British Egyptologist; he was born in Newport, Shropshire, 11 Nov. 1867, son of John Q. and Catherine Susannah Smith; he graduated at Christ Church, Oxford, after which he assisted Petrie on a number of his excavations; he was at Coptos, 1893, a site which first opened up the history of Egypt as far back as the First Dynasty, and the following year went to Naqada and Ballas which produced the first and probably the greatest collection of predynastic material ever discovered and also revealed new vistas in the story of Egypt; Quibell is said to have been the first person to recognize, although not publicly to state, that the remains found at Ballas were predynastic, not New Race of the First Intermediate Period; thorough training under Petrie had made him the best-equipped excavator of early sites at that time, and he next excavated the town and area of Hierakonpolis for the ERA with results which are famous in the annals of Egyptian archaeology; with Green and Somers Clarke he discovered the `Main Deposit' containing the Narmer palette, many carved mace-heads and ivories and other important proto-dynastic objects, and in the remains of an early temple the archaic statuettes of King Khasekhem etc.; he cleared the area of the Ramesseum, a very different kind of work, finding important Middle Kingdom papyri and a wealth of inscribed material such as jar sealings; he was appointed to the staff of the Antiquities Service and worked on the Cairo Cat. 1899, becoming Inspector in Chief of Antiquities in the Delta and Middle Egypt, 1899-1904 and Luxor 1904-5; at Luxor he discovered the tomb of Yuia and Tuiu, 1905; on becoming Chief Inspector at Saqqara in 1905 he excavated the magnificent monastery of St. Jeremias, many archaic mastabas, and a very great quantity of Early Dynastic cemetery material, notably the tomb of Hesire; this work went on for many years and gained the Egyptian Museum, Cairo a wealth of fine objects of all periods; in all this work he was assisted by his very able wife, Annie A. Quibell who made copies in outline and colour for his publications; from 1 Jan. 1914 to 1923 he served as Keeper of the Egyptian Museum and during this time greatly improved its decoration and installation; he was appointed Secretary-General of the Antiquities Dept., 1923 and retired, 1 April 1925; in fact he continued to work and carried out further excavations at first as assistant to Firth who had succeeded him at Saqqara, then after 1931 as director on the Step Pyramid site; this was his largest excavation although not the one which is best known, and involved the recovery and restoration of an immense number of objects; Quibell continued the work of Petrie successfully and refined it, improving the standard of publications throughout his career; he contributed to or else wrote no fewer than 18 quarto vols. in all; Naqada, with W. M. F. Petrie, 1895; Ballas, with chapters by W. M. F. P., 1896; El Kab, with Somers Clarke and J. J. Tylor, 1898; The Ramesseum, with W. Spiegelberg, 1898; Hierakonpolis, 2 vols., with W. M. F. P. and F. W. Green, 1900-2; Archaic Objects, 2 vols., Cairo Cat., 1904-5; The Tomb of Yuaa and Thuiu, Cairo Cat., 1908; Excavations at Saqqara, (1905-6), (1906-7) with a section of religious texts by P. Lacau, (1907-8) and other sections by Sir Herbert Thompson and W. Spiegelberg, 3 vols. 1908-9; The Monastery of Apa Jeremias: the Coptic inscriptions edited by Sir Herbert Thompson, 2 vols. 1912; Excavations at Saqqara 1911-12. The Tomb of Hesy, 1913; Excavations at Saqqara 1912-14. Archaic Mastabas, 1923; Teti Pyramid north side, with A. G. K. Hayter, 1927; The Step Pyramid, with C. M. Firth and J. P. Lauer, 2 vols. 1935; part of his archive passed to Varille and then to the Universita degli Studi in Milan; he died in Hertford, 5 June 1935.

British Egyptologist. Born, London 1909. Died, London 1996. Educated at Merchant Taylor's school, where he studied Biblical Hebrew, then at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he read Arabic and Hebrew, graduating in 1933. Awarded the William Wright studentship in Arabic in 1932. Appointed Assistant Keeper in the Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities at the British Museum, taking up the position in 1934. He studied Egyptian under Glanville during his first few years in the Department. He published Hieroglyphic Texts from Egyptian Stelae, etc., viii in 1939. Elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1942, the year he was called up for military service. The first edition of The Pyramids of Egypt was published in 1947 and was reprinted many times. Appointed Keeper of the new department of Egyptian Antiquities in 1955. Made a Fellow of the British Academy in 1962, and awarded the CBE in 1968 for his services to the British Museum. He was instrumental in arranging the Tutankhamun exhibition at the British Museum in 1972. Was involved in the UNESCO rescue of the Philae Temples after his retirement from the Museum in 1974.

