MARIETTE, ma're'it, Auguste Edouard, French Egyptologist: b. Boulogne-sur-Mer, 11 Feb. 1821; d. Cairo, 19 Jan. 1881. He was edu cated at the Boulogne Municipal College and in 1839 went to England as professor of French and drawing. He returned to France in 1840, took his degree at Douai in 1841 and became professor at his alma mater, the Boulogne Municipal College.. While so engaged he be came interested in archaeology and in 1847 pub lished 'Lettres a M. BoniHet,' an essay on the history of Boulogne. In 1848 he received a posi tion in the Egyptian museum of the Louvre; and in 1850 was sent by the government to gather Coptic, Syriac, Arabic and Ethiopic manuscripts in Egypt. His excavations and dis coveries in connection with his search for the true site of Memphis led to the finding of many important remains, such as the Serapeum, the first Memphian temple discovered, near the three great pyramids, Beginning to excavate four miles West of the accepted site of Memphis, Mariette came first upon an avenue of sphinxes, which led directly up to the magnificent granite and alabaster temple of Serapis mentioned by Strabo, which contained the sarcophagi of the sacred bulls of Apis from the 19th dynasty to the Roman supremacy. Besides these he found no less than 2,000 sphinxes, and over 4,000 statues, bas-reliefs and inscriptions, some evi dently of Greek construction; and various streets, colonnades, and other structures belong ing to a great city. His excavations around the base of the sphinx near Gizeh not only disclosed the entrance to it, but proved it to be sculptured out of the solid rock. In 1854 he returned to Paris and was made assistant conservator of the Louvre; and in 1855 was sent to Berlin to study Egyptian remains in the museums there. On
his return to Egypt, in 1858, the viceroy made him conservator of the monuments and antiqui ties of the land, with the title of bey, later pro moted to pasha, with an annual appropriation for- the prosecution of his researches, and the foundation and maintenance of the museum of Boulak. His discoveries at Tanis revealed the monuments of the Hyksos dynasty, and those at Thebes explain the chronology of the various dynasties. In 1860 he made the important dis covery of the munityy of Queen Aahhotep, of the 18th dynasty, with a wealth of jewels of exquisite workmanship belonging to her. In 1873 the Institute of France awarded him the biennial prize of 20,000 francs. His discoveries have been of utmost importance for the light that they have thrown upon the earliest periods of Egyptian history. His chief published works are sur la mere d'Apis> (1856); de l'Histoire d'Egypte) (1864) ; 'Nouvelle table d'Abydos) (1856), account of a second tablet found in Abydos which supplies the vacancies of the first and gives a list of the kings of the first six dynasties, corroborating that of Maneths; 'Le Serapeum de Memphis' (1857-64) ; (Fouilles executees en Egypte, en Nubia, et • an Soudan d'apres les ordres du vice-roi d'Egypte> (1867) ; des prin cipaux monuments du musee de Boulak' (1870) ; 'Les Papyrus egyptiens du musee de Boulak' (1871) ; du musee de Boulak' (1873) ; Mastabas de l'Antien Empire) Marlette lies buried in the museum-garden at Boulak, inclosed in an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus. Consult Mariette, Edouard, Mariette Pacha> (Paris 1904) and Maspero, G. C. C., (Notice biographique sur Auguste Mariette) (ib. 1905).