Urbain Bouriant

Urbain Bouriant ( born April 11, 1849 in Nevers, † June 19, 1903 in Vannes ) was a French Egyptologist.

• 5.1 The publication of graves

Training

Urbain Bouriant was born in Nevers, where he attended also the Collège. In Paris he began the study of law, he broke with the outbreak of war in 1870 to join the Marines in Toulon. He participated in the battles of Mouzon and Douzy and part of Bazeilles. Here he was taken prisoner, but from which he managed to escape. When peace was concluded at Versailles, he went to Martinique to fulfill his military service. There he was almost two years secretary of the governor of the colony. Back in France, he devoted himself now to the study of Ancient Egypt and was some time later one of the best students from Gaston Maspero.

The first years in Cairo

After the École française du Caire was founded on the model of existing schools in Athens and Rome in December 1880 by an Act of the Ministère de l' Instruction Publique et des Beaux Arts (Ministry of Education and the Arts ), Gaston Maspero was the first director. Besides Urbain Bouriant and Victor Loret Maspero Hyppolite Dulac took for the Arabic language and the architect and draftsman Jules Bourgoin in set up. They reached Cairo on January 5, 1881. Auguste Mariette was already seriously ill and died on January 18. Maspero was appointed on February 8, equal to Mariette's successor in the Service of Antiquities d' Egypte (SAE ). Then, Eugène Lefébure got the job as the new principal of the school and Émile 1883-1886 Grébaut. 1886, the name École Française du Caire has been changed to Archaeological Mission du Caire and 1898 she took over as the Institut français d' archéologie orientale du Caire ( IFAO ) the final name.

Bouriant began his work as a curator at the Museum Boulaq. In a flood in 1878, many objects were destroyed or even stolen and the museum was badly damaged. In 1880, Mariette's collection of Boulaq by Ismail Pasha was brought to the west side of the Nile in the cultivation of his palace in Giza and was now called Gizeh Museum. [A 1]

Grave of Ramose in Sheikh Abd el- Qurna

The Commission of the Academy of Belles Lettres noted in its minutes of the meeting of 1882 on the report of Gaston Maspero that Bouriant 've discovered in his excavations at Sheikh Abd el- Qurna, the grave of an official named Ramose, who at the time of Amenhotep III. would have to Amenhotep IV lived. The grave allow the study of religious conversion. It is likely that Maspero Bouriant soon took on a journey through Egypt and they were also present in Sheikh Abd el- Qurna.

From Bouriant itself there is a publication of 1882, in which he deals with the 1879 published by Henry Windsor Villiers Stuart in London book Nile Gleanings. Stuart is considered the discoverer of the tomb TT55. Stuart represents the people as Amenophis III. and Amenhotep IV dar. Bouriant points to the importance of the tomb, since the Gleichzeitkeit or transformation of Amenhotep IV by his Aten cult was documented in Akhenaten. He proves with cartridges that Amenhotep IV Akhenaten and are one and the same person. The west wall of the tomb shows one of the earliest depictions of Akhenaten in worship of the Aten. Furthermore, he stresses that the representation of the grave owner Ramose not the exaggerated figure in the " Amarna style " show here - in contrast to his rock grave at Amarna - like a sketched with ink scene of Akhenaten and Nefertiti under the rays of Aten in the appearance window shows, in the reward these Ramose. Villiers Stuart sought in 1882 again on the grave, and then removes another boulder and put parts of the south wall in the portico free.

From now on Bouriant was fascinated by Akhenaten and it was not long until he came to Amarna.

Research into the writings and papyrus finds

Bouriant copied and translated the fragments of Coptic manuscripts that had recently entered the Museum. He made a kind of " table of contents " of the inscriptions of the small objects of the museum "so they are not lost ." One his first works was La Stèle 5376 du Musée de l' Boulaq et Inscription de Rosette. Bouriant was fascinated by the writings and he worked all his life with the translation of Coptic and Arabic texts. Always with the thought of the old pass, he translated the writings of Aḥmad ibn Alī al- Maqrizi (1364-1442) from Arabic into French. Al Maqrizi has created about 200 documents, including Mawaiz wa al-' i'tibar bi dhikr al - khitat wa al-' athar ( Khitat ) was the most important. In it, he describes the history of Cairo and other landscapes in Egypt. Bouriant translated two volumes into French as Description de l' Égypte topographique et historique ( Volume I 1895. Volume II, 1890). The University of Halle, Saale has asked the Al- Maqrizi manuscript from the Boulaq in Arabic ( without translation ) 2010 online. Of interest for him were the songs of the street singer, which he published in Arabic - nothing should be forgotten.

