Fulgence Fresnel

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Fulgence Fresnel
Born16 April 1795
Mathieu, Calvados
Died30 November 1855(1855-11-30) (aged 60)
Baghdad
NationalityFrench
Occupation(s)Assyriologist
Orientalist
Translator
Diplomat
RelativesAugustin-Jean Fresnel (brother)
Léonor Mérimée (uncle)
Prosper Mérimée (cousin)

Fulgence Fresnel (

Augustin Fresnel (1788–1827). Fresnel was an Orientalist scholar who led one of the first archaeological teams to excavate in Mesopotamia
.

Education

As a young man, Fresnel studied sciences, literature, and languages, and translated a few works by

Maronite College in Rome
.

Career

A mission drawing of the Lion of Babylon drawn by Thomas in 1852

Fresnel was appointed French consular agent in Cairo in 1837, and then consul in the

chevalier de la Légion d'honneur in 1849.[5]

In 1851, he was put in charge of the French scientific expedition to

Jules Oppert, the architect, Felix Thomas and expedition administrator Edouard Perreymond.[4][5] The expedition suffered misfortunes from ill health, uncertainties due to the Arab unrest in the Ottoman Empire and ultimately critical financial issues.[6] Nevertheless, it has been argued that the expedition discovered the true location of ancient Babylon.[5][7][8]

Victor Place
1867)

Much of the mission's work[9] was subsequently lost in May 1855 when the rafts transporting it were attacked and sunk on the river Tigris.[10][11] Subsequent efforts to recover the over 200 cases of lost antiquities at Al-Qurnah, including a Japanese expedition in 1971-2, have as yet been unsuccessful.[11] One notable feature of the expedition was the use of a new and still secret procedure for making casts, developed by Lattin de Laval.[12]

Oppert and Thomas had already left the expedition in 1854, while Fresnel chose to remain in the Middle East. Further to

consumption in Baghdad on 30 November 1855.[13] Perreymond his assistant, also died there in 1858, having been unable to return to France.[14]

Fresnel's notes on the expedition were included in the treatise, Expedition Scientifique En Mésopotamie: Exécutée Par Ordre Du Gouvernement De 1851 À 1854 by Julius Oppert first published in 1858.[15] A detailed report by Maurice Pillet on the travails and eventual unravelling of Fresnel's mission to Babylon was published in 1922.[5][16]

Personal life

Fresnel was born in Mathieu, Calvados in 1795 and was the youngest of four sons of an architect.

Galla (Abyssinian) woman he had bought out of slavery during his time in Egypt. She would remain in Geneva while he led the mission to Mesopotamia.[5]

See also

References

  1. ISBN 978-1-4058-8118-0
    ..
  2. Webster's New World College Dictionary
    .
  3. ^ Simeone Senelle, Marie-Claude. "The Modern South Arabian Languages." In Hetzron, R. (ed). 1997. The Semitic Languages. London: Routledge, p. 378-423. http://llacan.vjf.cnrs.fr/PDF/Publications/Senelle/SAMLanguages.pdf Archived 2020-07-09 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ a b Larsen, M.T., The Conquest of Assyria: Excavations in an Antique Land, Routledge, 2014, pp 307-08 and p. 315
  5. ^ a b c d e Pillet, Maurice (1922). L'expédition scientifique et artistique de Mésopotamie et de Médie, 1851-1855 (in French). Paris: Éditions Champion. pp. VIII, 8, 337. Archived from the original on 2021-04-11. Retrieved 2021-04-08.
  6. ISBN 978-0-415-34158-5. Archived
    from the original on 2021-05-21. Retrieved 2021-06-06.
  7. ^ Oppert, Jules; Fresnel, Fulgence; Thomas, Félix (1859–1863). Expédition scientifique en Mésopotamie, exécutée... de 1851 à 1854. Tome 2 / par MM. Fulgence Fresnel, Félix Thomas et Jules Oppert (in French). Paris: Imprimerie Imperiale. Archived from the original on 2016-11-04. Retrieved 2021-04-08.
  8. ^ The mission documented that the palace of Wonders built by Nebuchadnezzar as described by Herodotus and Ctesias was under the hill of rubble known as Kasr (Pillet p.VIII)
  9. Victor Place's mission to Khorsabad, Rawlinson's to Kuyunjik and Fresnel's to Babylon
    .
  10. doi:10.4324/9781315862859
    pp. 344-9
  11. ^ a b Namio Egami, "The Report of The Japan Mission For The Survey of Under-Water Antiquities At Qurnah: The First Season," (1971-72), 1-45, https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/orient1960/8/0/8_0_1/_pdf Archived 2018-10-31 at the Wayback Machine.
  12. ^ Moss, Stuart (13 December 2016). "'Ghost Objects' – 19th century paper mould techniques and the portability of antiquities". Bilderfahrzeuge (in German). Archived from the original on 2021-05-09. Retrieved 2021-04-09.
  13. ^ Pillet, Maurice (1922). L'expédition scientifique et artistique de Mésopotamie et de Médie, 1851-1855. Paris. pp. 178–83. Archived from the original on 2021-04-11. Retrieved 2021-04-08.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  14. ^ Pillet, Maurice (1922). L'expédition scientifique et artistique de Mésopotamie et de Médie, 1851-1855. Archived 2021-04-11 at the Wayback Machine Capitre XVIII La Mort de Perrymond Paris: Librarie Anciene Honore Champion, pp. 177–83.
  15. ^ Pouillon, F., Dictionnaire des Orientalistes de Langue Française, KARTHALA, 2008, p. 924
  16. ISSN 1356-1863
    .
  17. ^ J.H. Favre, "Augustin Fresnel", geneanet.org, accessed 30 August 2017.

Bibliography

Selected publications

  • L'Arabie vue en 1837-1838, Paris, Imp. nationale, 1871 ;
  • « Lettre à M. Caussin de Perceval », 27 avril 1850, Journal asiatique, octobre 1850 ;
  • Cinquième Lettre sur l'histoire des Arabes avant l'islamisme à M. Stanislas Julien, Djeddah, février 1838 ;
  • « L'Arabie », dans Revue des deux Mondes, vol. 17, 1839
  • Expédition scientifique en Mésopotamie, exécutée… de 1851 à 1854, par MM. Fulgence Fresnel, Félix Thomas et Jules Oppert, publiée par
    Jules Oppert
     ;
  • Extraits d'une lettre de M. Fresnel… à M. Jomard,… sur certains quadrupèdes réputés fabuleux ;
  • Lettre sur la géographie de l'Arabie ;
  • Lettre sur la topographie de Babylone, écrite à M. Mohl ;
  • Lettres sur l'histoire des Arabes avant l'islamisme, 1837 ;
  • Lettres… à M. Mohl ;
  • Mémoire de M. Fresnel, consul de France à Djeddah, sur le Waday (1848-1850) ;
  • Notice sur le voyage de M. de Wrède dans la vallée de Doan et autres lieux de l'Arabie méridionale ;
  • Notice sur les sources du Nil, à l'occasion d'une découverte récente ;
  • Nouvelles et mélanges. Lettre à M. le rédacteur du ″Journal asiatique″, 2 mai 1839 ;
  • Pièces relatives aux inscriptions himyarites découvertes par M. Arnaud, [Signé : Arnaud et F. Fresnel] ;
  • Recherches sur les inscriptions himyariques de San'à, Khariba, Mareb, etc..

Translations

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