French Egyptologist. Born, Paris 1906. Died, Paris 1989. Trained as an artist at the École Bernard Palissy and the École des Arts Decoratifs. First started studying Egyptology with Henri Sottas at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, 1924. Student, École du Louvre, 1925. Worked with Bruyère at Deir el-Medîna, and then with Bisson de la Roque at Madâmûd. Studied Egyptian language with Moret, Weill, and Sethe. Qualified in the history of religion, phonetics, Latin, Hebrew, Arabic, and Berber. Director d'Études at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, 1949. Visiting Professor, Brown University, 1951-2 and 1960-1. Wilbour Fellow, Brooklyn Museum, 1967. Published many linguistic articles as well as several monographs.

British historian and Egyptologist. Born, Devonport 1909. Died, Birmingham 1970. Educated at Plymouth College, then St John's College, Oxford, 1928-31. Employed by Department of Extramural Studies, University of Birmingham, rising from tutor to Deputy Director, 1941-1961. Initiated course at the University in hieroglyphs, and also taught Egyptology at the Department of Ancient History. Specialised in Egyptian religion.

British artist. Born, 1880. Died, Clocolan, Orange Free State, South Africa 1959. Married Guy Brunton in 1906. Produced water colour illustrations for her own publications, as well as for her husband's excavation reports.

British architect. Born, Westminster 1795. Died, Clapham 1860. In a distinguished career he was most famous for designing the Houses of Parliament. Somers Clarke was numbered amongst his pupils. Met Mr D. Baillie when visiting Greece and Turkey in 1817, and was invited to accompany him on a tour of Egypt and Palestine, and thus became the first English architect to record monuments in Egypt. They followed the Nile up beyond Philae; Barry left graffiti on many monuments during his time there.

Swiss artist. Born, Chevilly, Vaud 1806. Died, Paris 1874. Studied art in Paris from 1825. Whilst in Italy, was engaged by John Lowell, Jr., an American traveller, to accompany him as artist on his excursions in the Levant in 1834-5.

French geographer, explorer, artist, and engineer. Born, Lorient 1799. Died, Cairo 1883. Initially trained with the intention of serving in the Navy, and after passing the necessary exam in 1814, he was sent to help with the charting and surveying of the Canadian and USA coastlines in 1815. He then accompanied A. Come de Forbin on a expedition to the Near East, 1817. This led in 1817 to a opportunity to make maps and drawings in Egypt required for various publications. Whilst in Cairo, he was engaged by Muhammad Ali. Then from 1819-22 he was employed by W. Bankes to accompany him as a draughtsman on several expeditions which ventured as south as Meroe, Musauwarat el-Sofra and Naga, giving him the distinction of being the first European to see these sites. He travelled even further south for the Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa. Assisted J. F. Champollion in 1828. Published several maps of Egypt. Later he used his skills for the planning of irrigation projects and was heavily involved with the construction of the Suez Canal.

British archaeologist; she was born at Ashton-under-Lyne, 26 Aug. 1854, daughter of Charles Timothy Bradbury, a wealthy businessman, and Elizabeth Ann Tomlins; she was a friend of Amelia Edwards, whom she accompanied to America in 1890; she assisted in the early work of the EEF, rendering great assistance and serving for many years on the committee; she married in 1896 F.L.I. Griffith; a settlement made by her father enabled her husband to devote the whole of his time to Egyptology and provided the basis of the endowment which he later bequeathed to the University of Oxford; she translated two of Wiedemann's books on Egyptian religion into English (1896-7) and took an active part in her husband's scientific works and publications; she died in Silverdale near Carnforth, Lancs, 2 March 1902.

