’Île de Rhodes et description de cette Île. Paris (1856) *Voyage archéologique dans la régence de Tunis. 2 Bde. Paris (1862) * * * * * * * * . * . *Jérusalem : son histoire, sa description, ses établissements religieux. Paris (1889) *La France catholique en Égypte. Tours (Neuausgabe, 1892) *La France catholique en Tunisie. Paris (Neuausgabe, 1893)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Guerin, Victor Amateur archaeologists French archaeologists 1821 births 1891 deaths Holy Land travellers French expatriates in the Ottoman Empire Palestinologists Historical geographers