La revelation d 'Antinoe par Albert Gayet: Histoire, archeologie, museographie.

• Author: Peck, William H.
• Position: Book review

La revelation d 'Antinoe par Albert Gayet: Histoire, archeologie, museographie. By FLORENCE CALAMENT. Bibliotheque d'Etudes Coptes, vol. 18. Cairo: INSTITUT FRANCAIS D'ARCHEOLOGIE ORIENTALE, 2005. Pp. xxii + 616, illus.

The duties of the excavator beyond the act of discovery are generally considered to be conservation of material found, restoration (both actual and virtual), and the timely publication of the work. It is often the unfortunate reality that the excitement of the excavation does not produce the results that make the work of the archaeologist, or even the final dispersion of the found objects, adequately known to scholarship. The chronicle of the development of the archaeological discipline in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries more often than not illustrates the long course leading to a more responsible treatment of the past. Incomplete or hasty analysis and inadequate publication have often necessitated a serious reexamination of what evidence still exists. The work here under consideration is an example of such a detailed and thorough reexamination. It deals with the excavations carried out by Albert Gayet at Antinoe in Middle Egypt.

Albert Gayet (1856-1916) was a student of Gaston Maspero who began working in Egypt as a part of the French archaeological mission in 1885. His experience included recording of inscriptions in Luxor Temple, among other activities, and his Egyptological publications are diverse, but his most memorable contribution to Egyptian archaeology was the series of seasons at Antinoe (Antinoopolis, el Sheikh 'Ibada) in Middle Egypt at the turn of the twentieth century. His excavations there were carried on from 1895 to 1914, resulting in a wealth of funerary material including garments, wrappings, mummy masks and portraits, integral to the then growing interest and understanding of "Coptic" art, as well as contributing to romantic notions of post-pharaonic Christian Egypt.

This publication is the product of a doctoral dissertation in archaeology, the history and civilization of antiquity, at the University of Paris IV-Sorbonne in 2000. It is a methodical and painstaking examination of the excavations of Gayet in the context of the history of Antionoopolis, the development of Egyptology at the end of the nineteenth century, and the state of museum practices at the time.

The introduction seeks briefly to place Antionoopolis in history. Its foundation by the emperor Hadrian and the mystere persistant...