In Memoriam Jean Jacquet, March 5th, 1921 - January 7th, 2016

by Alain and Emmanuelle Arnaudiès

On January 7th, 2016, the Swiss architect and archaeologist Jean Jacquet passed away peacefully at age 95. He was the husband of the late Helen Jacquet-Gordon, American Egyptologist and ceramicist, who died in April 2013. The life of the Jacquets is one of the great stories of Egyptology. They met in Egypt during the excavation of Mit Rahineh in 1956 and worked together in Egypt continuously until 2008 when Jean began to lose his eyesight. They spent more than fifty years together on the field and dedicated their full life to their archaeological work.

Jean was born in Carouge, Switzerland on March 5th, 1921. He studied architecture in a school of Fine Arts in Geneva. His first job was in a department of city planning in Geneva, then in Bern. He started his "Middle Eastern career" as architect with the French excavations of Roman Ghirshman at Susa and Tchogha Zanbil (the ziggurat) in Iran from 1951 to 1954. In 1955 he arrived in Egypt and worked at Abusir on the excavations of Userkaf, directed by Herbert Ricke of the Swiss Institute with the collaboration of Hanns Stock (German Institute).

He met Helen Gordon in 1956 as they worked together on the excavations of the University of Pennsylvania at Mit Rahineh, directed by Rudolph Anthes, with William Kelly Simpson and Henry George Fisher. When the Suez crisis broke out in October 1956, Jean was in Abu Simbel with the Egyptian Documentation Center to work on the architecture of the great temple with Hassan El-Achirie. The expedition was housed in two boats moored in front of the Great temple and included Jaroslav Cerny, Alexandre Piankoff and Louis-Antoine Christophe. He returned there every year until 1965. In March 1958 Jean and Helen had the opportunity to make a trip by car from Cairo to Luxor and back. Their purpose was to visit sites on the way that were difficult of access by train. Arriving in Luxor, they rested for a few days at Chicago House. Jean and Helen got married on June, 23rd, 1959. In September 1959, Jean went to Nubia within the "Gazzola mission" as architect of the Egyptian Documentation Center. He was involved in the meeting of international experts on the safeguarding of the sites and monuments of Ancient Nubia, under the auspices of UNESCO. From September 18th to 22nd, eighteen Nubian temples were examined to determine the technical possibilities for their removal. From 1957 to 1965 he worked on several Nubian sites such as:

  • Abu Simbel. Helen, who joined him at Abu Simbel in February 1960, remarked: "My husband has developed a routine for his camera act: he sets up his theodolite on the base of one of the colossi, peers through it with an intense expression, and then jots down lists of numbers. This makes a great hit with the photographers." (Newsletter for ARCE, April 1960).
  • Gerf Hussein and Derr which architecture he published with Hassan El-Achirie respectively in 1978 and 1980.
  • Abdallah Nirqi in 1963-64 under the direction of Adolf Klasens of Leiden University and the State Museum of Antiquities at Leiden (with Helen).
  • Shokan in 1964 (with Helen).
  • Tabo (Argo Island in the Dongola province of the northern Sudan), from 1965 to 1977, with Helen, in the joint expedition of the Henry Blackmer Foundation and the University of Geneva, under the direction of Charles Maystre.

During the UNESCO "Nubian salvage campaign," Jean and Helen were on the field for the moving of the Debod and Amada temples. Jean also worked at Tyre in Lebanon, in the excavations of Maurice Chehab, Director of the Lebanese Department of Antiquities (in June and July every year from 1961 to 1966). Helen joined him and they both worked on an imposing construction called "The Rectangular Building." Unfortunately, these excavations have never been published because the archives were destroyed in 1975, during the war.

On November 1st, 1966, he joined the French Institute of Archaeology in Cairo (IFAO). In 1967 and 1968, Jean and Helen worked with Serge Sauneron, Director of the IFAO, on the Christian sites in the vicinity of Esna. They published their work in 1972 as "Les ermitages chrétiens du désert d’Esna," volumes I-III. But Jean’s main undertaking with Helen was in Upper Egypt at North-Karnak, an 18th Dynasty site situated just north of the great temple complex, where they conducted excavations from 1968 to 1977 and from 1986 to 1992 under the auspices of the IFAO. In 1983, 1994, and 2001, Jean published three volumes of the Karnak-Nord series, "The Treasury of Thutmosis I" (V, VII, IX). He retired from IFAO on March 5th, 1986 but carried on his work at North- Karnak. His last publication on North-Karnak (volume IX) was published in 2001. While working in Karnak, Jean and Helen lived in the "Varille House," charming mud-brick house (with no running water!) perched on top of the temple northern enclosure. Most of us remember delightful tea- times with Jean and Helen on top of the enclosure. From 1997 until 2008 Jean and Helen resided with the team of the Epigraphic Survey at Chicago House (Oriental Institute, University of Chicago) in Luxor. In 1996 and 2006, Jean published an architectural study on Medinet Habu’s later constructions added to the Small Temple.Their last stay at Chicago House was during season 2007-08. In 2008, they donated their photographic archives to the library of Chicago House in Luxor. Their photographic archives contain more than 7,400 photographs (6x6 taken with a Rolleiflex Jean bought in Iran and 35 mm with an Exakta, acquired later on) of which the greater part is devoted to the architecture, archaeology, and epigraphy of the ancient Near East.

With the passing of Jean, we have lost one of last witnesses of a past era. He was a very hard worker with a bright mind and an incredible memory. During the last decades, Jean and Helen focused on publishing their excavations in North-Karnak. He wanted to write a last review for the book Fishing and Hunting on the Lake Manzala of his friend Nessim Henein, but his eyesight was too poor. Despite his health problems, he never lost his sense of humor. With Jean and Helen, every story ended with a joke. Jean and Helen were inseparable. They leave us with great memories.

Au revoir Jean ! We will miss you …

Download the Bibliography of Jean Jacquet