Étienne Drioton

Étienne Marie Felix Drioton (21 November 1889 – 17 January 1961) was a French Egyptologist, archaeologist, and Catholic canon. He was born in Nancy and died in Montgeron.

Early in life he assisted as Conservative Deputy in the Department of Egyptian antiquities at the Louvre in Paris; in 1936 he became Director General of Antiquities of Egypt in the Egyptian Museum at Cairo; finally becoming Head Curator back at the Louvre in 1957. He deciphered hieroglyphic writings, and later laid the foundations of Coptic archaeology. Dr. Drioton authored numerous books, and has been considered the greatest Egyptologist of all time.

When a cache of over a dozen codices written in ancient Coptic were discovered near Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in 1945 (they became known as the Nag Hammadi codices), underworld characters began to acquire them, selling them on the black market. Fearful that the precious manuscripts would be scattered and never recovered, the Egyptian government sent Drioton to acquire as much of the collection as he could.

Cairo antiquities dealer Phocion Jean Tano had acquired most of the collection from these outlaws, but had already sold one codex to Maria Dattari, a private antiquities collector in Cairo. Dattari offered the collection to the Egyptian government for £71,000+, which was negotiated down to ₤45,000.

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