Sir Gaston Camille Charles Maspero (23 June 1846 – 30 June 1916) was a French Egyptologist and director general of excavations and antiquities for the Egyptian government. Widely regarded as the foremost Egyptologist of his generation, he began his career teaching Egyptian language in Paris becoming a professor at the Collège de France. In 1880, he led an archaeological mission to Egypt, which later became the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale.
In 1881, Maspero's investigation led to the discovery of a hidden tomb near Dayr al-Baḥrī, containing 40 mummies, including pharaohs Seti I, Amenhotep I, Thutmose III, and Ramses II. His study of these findings was published in (1889). After a brief period in Paris, he returned to Egypt to organize a vast collection of antiquities at a museum in Cairo's Būlāq district, which later became the foundation of the Egyptian Museum established in 1902. During his second tenure as director general (1899–1914), Maspero regulated excavations, combated illicit trade, preserved monuments, and oversaw the archaeological survey of Nubia.
Maspero was highly regarded for his versatility and contributions to Egyptology. He authored the comprehensive (1895–1897) and was the first editor and translator of the Pyramid Texts, known as the Book of the Dead. His work extended to art, mythology, and religion, influencing many through his role as editor of the and Director of the Egyptian . Maspero's son, Henri Maspero, became a notable sinologist and scholar of East Asia.
Early life
Gaston Maspero was born in Paris in 1846 to Adela Evelina Maspero, who had been born in Milan in 1822, daughter of a Milanese printer, and of an unnamed father, but identified by family tradition with Camillo Marsuzi de Aguirre, Italian revolutionary on the run. Maspero was educated at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand and at a Jesuit boarding school, followed by university studies at the École Normale Supérieure.
While at school he showed a special taste for history and became interested in Egypt following a visit to the Egyptian galleries of the Louvre at the age of fourteen. At university he excelled in Sanskrit as well as hieroglyphics.
thumb|150px|Maspero, 1883
By the end of the 1870s he was regarded as the leading French Egyptologist of his generation. The cache was moved to Cairo as soon as possible to keep it safe from robbers. He was elected member of the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres on 20 November 1883. In 1886, he resumed work begun by Mariette to uncover the Sphinx, removing more than of sand and seeking tombs below it. He also introduced admission charges for Egyptian sites to the increasing number of tourists to pay for their upkeep and maintenance.
Maspero was popular with museum keepers and collectors because he was known to be a "pragmatic" director of the Service of Antiquities, one who would allow them to remove from the country what he did not want for the Bulak Museum in Cairo. Maspero did not attempt to halt all collecting, but rather sought to control what went out of the country and to gain the confidence of those who were regular collectors. When Maspero left his position in 1886 and was replaced by a series of other directors who attempted to halt the trade in antiquities, his absence was much lamented. Maspero resumed his professorial duties in Paris teaching at the Collège de France and the École des Hautes Etudes from June 1886 until 1899, when, at 53, he returned to Egypt in his old capacity as director-general of the department of antiquities and remained there until his retirement in 1914.
On 3 October 1899, an earthquake at Karnak collapsed 11 columns and left the main hall in ruins. Maspero had already made some repairs and clearances there (continued in his absence by unofficial but authorized explorers of many nationalities) in his previous tenure of office, and now he set up a team of workmen under French Egyptologists and regularly visited to oversee its reconstruction work, opposing some Romantics who wished the ruins left as they were. In 1903 an alabaster pavement was found in the court of the 7th Pylon, and beneath it a shaft leading to a large hoard of almost 17,000 statues, with every part of the dig drawn, recorded and photographed.
On Maspero's arrival in 1899 he found the collections in the Bulak Museum enormously increased, and while working to expand them further he superintended their transfer from Gizeh to the new quarters at Qasr El Nil in 1902. The vast catalogue of the collections made rapid progress under Maspero's direction. Twenty-four volumes or sections were already published in 1909. This work and the increasing workload of the Antiquities Service led to an expansion of staff at the museum, including the 17-year-old Howard Carter. It was Maspero who recommended Carter to George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon in 1907, when the Earl approached him to seek advice for the use of an expert to head his planned archaeological expedition to the Valley of the Kings. In 1904, when the British decided to raise the Aswan Low Dam by seven metres, Maspero managed to raise the necessary funds to isolate, consolidate, but also study a large number of religious buildings in Lower Nubia, which were threatened with engulfment.
Maspero also set up a network of local museums throughout Egypt, including a new larger Cairo facility, to encourage the Egyptians to take greater responsibility for the maintenance of their own heritage by increasing public awareness of it. In 1912 he also succeeded where his predecessors had failed in the introduction of a series of anti-looting laws.
Because of the long hours that he worked his eye-sight began to decline and so in the spring of 1914 he resigned his post in the hope of enjoying some remaining years to be devoted to his favourite studies, and to the congenial duties of Secretaire Perpetuel of the Academie des Inscriptions et Belle-Lettres.
Following his return to France Maspero was elected perpetual secretary of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres on 24 July 1914. He was a member of Queen's College (University of Oxford), American Archaeological Institute (Boston), American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Cambridge, Massachusetts), American Philosophical Society (Philadelphia), American Oriental Society (Ann Arbor) and the Turin Academy of Sciences. On 30 November 1883, he was elected a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres.
Some public domain e-books by Maspero:
- Art in Egypt (1912).
- The Dawn of Civilization: Egypt and Chaldæa (1894).
- Egyptian archæology (1892).
- Guide to the Cairo Museum (1905)
- Life in Ancient Egypt and Assyria. (1892).
- The Passing of the Empires: 850 B.C. to 330 B.C. (1900).
- Popular Stories of Ancient Egypt (1915)
- The Struggle of the Nations: Egypt, Syria and Assyria (1897).
- History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria. (1903–04). 12 volume English translation of Histoire ancienne des peuples de l'Orient classique.
Legacy
The Egyptian Radio and Television Union (ERTU) building in Cairo, Egypt was named after Maspero in recognition of his significant contributions to the study and preservation of ancient Egyptian monuments. Additionally, a nearby station on Cairo Metro Line 3 in Central Cairo was also named in his honour.
Maspero's influence extended into popular culture as well; the Egyptian director Shadi Abdel Salam featured him in the acclaimed film The Mummy.
See also
- List of Egyptologists
- Maspero television building
- Georges Maspero (1872–1942), French sinologist, son of Gaston, brother of Henri and Jean
- Henri Maspero (1882–1945), French sinologist, son of Gaston, father of François
- Jean Maspero (1885–1915), French papyrologist, son of Gaston, brother of Henri and Georges
- François Maspero (1932–2015), French author and journalist, son of Henri
References
- Collège de France list of Chair of Egyptian Archaeology