British traveller, antiquarian, and collector. Born, Duns Castle, Berwickshire 1799. Died, Amisfield House, East Lothian 1863. Began a career as a midshipman, and whilst employed as such, visited Alexandria in 1818. In 1819 he unexpectedly inherited the family estate of Linplum following the death of his elder brother. With resources now at his disposal he was able to indulge in his passion for travelling, and spent much time in the Middle East, visiting Egypt in 1824-8 and 1829-34. He was accompanied at various times by several eminent artists, including F. V. J. Arundale, J. Bonomi, O. B. Carter, F. Catherwood, A. Dupuy, G. A. Hoskins, E. W. Lane, and C. Laver. He published Illustrations of Cairo (1840), which contained lithographs of his own drawings and well of those artists he travelled with, but the book made a huge loss due to poor sales, which subsequently curtailed Hay's ambitions to publish more of his work.

British Egyptologist and journalist. Born, Rochester 1886. Killed in action near Loos (between Vermelles and Hulloch), 1915. Foundation Scholar, Marlborough. Won an open scholarship to Exeter College, Oxford in 1905, completing his BA degree in 1909 with a Second Class in both Moderations and Literae Humaniores. Attached to the Department of Antiquities in Egypt, serving under A. E. P. Weigall for seven months in 1909. Assistant master, Fonthill School, East Grinstead, 1910-11. Assistant correspondent for The Times, based in Berlin, 1911-15. Volunteered at the beginning of World War I, as a commissioned officer he was appointed Second Lieutenant in the 6th Battalion of The Buffs (East Kent Regiment), 1915.

British Assyriologist. Born, Shirehampton 1845. Died, Bath 1933. Educated at Grosvenor College, Bath, then Queen's College, Oxford. Hibbert Lecturer, 1887. Gifford Lecturer, 1900-2. Professor of Assyriology, 1891-1919. Rhind Lecturer, 1906. Huxley Lecturer, 1906. D.Litt. LL.D. DD. Specialised in Carian and Hittite languages, as well as Assyrian and West Asian archaeology and philology. Also worked in Egypt copying inscriptions, etc.

British Coptologist. Born, Bonn 1923. Died, Charlbury, Oxon 1955. Lady Wallis Budge Fellow, University College, at the time of his death. MA. D.Phil. Published material relating to the monastery of Deir el-Balaizah.

Italian late Baroque sculptor. Born, Rome 1700. Died, Rome 1773. Among his most prominent works are the colossal Oceanus (or Neptune) of the Trevi Fountain and the sculptures of four funerary monuments in Rome: the tomb of Pope Benedict XIII in the Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, the tomb of Pope Benedict XIV in the Basilica of Saint Peter, the tomb of Maria Clementina Sobieski, wife of ‘The Old Pretender’ James Francis Edward Stuart, also in the Vatican, and the tomb of Cardinal Giuseppe Renato Imperiali in the Basilica of Sant’Agostino. He is also renowned for a group of busts and a significant number of drawings which are now dispersed among numerous museums and collections around the world, including the Canadian Centre for Architecture and the Musée des Beaux-Arts, both in Montreal, and the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. According to historical inventories, he was also author of several manuscripts, most of them now lost, on a variety of subjects, including architecture, military engineering and sundials.

British Egyptologist and excavator; he was born in London, 21 March 1869, son of Frederick G., solicitor, and Sophia Rose; he studied at Jesus College, Cambridge; BA, 1898; MA, 1901; he became interested in Egyptology at an early age and studied it under Sethe at Gottingen and later at Strasbourg; he excavated sites in Egypt with Clarke, Petrie, and Reisner, and in 1897-9 while working with Quibell on the predynastic site of Hierakonpolis for the Egyptian Research Account, discovered the famous decorated tomb; he also worked for the Egyptian Govt. Geological Survey, 1897-1900, and prepared maps for other surveys, 1905-14; he was in charge of the Mond excavations at Armant, 1929-30; he was Hon. Keeper of Antiquities, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 1908-49 to which institution he donated numerous objects; his notebooks are now in the Department of Egyptian Antiquities, British Museum and the Faculty of Oriental Studies, Cambridge; he died in Great Shelford, Cambs., 20 Aug. 1949.

