Antinoe and the Louvre Collection

Between 1896 and 1913-1914, the French archaeologist Albert Gayet conducted campaigns of excavation within the necropolis of Antinoopolis (Antinoë). Most of these campaigns were done with the financial support of French Ministry of Fine Arts. The artefacts (textiles, ceramics, glasses, leather objects, etc.) discovered in Antinoë and sent to France were displayed after each campaign during a special exhibition, then dispersed through more than 80 museums, universities and other institutions. It is almost impossible, then, to have an archaeological overview of the discoveries, and the objects are, mostly, unknown or unpublished. But the creation of a department dedicated to Byzantine civilization at the Louvre gives a new chance of gathering the dismantled pieces of a puzzle of major importance for the knowledge of Late Antique and Byzantine Egypt.