François Leclère

François Leclère joined the British Museum in 2008 as Research curator in the Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan, responsible for the curation, research, documentation and publication of finds from the excavations undertaken by Flinders Petrie at the site of Tell Dafana (Eastern Nile Delta) in 1886. Tell Dafana is identified with Daphnai ai Pelousiai, a locality that Greek historian Herodotus evoked as a frontier-post established at the north-eastern border of Egypt from the beginning of the 26th Dynasty. The final publication of the results of this research is currently in preparation.

In 2011, he moved to the Department of Greece and Rome as a Project curator responsible for the curation, research, documentation and publication of Egyptian finds from the early excavations undertaken at the site of Kom Geif / Naukratis (Western Nile Delta).

Mentioned already by the Greek historian Herodotus, Naukratis played a major role as a pivotal point of contact and exchange between Egypt and Greece. Established in the late seventh century BC beside a possibly pre-existing Egyptian locality, as a Greek trading post (emporion) on Egyptian soil, it included Greek traders from 12 cities – many of them located in East Greece – who lived in close contact with Egyptians for centuries.

François' research interests centre on the history and archaeology of Egyptian towns and cities during the first millennium BC, particularly in Lower Egypt, having gained his PhD on this topic from the University of Lille in 1997. He is a former scientific member of the Institut français d’archéologie orientale in Cairo (1997-2001), and has taken part in and run several excavation programmes in Egypt since 1988.

Contact

fleclere@thebritishmuseum.ac.uk
+44 (0)20 7323 8501

Current projects

• Naukratis - the Greeks in Egypt

Previous projects

• Egyptian – Greek relations at Daphnae (Nile Delta)

External fellowships/ honorary positions/ membership of professional bodies

• Leads excavation of the Osirid chapels in the north-eastern area of the temple at Karnak, Egypt on behalf of the Sorbonne University (Centre franco-égyptien d’études des temples de Karnak)
  More information about the Osirian cults at Karnak
  Summary reports about the temple of Osiris the Coptite: 2008, 2009, 2010

Recent publications

F. Leclère, Le quartier de l’Osireion de Karnak. Analyse du contexte topographique, in L. Coulon ed., Le culte d’Osiris en Égypte au I^er millénaire av. J.-C. Découvertes et travaux récents, Actes de la table ronde international tenue a Lyon, Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée (univ. Lumiere – Lyon 2) les 8 et 9 juillet 2005, Bibliothèque d’Étude 153, 2010, IFAO, Cairo, p. 239-268.

F. Leclère, Les villes de Basse Égypte au I^er millénaire av. J.-C. Analyse archéologique et historique de la topographie urbaine, Bibliothèque d’Étude 144, 2008, IFAO, Cairo

F. Leclère, Tell Abyad : a Royal Ramesside Residence, in Egyptian Archaeology. The Bulletin of the Egypt Exploration Society 32, (London, 2008), p. 29-32

F. Leclère, An Egyptian Temple at Tell Dafana ?, in Egyptian Archaeology. The Bulletin of the Egypt Exploration Society 30, (London, 2007), p. 14-17

F. Leclère, Un “sanctuaire” d’époque hellénistique à Tell el-Herr, in D. Valbelle et alii, Tell el-Herr II. Les niveaux d’époque ptolémaïque et du Haut Empire (Paris, 2007), p. 80-103

F. Leclère, Données nouvelles sur les inhumations de figurines osiriennes : le tombeau d’Osiris à Karnak, in Z. Hawass (ed.), Egyptology at the Dawn of the 21st Century: Proceedings of the Eighth International Congress of Egyptologists. Cairo March 2000 (Cairo, 2003), I. Archaeology, p. 295-303

F. Leclère, Les “maisons d’âme” égyptiennes : une tentative de mise au point », in B. Muller (ed.), Maquettes architecturales de l'Antiquité. Regards croisés (Proche-Orient, Égypte, Chypre, bassin égéen et Grèce, du Néolithique à l’époque hellénistique, Actes du Colloque de Strasbourg, 3-5 déc. 1998, Université Marc Bloch, Strasbourg, CNRS — École d’Architecture de Strasbourg, Travaux du Centre de Recherche sur le Proche-Orient et la Grèce antiques 17, 2001, Paris, p. 99-121

Full list of publications (pdf)