François Lenormant (; 17 January 1837 – 9 December 1883) was a 19th-century French
Hellenist,
Assyriologist
Assyriology (from Ancient Greek, Greek , ''Assyriā''; and , ''-logy, -logia''), also known as Cuneiform studies or Ancient Near East studies, is the archaeological, anthropological, historical, and linguistic study of the cultures that used cune ...
, and
archaeologist
Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...
.
Biography
Early life
Lenormant's father,
Charles Lenormant, distinguished as an archaeologist,
numismatist
A numismatist is a specialist, researcher, and/or well-informed collector of numismatics, numismatics/coins ("of coins"; from Late Latin , genitive of ). Numismatists can include collectors, specialist dealers, and scholar-researchers who use coi ...
and
Egyptologist
Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , ''-logia''; ) is the scientific study of ancient Egypt. The topics studied include ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end ...
, was anxious that his son should follow in his steps. He made him begin
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
at the age of six, and the child responded so well to this precocious scheme of instruction, that when he was only fourteen an essay of his, on the Greek tablets found at
Memphis, appeared in the ''
Revue Archéologique''. In 1856 he won the numismatic prize of the
Académie des Inscriptions with an essay entitled ''Classification des monnaies des Lagides'' and in 1862 he became sub-librarian of the
Institut de France
The ; ) is a French learned society, grouping five , including the . It was established in 1795 at the direction of the National Convention. Located on the Quai de Conti in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the institute manages approximately ...
.
In 1858 he visited Italy and in 1859 accompanied his father on a journey of exploration to
Greece
Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...
, during which Charles succumbed to fever at
Athens
Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...
. Lenormant returned to Greece three times during the next six years, supervising excavations at
Eleusis
Elefsina () or Eleusis ( ; ) is a suburban city and Communities and Municipalities of Greece, municipality in Athens metropolitan area. It belongs to West Attica regional unit of Greece. It is located in the Thriasio Plain, at the northernmost ...
and gave up all the time he could spare from his official work to archaeological research. He summarized his studies in a popular ''Manuel d'histoire ancienne de l'Orient jusqu'aux guerres Médiques'' (Paris 1868). These peaceful labors were rudely interrupted by the
Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...
, when Lenormant served with the army and was wounded in the
Siege of Paris. In 1874 he was appointed professor of archaeology at the
Bibliothèque Nationale de France
The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...
, and in the following year he collaborated with the Baron
Jean de Witte in founding th
Gazette archéologique
Accomplishments
As early as 1867 he had turned his attention to
Assyria
Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , ''māt Aššur'') was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization that existed as a city-state from the 21st century BC to the 14th century BC and eventually expanded into an empire from the 14th century BC t ...
n studies; he was among the first to recognize in the
cuneiform inscriptions the existence of a non-
Semitic language
The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They include Arabic,
Amharic, Tigrinya, Aramaic, Hebrew, Maltese, Modern South Arabian languages and numerous other ancient and modern languages. They are spoken by mo ...
he named
Akkadian (today it is known as
Sumerian). Lenormant's knowledge was of encyclopaedic extent, ranging over an immense number of subjects, and at the same time thorough, though somewhat lacking perhaps in the strict accuracy of the modern school. Most of his varied studies were directed towards tracing the origins of the two great civilizations of the ancient world, which were to be sought in
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...
and on the shores of the
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...
. He had a perfect passion for exploration. Besides his early expeditions to Greece, he visited the south of
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
three times with this object, and it was while exploring in
Calabria
Calabria is a Regions of Italy, region in Southern Italy. It is a peninsula bordered by the region Basilicata to the north, the Ionian Sea to the east, the Strait of Messina to the southwest, which separates it from Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian S ...
that he met with an accident which ended fatally in Paris after a long illness.
The amount and variety of Lenormant's work is truly amazing when it is remembered that he died at the early age of forty-six. By 1881 he'd been named as a member of the
Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
The () is a French learned society devoted to history, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the . The academy's scope was the study of ancient inscriptions (epigraphy) and historical literature (see Belles-lettres).
History ...
. Probably the best known of his books are ''Les Origines de l'histoire d'après la
Bible
The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...
'', and his ancient history of the East and account of
Chaldean magic. He also contributed articles to the ''
Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et Romaines
The ''Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et Romaines d'après les textes et les monuments, contenant l'explication des termes qui se rapportent aux mœurs, aux institutions, à la religion, aux arts, aux sciences, au costume, au mobilier, à l ...
'', though he did not live to see the dictionary's completion. For breadth of view, combined with extraordinary subtlety of intuition, he was probably unrivalled.
He is immortalized in Greece with a main road in Athens named after him.
Selected works
*"Sur l'origine chrétienne des inscriptions sinaïtiques" in ''Journal Asiatique'', XIII (5th ser., Paris, 1859)
*''Histoire des Massacres de Syrie en 1860'' (Paris, 1861).
*''La Révolution en Grèce'' (Paris, 1862)
*''Essai sur l'organisation politique et économique de la monnaie dans l'antiquité'' (Paris, 1863)
*''Turcs et Monténégrins'' (Paris, 1866)
*''Comples Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences'' (vol. 65, p. 903, Paris, 1867)
*''Chefs-d'œuvres de l'art antique'' (Paris. 1867-1868) in 7 vols.
*''Histoire du peuple juif'' (Paris, 1869)
*''Le déluge et l'épopée babylonnienne'' (Paris, 1873)
*''Les premières civilisations'' (Paris, 1873. 2 vols.)
*''La magie chez les chaldéens et les origines accadiennes'' (Paris, 187
*''La langue primitive de Chaldée et les idiomes touraniens'' (Paris, 1875)
*''La monnaie dans l'antiquité'' (Paris, 1878–1879)
*''A travers l'Apulie et la Lucanie'' (Paris, 1883)
*''La Genèse traduite d'après l'hébreu, avec distinction des éléments constitutifs du texte, suivi d‘un essai de restitution des textes dont s'est servi le dernier rédacteur'' (Paris, 1884)
Notes
References
*
''Catholic Encyclopedia''"François Lenormant"
External links
*
*
François Lenormanton
data.bnf.fr
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lenormant, Francois
Writers from Paris
1837 births
1883 deaths
19th-century French historians
French archaeologists
French Assyriologists
French numismatists
Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
French expatriates in Greece