Another treasure trove was the library of Deir Amba Shenoudah, the Coptic patriarch in Cairo, the title of " Anba Shenouda " was for Bouriant. His office is based in Cairo since the 11th century in the Deir el Anba Rueiss monastery. Here he discovered the remains of the Alexander romance in the manuscripts. Maspero bought the fragments 1885-1888 for the Bibliothèque nationale de Paris. Three leaves of which has Bouriant 1887 published first: Fragments d'un roman d' Alexandre en dialecte thebaine. Later, another sheet was from the same manuscript then in 1891 in the British Museum, published by W. E. Crum, and two leaves in 1888, which were not published until 1903 by O. de Lemm.

Furthermore, he discovered in this library a manuscript with the first 14 chapters of the Memphis version of the Livre de Sagesse ( Wisdom of Solomon ) and two copies of the Theban version and a copy of the Memphis version of the constitutions apopostoliques ( Apostolic Constitutions ) of Clement of Alexandria, the end of the 2nd century lived and also bishop of Rome was named. So far, only a memphitisches specimen was known.

The Codex of Akhmim

In March 1884 Maspero and Ernesto Schiaparelli had the rice Chalib of Qurna with excavations in the necropolis east of Akhmim ( Herodotus called the place " Chemmis " and Strabo " Panopolis " ) was commissioned. Again, the early Christians had built their monasteries. When they found hundreds of mummies there, put the rice a soldiers then dug up several thousand. As Bouriant 1886 arrived, he was shocked by the devastation of the Coptic necropolis. Bouriant found here in Akhmim in a monk's grave a little book of 15.24 × 11.43 cm (6 x 4.5 inches ) containing 33 leaves of parchment, which were held together by a cardboard, which was roughly bound in leather. They are kept today under the today under Codex P.Cairo 10759 in the Cairo Museum and date from the 6th - 9th Century.

Bouriant found out that it was part of the gospel. The find was a sensation. It was the first non-canonical Gospel, which was rediscovered and had survived in the dry desert sand. The first nine pages contained the fragment of the long-lost Peter Gospel. The first page had a Coptic cross on the back. After a blank page two pages follow with the apocalypse. Both fragments appeared to originate from the same hand. It was followed by the Greek version of the Henochbuchs. As the leaves handwritten and also some were poorly preserved, Bouriant had to create and explore their history of writing ( palaeography ) a copy ( transcription). From the location of the tomb starting put Bouriant the development time for a start " not before 8 and not after the 12th century " fixed. [A 2] It took six years to Bouriant 1892 published the Faksimili. The publisher Leroux in Paris created the photographic plates.

1893 already published the first publications with translations - most of theologians: In England, by J. Armitage Robinson with MR James, J. Rendell Harris and Henry B. Swete, the two photo - plates received by Leroux. In France it was Adolphe Lods (1867-1948) and in Germany the leading theologians of that time: Adolf Harnack and Theodor Zahn. Oscar von Gebhardt was, however, in 1893 only a light pressure of the newly discovered fragments from a photograph of the " handwriting Giza " out.

After the Catalogue général des antiquités Egyptiennes du Musée du Caire, the out gave BP Grenfell and AS Hunt in 1903, which included 33 parchment leaves with some apocryphal writings in Greek:

• Parts of the Gospel of Peter (handwriting of Giza )
• The Apocalypse of Peter
• Two fragments of the Book of Enoch
• The cover was found a parchment page with parts of the martyrdom of Julianus.

The tombs of Tell el- Amarna

The group of rock-cut tombs on the slopes of Darb el- Hamzaoui which the high officials had applied to the court of Akhenaten's Amarna, was discovered by Alessandro Barsanti (1858-1917) in December 1891. Of the seven graves, he found, was only a partially decorated, but unfinished.

Bouriant wrote: "At last we will be able to execute a project that has long been lying to my heart. Last year, we found that many graves had not been explored and we promised that we would open on the next occasion some to see if they were really empty, as you had assured us. "

On April 1, 1893 was Bouriant with Maspero in Tell el- Amarna, which, however, unfortunately, seriously ill, so that they only had two days for research into the graves.

