Christiane Ziegler
Encyclopedia
Christiane Ziegler is a French Egyptologist
, curator, director emeritus of the Department of Egyptian Antiquities of the Louvre Museum and editorial director of the archaeological mission from the Louvre Museum at Saqqara
, Egypt
.
. Studying under the direction of Professor Nicolas Grimal
, she is a graduate of Paris-Sorbonne University. She began studying Egyptology with a thesis on the Queen Tiye
, wife of Amenhotep III
. Ziegler's internship was at the Louvre's Department of Oriental Antiquities.
as well as several books on History of Egyptian Art.
In particular, she has studied the monuments of the time of the pyramids of Ancient Egypt
(hieroglyphic
inscriptions, statues, paintings and reliefs of the tombs), the various components of the site of Saqqara, metal arts from the Pharaonic period (bronze and silver) and has written a monograph devoted to Queen Tiye, wife of Amenhotep III
. A long-time Egyptian archaeology professor at the Ecole du Louvre
, Christiane Ziegler also co-directs the department of Egyptian Archaeology.
Since 1991, she has headed the archaeological mission from the Louvre Museum at Saqqara on the "North of the Unas Causeway" under the Supreme Council of Antiquities
. In 1993, she was named chief curator of the Louvre's Department of Antiquities. During the period 1994–2004, she was director of the Research Unit Louvre, whose work focuses on the Theban region. While her mission's initial purpose was to locate the mastaba of Akhethetep
, it also located two other Old Kingdom mastabas, many XXVI-XXX dynasty burials, as well as Coptic settlements. During which time she excavated and wrote a book on the Tomb of Akhethetep, paying particular attention to its reliefs. A team led by Ziegler was responsible for finding hundreds of mummies
in an underground maze of caves, most likely an ancient multifamily cemetery, crammed into shafts and corridors at Saqqara.
Ziegler has curated major exhibitions, notably "Origins of Writing" (Grand Palais, 1982) "Tanis, the gold of the Pharaohs" (Paris-Grand Palais Edinburgh, 1987–1988), "Memoirs of Egypt" (Paris-Berlin, 1990), "Egyptomania" (Paris, Ottawa and Vienna, 1994–1996), and "Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids" (Paris-New York-Toronto, 1999–2000). For her exhibition "The Pharaohs" (Venice-Paris-Madrid-Bahrain-Valencia, 2002–2007), Ziegler curated 300 masterpieces of ancient Egypt, brought together for the first time, to be viewed from two perspectives; on the one hand being powerful, monumental images, as they are best known, and, secondly, as the human person who recognized himself as a divine intermediary. According to Ziegler, the 2008 "Queens of Egypt" (July–September 2008, Grimaldi Forum, Monaco) exhibition is the first to be devoted entirely to Egypt’s queens while also being unique in the number and quality of the assembled pieces from some of the world’s greatest museums. She is preparing an international exhibition at the site of Saqqara, planned for 2011–2012.
Ziegler is a member of numerous learned societies. These include the International Committee of UNESCO for the new museums in Aswan
and Cairo
, the Scientific Council of the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale
, the Commission on excavations of the Department of Foreign Affairs of the German Archaeological Institute
, and Vice President of Friends of Museums in Egypt. She sits on the scientific board of Agence France-Muséums in charge of the program Louvre Abu Dhabi
, and participates on the board of the National Museum of History and Art
.
. She is a 2008 recipient of the prestigious Légion d'honneur
and Commandeur de l'Ordre national du Mérite awards.
Egyptology
Egyptology is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious practices in the AD 4th century. A practitioner of the discipline is an “Egyptologist”...
, curator, director emeritus of the Department of Egyptian Antiquities of the Louvre Museum and editorial director of the archaeological mission from the Louvre Museum at Saqqara
Saqqara
Saqqara is a vast, ancient burial ground in Egypt, serving as the necropolis for the Ancient Egyptian capital, Memphis. Saqqara features numerous pyramids, including the world famous Step pyramid of Djoser, sometimes referred to as the Step Tomb due to its rectangular base, as well as a number of...
, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
.
Early years
Ziegler was a student at the Institut de Science PolitiqueInstitut d'Études Politiques de Paris
The Institut d'études politiques de Paris , simply referred to as Sciences Po , is a public research and higher education institution in Paris, France, specialised in the social sciences. It has the status of grand établissement, which allows its admissions process to be highly selective...
. Studying under the direction of Professor Nicolas Grimal
Nicolas Grimal
Nicolas Grimal is a French Egyptologist.- Biography :Nicolas Grimal was born to Pierre Grimal in 1948. After his Agrégation in Classics in 1971, he obtained a PhD in 1984. He has been a professor at the Sorbonne since 1988.From 1989 to 1999, he headed the French Institute of Oriental Archeology in...
