Ernesto Schiaparelli

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Ernesto Schiaparelli (July 12, 1856– 1928) was an Italian Egyptologist, born in Occhieppo Inferiore (Biella), who found Queen Nefertari's tomb in Deir al-Madinah in the Valley of the Queens (1904) and excavated the tomb of the royal architect Kha (1906), found intact and displayed in toto in Turin. He was appointed director of the Egyptian Museum in Florence, where he professionally reorganized the collection in new quarters in 1880, then at the peak of his career was made director of the Museo Egizio di Torino, which became with him and his many seasons of excavating, the second biggest Egyptian museum in the world. He was the author of famous scholarly works and a Senator of the Kingdom of Italy. At the same time he was deeply involved, from the first time staying with Franciscan missionaries at Luxor in 1884, with relieving the poverty he saw among the missionaries of Upper Egypt, for whom he founded the Association to Succour Italian Missionaries (ANSMI), which expanded its work to care for Italian emigrants throughout the Near East.

Ernest Schiaparelli was from a distinguished family of scholars. His father Luigi Schiaparelli, the paleographer, taught history at the University of Turin. Giovanni Virgilio Schiaparelli was the famous astronomer, Celestino, the Arabist, Cesare the pioneer of photography, Carlo Felice the agronomist and Giovanni Battista, a pioneer of industrial chemistry, were among his kin.

Between 1903 and 1920 Schiaparelli undertook twelve archaeological campaigns, opening sites in Heliopolis, the cemeteries of Gisa, Hermopolis, Assiut, Qau el-Kebir, Gebelein and Aswan (the tomb of Harchuf).

[edit] Main publications

Del sentimento religioso degli Egiziani (1877)
Il Libro del Funerali degli antichi Egiziani, 3 vols. (1881-1890) On the Egyptian Book of the Dead.
Les Hypogées de Thebes (1889)