British congregational minister; he was born in Elland, Yorkshire, 9 Sept. 1829 and baptized in Halifax, 6 Dec. 1829, son of Joshua D., a dyer, and his wife Hannah; he became a minister in Hull, but resigned in 1870 owing to the failure of his voice, becoming a cotton-spinner at Ashton-under-Lyne; he was very interested in Egyptology and arranged lectures by Amelia Edwards and Petrie, and raised funds for the promotion of Egyptology in Manchester; he retired in 1891, and in the winter 1891-2 visited Egypt, spending some time with Petrie at Amarna; he later lived in Leeds and arranged the coins in the museum there; he was also interested in astronomy and built an observatory in his garden; Dodgson's name is associated with an important Demotic papyrus obtained in Egypt in 1881 by the Revd Elkanah Armitage and published by Griffith, PSBA 31. 100, 289; it was presented by his family to the Ashmolean Museum in 1932; another Dodgson papyrus is in Melbourne; his correspondence is in the Griffith Institute, Oxford; he died in Headingley, Leeds, 10 Aug. 1919.

British orientalist and Congregationalist minister; he was born at Cookham, Berkshire 29 June 1819, son of Basil Henry C., a solicitor, and his wife Harriet; he was educated at Highbury College, 1840-3 and the University of London,BA; he served as a minister in West Bromwich, 1843-52, London, 1853-64, Paris, 1865, and Torquay, 1867-8; he was a Foundation member of the Soc. of Biblical Archaeology; FRSL, 1878; he was very interested in Egyptology and a correspondent of Edward Hincks; he published articles on the Exodus, the antiquity of metal-working in Egypt and on Mariette's discoveries; he acted as reporter for The Times at the Congress of Orientalists in 1874; he died at Cane Hill Asylum, Purley, Surrey, 5 May 1891.

Daughter of Rt Rev George Francis Popham Blyth DD, Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem from 1887 to 1914.

British Egyptologist and Sinologist; born London, 3 Nov. 1813, son of the Revd Samuel B. and Margaret Browning; he was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, 1826-31, then studied Chinese 1831-4, also the works of Young and Champollion on hieroglyphs; he entered the service of Commrs. of Public Records, 1834; was made assistant in the British Museum, 1836; became Assistant Keeper, Dept. of Antiquities 1844-61; Keeper of the Oriental, British, and Medieval Antiquities, 1861-6; Keeper of Oriental Antiquities, 1866-85, on the separation of this dept.; LL.D., Aberdeen University, 1862; LL.D., University of Cambridge, 1875; DCL, University of Oxford, 1876. He established Champollion's system in England. As a museum official Birch was an excellent recorder and cataloguer of the rapidly growing collections in his care, being one of the very first people to put this work on a systematic basis; he not only made a register of every object acquired by 'the museum when it first arrived, but also recorded so many objects with descriptions and in some cases translations of inscriptions on them, that the slips thus made filled 104 vols. at the time of his death. An active publisher of texts, he first sorted out many of the papyrus fragments acquired from Salt, Wilkinson, and others. Outside the Museum Birch was one of the first lecturers on Egyptological subjects in England; he was also the founder and first President of the Soc. of Biblical Archaeology, 1870. The quantity of his published work like that of his unpublished work was immense, in all his bibl. lists 305 items and covers Near and Far East as well as British and Classical archaeology, including Egyptian Grammar and Egyptian Dictionary, 1867, for vol. v of Bunsen's Egypt's Place in Universal History; this was his most famous work, the latter being the first complete dictionary ever published, an excellent concise work that listed 9,270 words and had c.30,000 refs.; he edited 12 vols. of Records of the Past; Facsimile of an Egyptian Hieratic papyrus of the Reign of Ramesses III, Pap. Harris I with trans., 1876; Catalogue of the Collection of Egyptian Antiquities at Alnwick Castle, 1880; he also contributed translations and notes to Vyse's vols., and revised Wilkinson's Manners and Customs. 1878. He died in Camden Town, London, 27 Dec. 1885; buried Highgate Cemetery.

