J. de (Jacques) Morgan

Born in France in 1857, Jacques de Morgan trained as an engineer at the École des Mines before building an unusually wide-ranging career as a mining engineer, geologist, archaeologist, and explorer. He worked across several regions, including Malaysia, the Caucasus, Egypt, and Iran, and became known for bringing scientific rigor to fieldwork in places that were still little known to European scholarship.

From 1892 to 1897 he served as Director of Antiquities in Egypt, where he excavated at sites including Memphis and Dahshur. He later led important excavations at Susa in Iran, where discoveries made under his direction helped illuminate the ancient Near East and brought international attention to the site.

De Morgan died in 1924, but his reputation has lasted as that of a restless, multidisciplinary investigator. Readers coming to his books will find the voice of a writer who was not only documenting the past, but also helping define how it could be studied.