In this short time Bouriant copied the great hymn to Aton ( sun hymn ) in the grave of the Eje, who was previously unreleased. He discovered and opened the tombs of Ramose, Ipi and Mahu.

In the winter of 1893-94 Bouriant finally began with Georges Legrain and Gustave Jéquier with the research. They started with the grave of the Eje and the work had divided: Bouriant and Jéquier copied and compared the inscriptions, while Legrain drew the bas-reliefs and also Jéquier helped him. Jéquier led also tracing with ink. It was a good collaboration.

1891 antique dealer came to Tell el -Amarna and Haggi - Quandil to secure cartridges or fragments of bas-reliefs from the time of Akhenaten. The graves were ruthlessly destroyed. From the grave of Eje large pieces were removed from the wall. Thanks Flinders Petrie Museum in Cairo has one of the most beautiful fragments, showing Ay and his wife Tij when she received royal gifts. The Service d' Antiques posted Barsanti to install iron bars in front of the graves, so that a complete evacuation could be prevented.

From December 1884 to January 1885 they were again to be found there in the hope of new graves. They opened another 18 to 20 graves, of which only one was provided with a small inscription and unfinished. All were anonymous, so they ended their stay.

The hills of Haggi - Qandil Mountains were interrupted by a ravine, the Ouady ( Wadi ) El Darb El Hamzaoui, which divided the rock tombs in a north and south. They explored the following graves:

Ay and his wife Tij in prayer. Relief: width 2.72 m, height 1.04 m.

Distribution of gifts by Akhenaten and Nefertiti. Suction. " Balcony scene ". Relief: width 3.88 m. Height: 2.03 m.

Ipi and his family bring food offerings. Aten was represented by the sun disk, the rays terminate in hands.

The publication of graves

The end of 1894 Georges Legrain was sent to Karnak and Gustave Jéquier went in December 1897, Jacques de Morgan to Susa in Persia. Joseph- Etienne Gautier agreed to draw the plans of the tombs before he went to Persia. Now it remained to Bouriant to complete the started work. In the fall of 1896, much of the preliminary work was done. The images were engraved and it was only the description of the tombs to edit and to write an introduction. At last Bouriants dream was to write about Akhenaten, realize.

On December 1, 1886 Bouriant had become the successor of Émile Grébaut as director of the Archaeological Mission du Caire. 1897 had the move of the mission in the Rue Antikhana be carried out so that he was left little time for work on the publication and its own scientific research. His health forced him beginning in 1898, leave his post as director of Émile Chassinat.

In February 1898 Bouriant drove again for a short time after Tell el -Amarna to check some of his text copies locally. In the summer he traveled for vacation to France. On August 25, 1898 he suffered a stroke there. Thus he was completely immobile and the doctors were unable to say if and when his condition would change.

Émile Chassinat was now faced with the problem of how and whether he could publish Bouriants book as many pages has been interest in a publication. Jéquier Chassinat had granted the free disposal of its records and leave the clichés of his photos outside of the text for an attachment. Much time had passed without any improvement of health in Bouriant entered. Chassinat now sat down with Georges Legrain in combination, which provides agreed without hesitation to take on the delicate task of completing the unfinished book. The inscriptions were taken from Bouriant while Legrain now continued the description of the graves.

The proposed title " Tell el -Amarna " had to be replaced once because Legrain had brought together a number of Bouriants documentation pertaining to the Aten cult, which made it appear advisable to publish a book on Akhenaten and a second over the graves. In addition, Norman de Garis Davies had announced that he would soon give out about the same graves a publication. That's why they chose a title that should be distinguished from other publications. Les Tombes de Khouitatonou [A 3] The first part deals with the tombs in Darb el- Hamzaoui ( Royal Tombs ), the Barsanti discovered in 1891. It focuses on Akhenaten's grave with the description of the chambers α and γ, as well as the tomb of EJE with 13 illustrations. The second volume covers the rock tombs of Haggi - Qandil with the other court officials.

Urbain Bouriant not live to see the publication. He died on 19 June 1903 in Vannes.

