MARIETTE, AUGUSTE FERDINAND FRANcOIS (1821-1881), French Egyptologist, was born on Feb. i 1, 1821 at Boulogne, where his father was town clerk. Entrusted with a government mission for the purpose of seeking and purchasing Coptic, Syriac, Arabic and Ethiopic mss. for the national collec tion, he started for Egypt in 1850 ; and soon after his arrival he discovered the ruins of the Serapeum and the subterranean cata combs of the Apis bulls. His original mission being abandoned, funds were now advanced for the prosecution of his researches, and he remained in Egypt for four years, excavating, discovering and despatching archaeological treasures to the Louvre, of which he was on his return appointed an assistant conservator. In 1858 he accepted the position of conservator of Egyptian monuments to the ex-khedive, Ismail Pasha, and removed with his family to Cairo. The museum at Bula was founded immediately. The pyra mid-fields of Memphis and Sakkara, and the necropolis of Mey dum, and those of Abydos and Thebes were examined ; the great temples of Dendera and Edfu were disinterred ; important excava tions were carried out at Karnak, Medinet-Habu and Deir el Bahri ; Tanis (the Zoan of the Bible) was partially explored in the Delta; and even Gebel Barkal in the Sudan. The Sphinx was bared
to the rock-level, and the famous granite and alabaster monument miscalled the "Temple of the Sphinx" was discovered. Mariette Was raised successively to the rank of bey and pasha. He died at Cairo on Jan. 19, 188i.