Jean Perrot (1920 – 24 December 2012) was a French archaeologist who specialised in the late

prehistory Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use ...

of the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

and Near East.

Biography

Perrot was a graduate of the Ecole du Louvre where he studied under two experts in Syrian archaeology;

André Parrot André Charles Ulrich Parrot (15 February 1901 – 24 August 1980) was a French archaeologist specializing in the ancient Near East. He led excavations in Lebanon, Iraq and Syria, and is best known for his work at Mari, Syria, where he led ...

and René Dussaud. He went on to study at the

École biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

in 1945.

He researched a number of ancient sites in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkm ...

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

and

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

, animating the research at international level. He first went to Iran in 1968, a year after the retirement of Roman Ghirshman, to head the ''Delegation Archéologique Français'' (DAFI) and excavations of the country's ancient sites. He headed a multidisciplinary team in conjunction with the Iranian Centre of Archaeological Research, including experts from France, Iran and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

who continued studies until the revolution in 1979. He worked on sites such as

Susa Susa ( ; Middle elx, 𒀸𒋗𒊺𒂗, translit=Šušen; Middle and Neo- elx, 𒋢𒋢𒌦, translit=Šušun; Neo-Elamite and Achaemenid elx, 𒀸𒋗𒐼𒀭, translit=Šušán; Achaemenid elx, 𒀸𒋗𒐼, translit=Šušá; fa, شوش ...

and Jafar Abad and took measures to safeguard the vestiges of the

Achaemenid The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the largest emp ...

period (between the sixth and fourth century BC). His notable discoveries included ancient items such as the headless statue of

Darius Darius may refer to: Persian royalty ;Kings of the Achaemenid Empire * Darius I (the Great, 550 to 487 BC) * Darius II (423 to 404 BC) * Darius III (Codomannus, 380 to 330 BC) ;Crown princes * Darius (son of Xerxes I), crown prince of Persia, ma ...

which is now housed in the

National Museum of Iran The National Museum of Iran ( fa, موزهٔ ملی ایران ) is located in Tehran, Iran. It is an institution formed of two complexes; the Museum of Ancient Iran and the Museum of Islamic Archaeology and Art of Iran, which were opened in 1937 ...

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the Capital city, capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is th ...

. In Israel Perrot excavated at Munhata, Ain Mallaha and the

Chalcolithic The Copper Age, also called the Chalcolithic (; from grc-gre, χαλκός ''khalkós'', " copper" and ''líthos'', " stone") or (A)eneolithic (from Latin ''aeneus'' "of copper"), is an archaeological period characterized by regul ...

sites at Abu Matar and Bir es-Safadi near

Beersheba Beersheba or Beer Sheva, officially Be'er-Sheva ( he, בְּאֵר שֶׁבַע, ''Bəʾēr Ševaʿ'', ; ar, بئر السبع, Biʾr as-Sabʿ, Well of the Oath or Well of the Seven), is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. ...

, belonging to the so-called Beer Sheva culture. In 1952, Perrot founded the ''"Mission archéologique française"'', now called the French Research Center in Jerusalem; a joint research unit of the General Directorate for International Cooperation and Development and the

CNRS The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,63 ...

. It is the CNRS's oldest foreign branch and became a permanent archaeological base in 1974. The current director since 1996 is Dominique Bourel. In 1973, Perrot founded the notable journal Paléorient with Bernard Vandermeersch along with the aid of the Wenner-Gren Foundation. In 1975, this became a publication of the CNRS. The journal is now published twice a year and distributed in twenty-two countries, it is recognized for presentations and discussions of research in all aspects of the

and

protohistory Protohistory is a period between prehistory and history during which a culture or civilization has not yet developed writing, but other cultures have already noted the existence of those pre-literate groups in their own writings. For example, in ...

of the near and middle east. Perrot returned to France to become director of the

, which he joined in 1946 and for which he was an honorary research director and correspondent.

Selected bibliography

* Perrot, Jean., Et ils sortirent du paradis ... , carnets d'un archéologue en Orient, 1945–1995, Editions de Fallois, 334 pages, 1997. * Perrot, Jean., Le palais de Darius à Suse: une résidence royale sur la route de Persépolis à Babylone, Presses de l'université Paris-Sorbonne, 520 pages, 2010. * Perrot, J. and Y. Madjidzadeh, 2003 Découvertes récentes á Jiroft (sud du plateau Iranien), CRAIBL, pp. 1087–1102. * Perrot, Jean, Darius le Grand - Roi de Perse - Roi de Babylone – Rois des Rois – Pharaon d’Egypte (522-486 av. J.-C.), Dossiers d’Archéologie, hors série n° 23, janvier 2013, 78 pages.

References

External links

Paléorient Journal InformationJean Perrot bibliography
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20110926233411/http://www.cnrs.fr/Cnrspresse/n386/html/en386a07.htm CNRS – French Research Center in Jerusaelembr>Le Palais de Darius à Suse: conférence de Jean Perrotlibrariedialogues.fr – Jean Perrot BiographyLa Revue pour l'histoire du CNRSGreat archeologist and researcher of Susa, Jean Perrot dies at age 92
at Tavoos Art Magazine site

Obituary in the Journal of the Israel Prehistoric Society, vol. 43 {{DEFAULTSORT:Perrot, Jean French archaeologists French Iranologists École pratique des hautes études alumni People from Doubs 2012 deaths 1920 births Farabi International Award recipients Members of the American Philosophical Society Research directors of the French National Centre for Scientific Research