Son of Howard Douglas Horsfall and Emily Mabel Horsfall. He was born on 12 November 1890 at Mere Bank, Liverpool. He was educated at St Peter's court, Broadstairs, later spending 4 years at Eton where he was in Mt Impey's house. After an extended tour in Canada and the United States, he entered for a short time the service of the Bank of Liverpool, where he took the Bankers preliminary and final examinations, passing in all subjects with distinction in two consecutive years. He developed a taste for archaeology, and paid several visits to Egypt, where his knowledge of Arabic materially assisted his studies. Both there and in Mesopotamia he was associated with Professor Garstang in exploring expeditions, being with him at Meroe when the famous head of Augustus, now in the British museum, was found. Later he joined King's College, Cambridge; a brilliant paper was produced by him in the entrance examination upon the history of Egyptian slavery from the earliest times procuring for him the unusual distinction of admission to the University without being required to complete the preliminary examination. While at the University he took up boxing. Robert won the first prize in the College Long Vacation Essay, with an essay on "The Freedom of the Press From Milton to Corbett". But a promising scholarly career was cut short by the events of 1914. Immediately at the outbreak of the First World War, he enlisted and was assigned to the The King's Regiment (Liverpool), being appointed Captain of the 12th Battalion in June 1916. Shortly afterwards when reconnoitring at night, he has the misfortune through the collapse of a parapet, to impale himself on a broken bayonet. Later in the year he was invalided home with a broken fibula, which kept him for some time in the UK, later rejoining his old regiment for a short period of time, where he was much beloved by his brother officers, and the men. He was often entrusted with the work of liaison officer. He was killed in action in Cambrai (France) on 20 November 1917, aged 27.

British classicist and Egyptologist; he was born at Porth, Glamorgan, 7 Dec. 1911, son of Robert G., Baptist minister, and Jemima Davies; he studied classics at the Universities of Cardiff, Liverpool, and Oxford; he was appointed Assistant Lecturer in Classics, University College of Swansea 1946-47, Lecturer 1947-59, Senior Lecturer 1959¬65, Reader 1965-73, Professor of Classics and Egyptology 1973-79 and then Emeritus; visiting Professor at Cairo Univ 1968; he married 1939 Kathe Bosse; he was also active in the Welsh nationalist movement; a festschrift in his honour Studies in Pharaonic Religions and Society, ed. by A. B. Lloyd, was published in 1992; his principal interest was Ancient Egyptian religion and the Greek sources for it; he published The Conflict of Horus and Seth, 1960, translations of Plutarch's De Iside et Osiride 1970, and Apuleius' The Isis-book, 1975; The Origins of Osiris and his Cult, 1980, The Divine Verdict, 1991; Atlantis and Egypt, 1991; and Triads and Trinity, 1996; he died at Swansea, 15 June 2004.

British ethnologist; he was born in London, 24 Dec. 1873, only child of Hermann Seligmann (the final 'n' of the surname ceased to be used after 1914), a wealthy wine merchant, and Olivia Mendez da Costa; he qualified in medicine (pathology), but became involved in anthropology through the Cambridge anthropological expedition to the Torres Strait in 1898; he became a lecturer in ethnology at the London School of Economics, 1910, and Professor (part-time), 1913, a position that he held until 1934, but he also taught anthropology for Petrie's Egyptology diploma course at University College London; he was very widely traveled but is known especially for his fieldwork in Papua New Guinea and Sudan; with his wife, Brenda Zara Salaman (1883-1965), he first visited Egypt in 1908-09 where he spent a considerable amount of time with Petrie at his camp in Thebes; they visited Egypt again in 1913-14 and collected a large number of lithics from surface deposits and through excavation around Abydos and Thebes; he and his wife undertook a survey of Nilotic groups with funding from the government of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, 1909-10, 1911-1912, 1921-1922; he saw in the pastoral tribes of the Upper Nile Province, a corrupted remnant of prehistoric Caucasian immigrants, whose arrival in Africa had precipitated the rise of ancient Egypt dynastic society, a now discredited idea; apart from several articles including the extensive 'Some aspects of the Hamitic problem in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan', Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 43 (1913), 593-705 and 'The older palaeolithic age in Egypt', ibid, 51 (1921), 115-153, he published Egypt and Negro Africa: a study in divine kingship, 1934; he died in a nursing home in Oxford, 9 Sept. 1940.

British Egyptologist; she was born in Isleworth, 2 Dec. 1936, daughter of Stanley Constable Mayhew, solicitor's clerk, and Noreen R. Harvey; she studied archaeology in London and Egyptology in Oxford, 1978-82; BA, 1982; DPhil, 1989, Asyut to the End of the Middle Kingdom: A Historical and Cultural Study; she worked in the Griffith Institute on the Topographical Bibliography and in the Archive, 1982-2004 and part-time thereafter, 2005-15; she visited Asyut and studied the tombs in the 1980s; she served on the committee of the EES, 1995-8; she helped to edit Vol. 8 of The Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts etc., 1999-2012 and the collection of studies in honour of Jaromir Malek, Sitting Beside Lepsius, 2009; she died in Bexhill-on-Sea, 11 Feb. 2017.

