Étienne Drioton

Life

Drioton made ​​in 1905 graduated from high school ( Baccalauréat ) at the Lycée Saint- Sigisbert with a focus on ancient Greek literature and philosophy and entered the seminary in Nancy, where he was ordained a priest in 1912. He then studied in Rome at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas and at the Gregorian. 1914 he received his degree in biblical studies and in 1918 his diploma in Egyptology and Coptic language at the École libre des langues orientales the Institut Catholique de Paris. He was there in 1919 professor of Egyptian and Coptic philology and worked from 1926 also in the Louvre by Charles Boreux. In 1929 he was archéologie for the Institut français d' orientale involved in the excavations at Al- Madamud by Georges Foucart (1865-1943) ( editor of the inscriptions ). In 1936 he was appointed by the Egyptian government to the Director-General of Egyptian Antiquities, succeeding Pierre Lacau. He remained until 1952 and he was at this time Professor of Egyptology at Cairo University. In 1952 he became head of the Egyptian department at the Louvre and Director at the CNRS. In 1957 he became a professor at the College de France.

He was one of the most famous Egyptologists of his time. Among his discoveries there was also the detection of drama in ancient Egypt, most of the dramatic conversion of mythological texts by priests that took place in temples on festival days and were accompanied by singing and dancing. An independent theater but could not find and the adoption Driotons that there was an independent theater companies, which went about as true today as not sure occupied. He also dealt with encrypted ( cryptographic ) hieroglyphics texts. Besides Egyptology he also dealt with Coptic studies.

When in 1945 the Nag Hammadi writings were found, it was largely thanks to his quick and decisive actions, that the bulk of the Egyptian state could be saved. He negotiated the purchase of 1949 held by the daughter of the numismatist Dattari most of the writings.

His library came in 1961 to the University Library of Strasbourg. 2007, a plaque was attached to his birthplace in Nancy.

He was a knight of the Legion of Honour, Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, received the Iranian Crown, and the Order of the Oak Crown in Egypt.

Writings

• With Henri Sottas Introduction à l' étude of hiéroglyphes, Librairie orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 1922
• Cours de grammaire égyptienne, Paris 1919
• With Jacques Vandier: Les Peuples de l' Orient Méditerranéen: l' Égypte, Paris, 1938
• With Jacques Vandier: L' Égypte - Des origines à la conquête d' Alexandre, PUF, 1938
• Le Musée EGYPTIEN. Souvenir de la visite de Son Altesse Imperiale le Prince Héritier d' Iran, Service of Antiquities de l' Égypte, Cairo, 1939.
• Visite à Thèbes. Souvenir de la visite de Son Altesse Imperiale le Prince Héritier d' Iran, Service of Antiquities de l' Égypte, Cairo, 1939, 1951.
• With Jean -Philippe Lauer, "The monuments of Zoser: Sakkarah, " Imprimerie de l' Institut Français d' Archéologie Orientale, Cairo, 1939.
• Croyances et de l' ancienne Égypte coutumes funéraires, Cairo, 1943.
• Les fêtes Egyptiennes, Éditions de la Revue du Caire, Cairo, 1944.
• Le jugement dans l' ancienne Égypte the âmes, Édition de la Revue du Caire, Cairo, 1949.
• Egyptian Art, Golden Griffin Books, 1951.
• L' Égypte, Les peuples de l' Orient méditerranéen II, Presses Universitaires de France, 1952.
• L' Égypte pharaonique, 1959
• With Pierre du Bourguet Les Pharaons à la conquête de l'art, Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1965