, she is a graduate of Paris-Sorbonne University. She began studying Egyptology with a thesis on the Queen Tiye
Tiye
Tiye was the daughter of Yuya and Tjuyu . She became the Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III....
, wife of Amenhotep III
Amenhotep III
Amenhotep III also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty. According to different authors, he ruled Egypt from June 1386 to 1349 BC or June 1388 BC to December 1351 BC/1350 BC after his father Thutmose IV died...
. Ziegler's internship was at the Louvre's Department of Oriental Antiquities.
Career
Ziegler started her career as a high school teacher. She began working at the Louvre in 1972 and her archaeological research at Saqqara began in 1991. She is the author of numerous important scientific articles and books about Egyptology. She has also authored translations of ancient letters from Egypt and NubiaNubia
Nubia is a region along the Nile river, which is located in northern Sudan and southern Egypt.There were a number of small Nubian kingdoms throughout the Middle Ages, the last of which collapsed in 1504, when Nubia became divided between Egypt and the Sennar sultanate resulting in the Arabization...
as well as several books on History of Egyptian Art.
In particular, she has studied the monuments of the time of the pyramids of Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
(hieroglyphic
Egyptian hieroglyphs
Egyptian hieroglyphs were a formal writing system used by the ancient Egyptians that combined logographic and alphabetic elements. Egyptians used cursive hieroglyphs for religious literature on papyrus and wood...
inscriptions, statues, paintings and reliefs of the tombs), the various components of the site of Saqqara, metal arts from the Pharaonic period (bronze and silver) and has written a monograph devoted to Queen Tiye, wife of Amenhotep III
Amenhotep III
Amenhotep III also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty. According to different authors, he ruled Egypt from June 1386 to 1349 BC or June 1388 BC to December 1351 BC/1350 BC after his father Thutmose IV died...
. A long-time Egyptian archaeology professor at the Ecole du Louvre
École du Louvre
The École du Louvre is an institution of higher education and French Grande École located in the Aile de Flore of the Musée du Louvre in Paris, France, and is dedicated to the study of archaeology, art history, anthropology and epigraphy....
, Christiane Ziegler also co-directs the department of Egyptian Archaeology.
Since 1991, she has headed the archaeological mission from the Louvre Museum at Saqqara on the "North of the Unas Causeway" under the Supreme Council of Antiquities
Supreme Council of Antiquities
The Supreme Council of Antiquities is the branch of the Egyptian Ministry of Culture responsible for the conservation, protection and regulation of all antiquities and archaeological excavations in Egypt...
. In 1993, she was named chief curator of the Louvre's Department of Antiquities. During the period 1994–2004, she was director of the Research Unit Louvre, whose work focuses on the Theban region. While her mission's initial purpose was to locate the mastaba of Akhethetep
Tomb of Akhethetep
The Tomb of Akhethetep , also Tomb or Mastaba of Akhethotep, is a tomb complex that was built and completed at different times in Saqqarah, Giza, Egypt. It is the tomb of Akhethotep, a royal official, located near the western part of the Step Pyramid in Saqqara...
, it also located two other Old Kingdom mastabas, many XXVI-XXX dynasty burials, as well as Coptic settlements. During which time she excavated and wrote a book on the Tomb of Akhethetep, paying particular attention to its reliefs. A team led by Ziegler was responsible for finding hundreds of mummies
Mummy
A mummy is a body, human or animal, whose skin and organs have been preserved by either intentional or incidental exposure to chemicals, extreme coldness , very low humidity, or lack of air when bodies are submerged in bogs, so that the recovered body will not decay further if kept in cool and dry...
in an underground maze of caves, most likely an ancient multifamily cemetery, crammed into shafts and corridors at Saqqara.
Ziegler has curated major exhibitions, notably "Origins of Writing" (Grand Palais, 1982) "Tanis, the gold of the Pharaohs" (Paris-Grand Palais Edinburgh, 1987–1988), "Memoirs of Egypt" (Paris-Berlin, 1990), "Egyptomania" (Paris, Ottawa and Vienna, 1994–1996), and "Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids" (Paris-New York-Toronto, 1999–2000). For her exhibition "The Pharaohs" (Venice-Paris-Madrid-Bahrain-Valencia, 2002–2007), Ziegler curated 300 masterpieces of ancient Egypt, brought together for the first time, to be viewed from two perspectives; on the one hand being powerful, monumental images, as they are best known, and, secondly, as the human person who recognized himself as a divine intermediary. According to Ziegler, the 2008 "Queens of Egypt" (July–September 2008, Grimaldi Forum, Monaco) exhibition is the first to be devoted entirely to Egypt’s queens while also being unique in the number and quality of the assembled pieces from some of the world’s greatest museums. She is preparing an international exhibition at the site of Saqqara, planned for 2011–2012.
