Anjruste Edonard Mariette a French Eirvp-tologist, born in Boulogne, Feb. 11, 1821. He was educated at the college of Boulogne, in which he was subsequently a teacher of grammar and of drawing. He' early became interested in antiquities, and his first publication, Lettres d M. Bouillet (Paris, 1847), was a dissertation on the names of the cities that had formerly occupied the site of Boulogne. Egyptian hieroglyphics attracted his attention, and by the aid of hooks he became so well versed in Egyptology that he was appointed in 1848 to a situation in the Egyptian museum in the Louvre; and in 1850, at the recommendation of the institute, he was sent by the government on a scientific mission to Egypt. There his attention was chiefly directed to the remains of Memphis, and his excavations led to most important discoveries. Among these i-the discovery of the Serapeum, close by the three great pyramids, and the first of the temples of Memphis disinterred. M. Mariette told Mr. Bayard Taylor, who visited him at the scene of his explorations in 1851, that an inscription which he found on one of the blocks quarried out of a mound near Mitrahenny induced him to believe that the principal part of the city lay to the westward, and accordingly he began to sink his pits four miles from the spot which archaeologists had fixed upon the site of Memphis, He soon struck upon an avenue of sphinxes, which led to the Serapeum or temple of Serapis mentioned by Strabo, an enormous structure of granite and alabaster, containing within its enclosure the sarcophagi of the bulls of Apis from the 19th dynasty to the time of the Roman supremacy, He found also 2,000 sphinxes, between 4,000 and 5,000 statues, reliefs, and inscriptions, eight colossal statues, evidently the product of Grecian art, and streets, colonnades, public and private edifices, and other marks of a great city.Subse-quently he discovered an entrance to the great sphinx at Gizeb, and the clearing away of the sand at the base has left no doubt that this monument was sculptured from the immense rock which forms its foundation.

On his return home, he was in 1855 appointed assistant conservator of the Egyptian museum in the Louvre, and in the same year sent to study Egyptian antiquities in the museum Berlin. Having returned to Egypt, he was made by the viceroy dire, tor of the department for the preservation of Egyptian antiquities, with the title of bey, and an annual allowance for the prosecution of his researches. Among his later excavations, resulting in interesting and important discoveries, are those at Tanis, disclosing the monuments of the kings of the shepherd dynasty, and at Thebes and elsewhere of monuments and inscriptions which explain the genealogy and chronology of different dynasties. In I860 he discovered at Thebes the mummy of Queen Aah-hotep, of the 18th dynasty, and her jewels, consisting of a long gold chain, a diadem with two golden sphinxes, a breastplate of open work, a richly chased dagger, bracelets, earrings, and other ornaments, all of exquisite workmanship. These were shown in the Paris exhibition of 18(57, and are now spoken of as "the pride of the museum of Boolak." This museum is temporarily located, and is to be removed to Cairo. In April. 1874. Bayard Taylor again visited Mariette, and described his collections, which are arranged in the Boolak museum according to their civil or religious character, those of the earlier dynasties having the most conspicuous place.

Three statues in the court belong-to the age of the shepherd kings. The main vestibule is crowded with relics of the oldest Egyptian art. In the main hall are wooden statues belonging to the 4th dynasty, two painted limestone statues belonging to the 3d, and a granite statue of Oephren, the builder of the second pyramid, found by Mariette in a well in the granite temple discovered in 1866 near the sphinx. Even more interesting is the vast collection of furniture, household articles, implements of trade, glass and earthern ware, &:., revealing the civilization and domestic life of Egypt 4,000 years ago. In this museum is also the trilingual Canopic stone discovered at Tanis in 1866 by Lepsius, Reinisch, and Rosier. Marietta's discoveries thus far have thrown comparatively little light upon the sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt, though they have afforded grounds for many probable chronological conjectures; but the revelations of the earliest periods resulting from his researches are of great value.

He has published Memoire sur la mere d'Apu (1856); Apercu de Vhistoire d'Egypte (1864); Nouvelle table d'Abydos (1865); Le Serapeum de Memphis (in 9 parts fob, with 110 plates, 1857-'64); and Fouilles ntees en Egypte, en Nubie et au tioudan d'aprfo les ordres du ticeroi d'Egypte (fol., 1867). The Noumlle telle d'Ahydos gives an account of the discovery of a 'more perfect tablet than the one formerly found in Abvdos and preserved in the British museum. This second tablet supplies nearly all the vacancies which occur by mutilation in the first, and furnishes a list of kings of the first six dynasties, nearly as complete as Manetho's, and corroborating the list of that historian. For the importance of Mariettas discoveries, historically and chronologically considered, see Lcnormant and Chevalier. Manuel d'histoire ancienne de l'Orient (3 vols., Paris, 1868-'9; English edition, 2 vol-.. 1869-70).