American Egyptologist; he was born in Brooklyn, New York, 14 Jan. 1930; he studied at the City College of New York; BA in Classical Languages and Ancient History, 1952; he then served in the Korean war; he undertook graduate work at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago under Wilson and Edgerton; MA in Egyptology, 1958; he then studied at the University of Pennsylvania under Anthes; PhD in Egyptology, 1962; he worked as an assistant in the Egyptian section of the University Museum of Pennsylvania, 1962-63; he was a Visiting Associate Professor at Columbia University, 1965; Dropsie University, 1966-8; and Tel Aviv University, 1969-70; he was appointed Professor of Ancient and Military History at Queen's College, New York and at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, 1965; he was editor of JARCE, 1966-70; he was a founder of the Egyptological Seminar of New York and BES 10 was dedicated to him; he was co-founder and co-editor of the New Kingdom Memphis Newsletter, he was particularly interested in Egyptian New Kingdom history and foreign relations and military history; apart from numerous articles, he published his doctoral thesis Military Rank Title, and Organization in the Egyptian New Kingdom, 1964 and Ceremonial Execution and Public Rewards, 1988 as well as many articles notably on military history; he died in Tel Aviv, 20 July 2000.

Belgian Egyptologist of Armenian extraction; he was born at Tanta, Egypt, 24 Jan. 1911, son of Dikran M. and Rebega Djigamian; he emigrated with his family to Belgium in the 1920s; he studied under Capart who appointed him to the Fondation Egyptologique Reine Elisabeth, 1929 where he became a collaborator in the pharaonic section, 1931, assistant; 1932, Secretary, 1937 and finally Secretary-General, 1947¬94; Hon. Secretary-General from 1994; Member of the Administrative Council, 1970; he became curator of Islamic Art at the Musees Royaux d'Art at Brussels; he took part in the Belgian excavations notably at Elkab from 1937 and was resident in Egypt, 1940-6; he was particularly interested in Egyptian art;.he published La peinture egyptienne, 1954; German ed. Agyptische Malerei, 1954; English ed. Egyptian Painting, 1954, 1978; Introduction a l'Egypte, 1956; L'Egypte, 1964;with others, Les Chats des Pharaons, 1989; La misere des tombes thebaines, 1994; Abydos. Sacred Precinct of Osiris, 1998; he died in Brussels, 27 April 2004.