Ziegler is a member of numerous learned societies. These include the International Committee of UNESCO for the new museums in Aswan
Aswan
Aswan , formerly spelled Assuan, is a city in the south of Egypt, the capital of the Aswan Governorate.It stands on the east bank of the Nile at the first cataract and is a busy market and tourist centre...
and Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
, the Scientific Council of the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale
Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale
.The Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale , also known as the French Institute for Oriental Archaeology in Cairo is a French research institute based in Cairo, Egypt, dedicated to the study of the archaeology, history and languages of the various periods of Egypt's civilisation.The IFAO is...
, the Commission on excavations of the Department of Foreign Affairs of the German Archaeological Institute
German Archaeological Institute
The German Archaeological Institute is an institution of research within the field of archaeology , and a "scientific corporation", with parentage of the federal Foreign Office of Germany-Origin:...
, and Vice President of Friends of Museums in Egypt. She sits on the scientific board of Agence France-Muséums in charge of the program Louvre Abu Dhabi
Louvre Abu Dhabi
The Louvre Abu Dhabi is a planned museum, to be located in Abu Dhabi, UAE. On Tuesday 7 March 2007, the Louvre in Paris announced that a new Louvre museum would be completed by 2012 in Abu Dhabi, though current expectations are that completion will be delayed until at least 2014. This is part of a...
, and participates on the board of the National Museum of History and Art
National Museum of History and Art
The National Museum of History and Art , abbreviated to MNHA, is a museum located in Luxembourg City, in southern Luxembourg. It is dedicated to displaying artworks and artefacts from all epochs of Luxembourgian history...
.
Awards
Being world-renowned in the scientific world and in the media in this field of Egyptology, Ziegler is a recipient of the Gaston Maspero Lifetime Achievement Award awarded by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-LettresAcadémie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
The Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres is a French learned society devoted to the humanities, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the Institut de France.-History:...
. She is a 2008 recipient of the prestigious Légion d'honneur
Légion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
and Commandeur de l'Ordre national du Mérite awards.
Selected publications
- With Hervé Champollion et Diane Harlé, L'Égypte de Jean-François Champollion – Lettres et journaux de voyage aux éditions Jean Paul Mengès – 1989
- With Christophe Barbotin et Marie-Hélène Rutschowscaya, Le Louvre : les antiquités égyptiennes, Le Louvre aux éditions Scala – 1990
- Le mastaba d'Akhethetep : Une chapelle funéraire de l'Ancien Empire, aux éditions de la Réunion des Musées Nationaux – 1993
- With Jean-Marcel Humbert et Michael Pantazzi, Égyptomania : L'Égypte dans l'art occidental, 1730–1930, aux éditions Réunion des Musées Nationaux – 1994
- With Guillemette AndreuGuillemette AndreuGuillemette Andreu-Lanoë , is a French Egyptologist and archaeologist. A former member of the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology of Cairo, she has been a curator and director of the Department of Egyptian Antiquities of the Louvre Museum since May 2007.-Biography:After studying history,...
, Marie-Hélène Rutschowscaya, L'Égypte ancienne au Louvre, aux éditions Hachette Littérature – 1997 - La mission archéologique du Louvre à Saqqara. Dernières découvertes dans Comptes-rendus de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres – 1997
- Les statues égyptiennes de l'Ancien Empire, dans la collection des Catalogues du Louvre aux éditions Réunion des Musées Nationaux – 1997
- L'art de l'Ancien Empire égyptien : Actes du colloque organisé au musée du Louvre par le Service culturel les 3 et 4 avril 1998, aux éditions La Documentation Française – 1999
- With Jean-Pierre AdamJean-Pierre AdamJean-Pierre Adam is a French archaeologist, specialising in ancient architecture.Following a special diploma from the School of Architecture in 1965, he entered the ancient architecture department of the CNRS...
, Les pyramides d'Égypte, aux éditions Hachette Littérature – 1999 - With Jean-Luc Bovot, Art et archéologie : L'Égypte ancienne, dans la collection Manuel du Louvre aux éditions Réunion des Musées Nationaux – 2001
- Les Pharaons, aux éditions Flammarion – 2002
- Le Scribe "accroupi", aux éditions Réunion des Musées Nationaux – 2002
- With Annie Gasse, Les stèles d'Horus sur les crocodiles, aux éditions Réunion des Musées Nationaux – 2004
- With Jean-Luc Bovot, L'art égyptien aux éditions Larousse – 2004
- Pharaon, aux éditions Flammarion – 2004
- With Hervé Champollion, L'Égypte : Lettres et journaux du voyage (1828–1829) par Jean-François Champollion, aux éditions de Lodi – 2005
- Le Mastaba d'Akhethetep. Fouilles du Louvre à Saqqara volume – Peeters – Louvain (Belgique) – mars 2007
- Saqqara – Les Tombeaux de Basse Époque – Peeters – Louvain (Belgique) – prévu pour 2008