Pierre Lacau
Pierre Lacau, (November 25, 1873 - March 26, 1963, was a French Egyptologist and philologist. He served as Egypt's director of antiquities from 1914 until 1936, and oversaw the 1922 discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor by Howard Carter.
Early life
Pierre Lacau was born in the in the commune of Brie-Comte-Robert in France.[1] He was raised and educated as a Jesuit.[2]
Career
Lacau's first appointment in Cairo was to the International Commission for drafting the general catalogue of the Museum of Cairo[1].
In 1912 he was appointed director of the French Institute of Eastern Archaeology, succeeding Emile Chassinat[1].
From 1914 to 1936 he served as director general of the Department of Antiquities of Egypt[1]. He was appointed in 1914 to succeed Gaston Maspero but could not take up the position until after the war. 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[3]
Lacau oversaw the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922 by the English archaeologist Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon in the Valley of the Kings. Relations with Carter were rarely cordial and were exacerbated by The Times monopoly of publication rights franted by Lord Caernarvon. Likewise he was under pressure from the Egyptian Government and Nationalists who resented the lack of Egyptian involvement in the Tutankhamen excavation.[4].
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 explantory notice in the Old Winter Palace Hotel, Luxor[5].
In 1938, he was appointed professor at the College de France in Paris, where he held the chair in Egyptology until 1947, and he was elected the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres in 1939[1].
Publications
- General Catalogue of Egyptian Antiquities Museum in Cairo. Sarcophages antérieurs au Nouvel Empire, by Pierre Lacau.
Imprimerie de l'Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale, 1904 Sarcophagi before the New Kingdom, Cairo, printing the
French Institute of Oriental Archaeology, 1904[1]
- Lacau With Jean-Philippe Lauer, excavations at Saqqara. La pyramide à degrés. The step pyramid. Tome V . Volume V.
Inscriptions à l'encre sur les Vases , Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale, 1965 Inscriptions in ink on Vases, French
Institute of Oriental Archaeology, 1965[1]
- Lacau 1933. Pierre Lacau. Une stèle juridique de Karnak. SASAE 13. Cairo[6].
- Lacau/Chevrier 1956. Pierre Lacau/Henri Chevrier. Une Chapelle de Sésostris Ier à Karnak. I.Cairo[6]
- Lacau/Chevrier 1959. Pierre Lacau/Henri Chevrier. Une Chapelle de Sésostris Ier à Karnak. II. planches. Cairo[6]
- Sarcophages Anterieurs Au Nouvel Empire by Pierre Lacau
- P.Lacau/J. Ph. Lauer: La pyramide à degrees V, Cairo 1965, 1-3, pl. 1; Peter Kaplony: Die Inschriften der ägyptischen Frühzeit Bd 1, Wiesbaden 1963, 488-89
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Wikipedia - French edition
- ^ Pharoah Season In Egypt: Monumental Unravelings
- ^ Giza Pyramids.org - The Dead Hand (PDF)
- ^ Politics and the King Tut Discovery by Jimmy Dunn
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c Digital Egypt