Henri Edouard  Naville  ( 14.06.1844  -  17.10.1926 )

Henri Édouard Naville was a Swiss Egyptologist, archaeologist, and Biblical scholar. The student of Karl Richard Lepsius, he later became his literary executor. Naville first visit to Egypt took place in 1865; his early interests were primarily ancient Egyptian texts, such as the solar texts and the Book of the Dead. In 1873, he married Marguerite de Pourtalès who was to accompany him numerous times to Egypt, where she assisted him in his work by meticulously recording his finds, photographing and drawing artefacts, as well as keeping a detailed diary of the work.

In 1882, Naville started a long-lasting association with the recently founded Egypt Exploration Fund, as its first excavator. With the support of the Fund, he excavated at a number of sites. During the 1880's and early 1890's, his investigations were concentrated in the Nile Delta: he excavated at Tell el-Maskhuta in 1882, Wadi Tumilat in 1885–1886, Bubastis in 1886–1889, Saft el-Hinna and Tell el-Yahudiyeh in 1887, Ahnas in 1890–1891, and Tell el-Muqdam and Mendes in 1892. He later worked at Luxor, excavating the funerary temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahri in the 1890's. In 1903–1906, he investigated the neighbouring funerary temple of Mentuhotep II. In 1910 he worked at Abydos, first in the royal cemetery at Abydos and finally at the Osireion. His work was interrupted by the onset of the First World War. Naville received a number of distinctions and was the vice-president of the Egypt Exploration Society.