J. de Morgan

Jean-Jacques de Morgan (3 June 1857 – 14 June 1924) was a French mining engineer, geologist, and archaeologist. He was the Director of Antiquities for the government of Egypt from 1892 to 1897, and excavated in Memphis and Dahshur, providing many drawings of many Egyptian pyramids. De Morgan also worked at Stonehenge, Persepolis, and many other sites.

In Russian Armenia, de Morgan was the manager of a copper mine at Akhtala. "The Caucasus is of special interest in the study of the origins of metals; it is the easternmost point from which prehistoric remains are known; older than Europe and Greece, it still retains the traces of those civilizations that were the cradle of our own."

In 1887–89 he unearthed 576 graves around Alaverdi and Akhatala, near the Tiflis-Alexandropol railway line.

Early life

De Morgan was born in Huisseau-sur-Cosson, Loir-et-Cher. His father Eugène, also called "Baron" de Morgan, was an engineer in mineral findings. Eugène pursued interests were in entomology and prehistory. He had two sons, Henry and Jacques who became interested in doing fieldwork, excavating the Campigny faults near Rouen with him, which had lent its name to the first phase of the European Neolithic. Through his father, Jacques became acquainted with Gabriel de Mortillet, who was connected with the museum of national antiquities in Saint-Germain during investigations of Merovingian cemeteries, and who showed him how to catalogue excavated objects. De Morgan's goal was to be a professional geologist like his father, and his personal lifestyle had given him a way to travel and study since his early youth. In 1879 he started to publish the results of his research, illustrated with drawings that were notable for their finesse and documentary precision.