Charles Texier

Charles Texier
(date unknown)

Félix Marie Charles Texier (22 August 1802, Versailles – 1 July 1871, Paris) was a French historian, architect and archaeologist. Texier published a number of significant works involving personal travels throughout Asia Minor and the Middle East. These books included descriptions and maps of ancient sites, reports of regional geography and geology, descriptions of art works and architecture, et al.

Painting from Charles Texier for Cyrus The Great, Paris, 1852

Trained as an architect at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he was appointed inspector of public works in 1827. He conducted excavations of the port cities of Fréjus and Ostia.[1] In 1833 he was sent on an exploratory mission to Asia Minor, where, in 1834, he discovered the ruins of the ancient Hittite capital of Hattusa.[2][3] As a result of the expedition, he published the three-volume Description de l'Asie Mineure faite par ordre du Gouvernement français. Later in the decade he participated in an expedition that took him to Armenia, Mesopotamia and Persia.[4]

In 1840, he became deputy professor of archaeology at the Collège de France, and in 1845 relocated to Algeria as inspector general of public buildings.[4] In 1855, he was elected to the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres.[1]

  1. ^ a b Prosopo Sociétés savantes de France
  2. ^ Texier, Charles (1835). "Rapport lu, le 15 mai 1835, à l'Académie royale des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres de l'Institut, sur un envoi fait par M. Texier, et contenant les dessins de bas-reliefs découverts par lui près du village de Bogaz-Keui, dans l'Asie mineure" [Report read on 15 May 1835 to the Royal Academy of Inscriptions and Belle-lettres of the Institute, on a dispatch made by Mr. Texier and containing drawings of bas-reliefs discovered by him near the village of Bogaz-Keui [now: Boğazkale] in Asia Minor]. Journal des Savants (in French): 368–376.
  3. ^ Texier, Charles (1839). Description de l'Asie Mineure: faite par ordre du gouvernement français en 1833–1837 … [Description of Asia Minor: done by order of the French government in 1833–1837 …] (in French). Vol. 1. Paris, France: Didot Frères. pp. 209ff. Available at: University of Heidelberg, Germany
  4. ^ a b 1833 - Quondam (biographical & bibliographical information)