Alexandre Piankoff was born in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1897. At a young age, Alexandre took interest in Egyptology, after he viewed a museum collection of Egyptian antiques at the Museum of Ermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Prior to the World War I, Piankoff studied foreign languages along with Anti Ken languages, and Egyptian Philology. Due to the war, his studies were cut short. Soon thereafter the war, he continued studying first in Berlin at the Sorbonne, and then later at the University of Paris where he obtained his Ph.D. He lived in Paris from 1924 to 1939 and in 1940 Piankoff joined the French forces at the beginning of World War II. Fighting with the French Armed Forces, Alexandre ended up in Cairo, where he remained after the war ended. He began working with the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology in Cairo. He specialized in languages, including Ancient Egyptian, Arabic, Koptisch, Persian, Turkish, French, German, English, and his own native language.
Alexandre also did work on such graves as the tomb of Rameses V and VI (KV9), which led him to the grave of Tutankhamon. However, Alexandre's most prized work was accomplished at Thebes and he is known best for his many translations of religious texts.
Alexandre Piankoff died in 1996 in Brussels, Belgium.
References
Piankoff, Alexandre. The Shrines of Tutankhamon, Harper & Row, 1962
Goedicke, Hans. American Journal of Archeology:, "The Pyramid of Unas" Pp. 378-379, 1969
Personen, Alexandre Piankoff, http://www.manetho.de/person/aegypt/piankoff.htm, (March, 2006)
Written By: Holly Schwichtenberg, 2006