Giovanni D' Athanasi

1798-1854

     Giovanni D’Athanasi is not a name normally associated with archaeology.  This is because he was not a trained archaeologist—nor was he a draftsman, a linguist, or a distinguished scholar of any kind.  He was the type of man associated respectably with Egyptology in its infancy, a man hired by others to acquire artifacts for the burgeoning market of private collectors throughout Europe.  As was the usual case for someone in this profession, D’Athanasi was paid with a share of the artifacts he had collected.  He did his collecting at the behest of members of the British government.

     The son of a Greek merchant, Giovanni D’Athanasi was born on the island of Lemmos, Greece, in 1798.  When he was judged old enough, the young man joined his father in Egypt to learn the trade of an international merchant.  Six years after his 1809 arrival, the young man took employment with British Consul-General Ernest Misset in 1813.  Giovanni D’Athanasi was just fifteen at the time.  He worked for the two succeeding Consul-Generals during the 22 years he spent in Egypt.  

     D' Athanasi was not as famous in his artifact extractions as his longest employer, Henry Salt, with which he assisted in finding three important collections of Egyptian art and artifacts.  Nor was he as notorious as his co-worker, the former circus strongman Giovanni Belzoni, who, at one point, attempted to blast his way into the Great Pyramid of Khufu.  Although his name is often only mentioned incidentally, D’Athanasi was responsible for a great many examples of statuary, stellae, and artifacts that grace the British Museum and other museums throughout Europe today.  Many of the objects he collected are without provenience.  What is known from the records of his employers is that he acquired a great many of his artifacts and statuary from the vicinity of Thebes.

     His most noted find is that of the first recorded discovery of the undisturbed tomb of the 17th dynasty pharaoh Nubkheperre Intef.  Giovanni D’Athanasi’s account of the 1827 find was typical of the artifact-dealer and treasure-hunter’s business.  There was a short description of the tomb and the sarcophagus, and then his account calmly told of how his crew opened the sarcophagus and broke apart the mummified remains of the pharaoh while looking for treasure.  The artifacts D’Athanasi discovered in the tomb were scattered throughout Europe and the find was forgotten for nearly nine years until the tomb’s artifacts were sold at auction as part of Henry Salt’s third great collection of artifacts.   

     Giovanni D’Athanasi left Egypt for London, England in 1835.  His share of the artifacts that he and his crews helped recover were sold at auctions in 1835, 1837, and 1845.  D’Athanasi died nine years later on December 19, 1854.  Much of his collections of artifacts are at the British Museum, where they can still be found today.   

 References:

1)  The First King’s Burial Found Intact.  Norman Hayes.

2)  http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/ntomb.htm

3)  Giovanni D’Athanasi Former link, http://www.geocities.com/mundofaraonico/datanasi.htm (2006)

Written by: Andrew Brown, 2003