Works

• Notice des monuments Coptes you musee de Boulaq. In Recueil de travaux relatifs à la philology et à l' archéologie égyptienne et assyrienne » (RT ) No 1884 page 5 :60 -70. Internet Archive
• Les Canons apostolique de Clément de Rome. Traduction en dialect copte thebaine d'après un manuscrit de la Bibliotheque du Patriarche Jacobite du Caire. In: RecTrav (RT ) No. 5, 1884, p :199 - 216. - À suivre -. Internet Archive
• Fragments de manuscrits thebaine du Musée Boulaq in: Recueil de travaux relatifs (RT ) No. 4, 1883 Page 1-4 Internet Archive
• Les papyrus d' Akhmim ( Fragments de manuscrits s dialectes bachmourique et thebaine ). In: MMAFC No. I, Paris, 1884-89, page 243-304
• L' Eglise du tombeau de copte Dega in " Mémoires " No. 1 publiés par les Membres de la Mission Française d' Archéologie Orientale au Caire, 1884
• La Stèle 5576 du Musée de l' Boulaq et Inscription de Rosette. In: RecTrav No. 6 F. Vieweg Paris, 1885, p: 1-20. Internet Archive
• Fragment Memphitiques de divers livre de l' écriture et inédits of pastoral instructions of pères de l' église copte. With a list of the first 89 patriarchs of the Coptic Church. in: Recueil de travaux relatifs (RT ) No. 7, 1886 page 82-94 Internet Archive
• Petits Monuments et petits text réceuillis en Egypte. in: Recueil de travaux relatifs (RT ) No. 7, 1886 Page 114-132 (description of the sarcophagus, vases, stelae, statues, etc. with origin and inscriptions No. 1-25 in the museum Boulaq, and two Coptic hymns in honor of the. Saint George ) Internet Archive
• Petits Monuments et petits text réceuillis en Egypte. in: RecTrav (RT ) No. 8, 1886 Page 158-169 ( description of the goods by origin with inscriptions No. 26-47 in the museum Boulaq. ) Internet Archive
• Petits Monuments et petits text réceuillis en Egypte. in: RecTrav (RT ) No. 9, livre 3 4, 1887 page 91-100 ( description of the goods by origin with inscriptions No. 48-77 in the museum Boulaq. ) Internet Archive
• Rapport au ministre de l'instruction publique sur une mission dans la Haute Égypte 1884-85. in: " Memoires " de la francaise au Caire Archaeological Mission, vol. 1 Paris 1887.
• Fragments d' un roman d' Alexandre en dialecte thebaine, dans le Journal asiatique, VIIIe série, tome IX, page 1-38, avec une planche. Paris 1887
• Description topographique et historique de l' Égypte - Al- Maqrizi. Traduite en français par Urbain Bouriant. Paris Volume I 1895. Volume II, 1890.
• Notes de voyage: le Deir Amba Samaan en face d' Assouan. In: Recueil de travaux relatifs à la philology et à l' archéologie égyptienne et assyrienne (RT ) 15, 1893, page 176-189. Monastery of Saint -Simeon ( Deir Amba Samaan )
• Brugsch, Émile et Bouriant, Urbain Le livre des rois contenant la liste des rois chronologique, pure, princes, princesses et personnages importants de l' Égypte depuis Ménès jusqu'a Nectanebo II Cairo 1887 Internet Archive
• La Bibliothèque du Deir Amba Sheinoudi. 2e partie: Actes du Concile d' Eph. Coptic text with French translation of Bouriant. MMAFC. No. VIII, Paris, 1892, page 1-143
• L' Éloge de l' Apa Victor fils de Romanos. Kopt. Text with French translation of Bouriant. In: MMAFC No. VIII, Paris, 1892, page 145-268
• Fragments du texte grec du Livre d' Enoch et de quelques Écrits attribués à saint Pierre. Griech. Text with French translation of Bouriant. In: Mémoires de la française au Caire Archaeological Mission ( MMAF ) No. 9.1 1892, Page: 93-147.
• Chansons populaires en arabes dialecte du Caire: d'après les manuscrits d'un chanteur des rues. E. Leroux, Paris 1893
• Bouriant Urbain, LEGRAIN Georges et Gustave Jequier: Monuments pour servir à l' étude du culte d' en Égypte Atonou. Les Tombes de Khouitatonou. No. 8 of the " Mémoires " publiés par l Institut français d' archéologie orientale, sous la direction de M. Émile Chassinat. Le Caire 1903.