| Jean-Baptiste Adanson was a French interpreter who spent ten years employed at the French consulate in Egypt between ca. 1775 and 1785. Recognizing a need for accurate copies of genuine Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions, Adanson employed his artistic skill to document a number of inscribed objects; an archive housed at the Johns Hopkins University contains several of Adanson's resulting illustrations, along with his notes on the subject of Egyptian hieroglyphs.;Most of the objects Adanson depicted in this archive can be identified in museum collections throughout Europe and the United States. For these objects, Adanson's illustrations and associated notes provide the means to learn more about the history of their movements before they left Egypt, the condition in which they were found and, occasionally, some insights into their proveniences. In the present work, each of Adanson's illustrations is thoroughly examined with the goal of obtaining fresh data on these long-familiar Egyptian antiquities. They include: the New York obelisk, a naos fragment dating to the reign of Nectanebo I (Louvre D 37), the Ameneminet monument (Naples Inv. 1069), the sarcophagus of Nectanebo II (British Museum EA 10), a statue fragment (M. H. de Young Memorial Museum 54664), a statue fragment of Sokar (Musee Calvet Inv. A39) and the base of a Hemen statue (Musee Calvet Inv. A38).;In addition to the information one can gather about the objects Adanson documented, the examination of his materials also provides an opportunity to learn about Adanson himself: both as an individual, and as an exemplar of a formative moment in the history of Egyptology. While Adanson's illustrations are affected by the variable conditions under which he worked, as well as all the difficulties inherent to transcribing an unknown script, they also reveal the high value he placed on accuracy and authenticity. As such, Adanson takes his place in a tradition of scientific documentation that would eventually form the basis for the modern practice of Egyptological epigraphy. |