French Egyptologist and founder of the Egyptian Antiquities Service; he was born in Boulogne-sur-Mer, 11 Feb. 1821, son of Francois Paulin M., an official in the town hall, and Eugenie Sophie Melanie Delobeau; he was educated at the Coll. de Boulogne where he won various prizes; his father, a widower, remarried and had another family by his second wife, so that Mariette was unable to complete his education and was put into father's office as a supernumerary, 1837-9; at eighteen he went to England to teach French and Drawing at a school, Shakespeare House Academy, Stratford, for a Mr. Parker, 1839-40; he then went to Coventry to earn his living by designing models for ribbon manufacturers, but as he did not make money he returned to Boulogne in 1841 to complete his studies; he gained his Bacc.-es-Lettres at Douai in only six months with hon. mention, 1841; appointed Maitre d'etudes at Coll. de Boulogne, 1841; Professor of French, 1843; editor of L'Annotateur Boulonnais, 1843-6; he kept up his artistic work and also wrote articles on topical subjects at this time- in 1842 the family received their relative Nestor l'H0te's papers and young Mariette became fired with interest by going through them and learnt the Egyptian alphabet and decipherment, later filling the gaps in his knowledge when in Paris; he may also have been inspired by the Denon collection of Egyptian antiquities in Boulogne; for seven years he worked alone and unaided, he married Eleonore Millon, 1845; he learnt Coptic and had his first article published in the Annotateur Boulonnais, 'Catalogue analytique des monuments composant la Galerie eg. du Musee de Boulogne' in 1847; he also wrote a long paper on Tuthmosis III's Hall of Ancestors, 1849; in 1849 he obtained for a short time a minor post at the Louvre, but although now able to work full time on Egyptology he had a hard struggle in Paris; the first of his great feats of industry was to transcribe all the inscriptions then in the Louvre, many of these copies being later destroyed when his Cairo house was flooded, but they formed the basis for a general inventory of Egyptian monuments, July 1850; in 1850 he was sent to Egypt to acquire Coptic, Ethiopic, and Syriac MSS and made a Bibl. Copte now preserved with his papers at the Bibl. Nat.; he also began the excavation of the Serapeum at Memphis and its dromos, finding the Apis galleries and many famous antiquities and monuments; he succeeded in raising further funds and excavated for four years, 1850-4; only a small portion of this immense work at Sappara was ever published; his notes, filling very many vols., are now in the Louvre; in 1853 he cleared the area near the Sphinx and discovered the Valley Temple of Chephren; he was attached to the Louvre 1 Jan. 1852; he was appointed assistant curator in the Egyptian department of the Louvre, 1855-61, hon. assistant from 1861. Mariette's three greatest achievements were the creation of the first National Antiquities Service, the formation of the first National Museum in the Near East from his important discoveries, and the developing of a firstly Egyptian then world-wide conscience about the destruction, expropriation, and proper care and conservation of antiquities; backed by de Lesseps he made a successful plea to Said Pasha for an organization to deal with the standing Egyptian monuments which were being rapidly destroyed and for a Cairo Museum in an old house at Bulaq; Mariette started simultaneous excavations at numerous sites from Nubia to the Delta and dug at Saqqara and Giza with Brugsch, also at Thebes, Abydos, and Elephantine where he started workshops as well, 1857-8; many important discoveries were made such as the mastaba of Khufu-ankh; the Mastabat el-Farun was entered for the first time and at Thebes a necropolis of the 11th and 17th Dynasties excavated; the Khedive appointed him Director of Egyptian monuments, 1 June 1858; Mariette began a huge excavation programme with `digs' at Qurna, Karnak, Tell el-Yahudiya, Menshiet-Ramleh, Abydos, Giza pyramids, Saqqara, Mit-Rahineh, Tuna, Esna, Medinet Habu, Deir el-Bahri, Edfu and Sais, and later at Mendes and Bubastis, employing over 7,280 workmen in all; other important discoveries were the burial and jewellery of Queen Aah-hotep and the famous statues and monuments excavated at Tanis (San) 1859-61; in 1863 he opened the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities at Bulaq; most of his papers were destroyed when his house at Bulaq was flooded in 1878; with C. du Lode Mariette composed the libretto of Verdi's 3-act opera Aida, first performed in Cairo in 1871; member of the Academie des Inscriptions 1878; Pasha 1879; during his last years in spite of illness he found time to publish many works, although they included but a small part of what he had discovered, Memoire sur la mere d'apis, 1856; Choix de monuments et de dessins decouverts ou executes pendant le deblaiement du serapium de Memphis, 1856; Le Seraphim de Memphis, fol. 1857; Description des fouilles executees en Egypte, 1863, fol.; Apercu de l'histoire d'Egypte, 1864; Notice des principaux monuments exposés dans les galeries provisoires du Musie ... Boulak, 1864; Description du parc egyptien, for the popular exhibition of 1867 in Paris, also another for the 1878 exhibition; Abydos, 2 vols. 1869-80; Dendereh, 5 vols. fol. 1870-5; Dendereh, gen. description, 4°, 1875; Boulaq, fol. 1871; Monuments divers recueillis en Egypte et en Nubie, fol. 1881; Itineraire de la Haute-Egypte, 1872; Listes geographiques des pylons de Karnak, fol. and 4°, 1875; Karnak. Etude topographique et archeologique, 4°, Atlas, fol., 1875; Deir el-Bahari, 2 pts. fol., 1877; Voyage de la Haute-Egypte, 2 vols. fol., 1878-80; Catalogue general des monuments d'Abydos decouverts pendant les fouilles de cette ville, 1880; posth. works published by G. Maspero, Le Serapeum de Memphis, 4*, 1882; Les Mastabas de l'Ancien-Empire, fol., 1883; Mariette died in Bulaq, 18 Jan. 1881; his remains were interred in a sarcophagus later moved to the forecourt of Cairo Museum, surmounted by a bronze statue by Xavier Barthe unveiled 17 March 1904.