Background
She was born Christiane Desroches on November 17, 1913, in Paris. In 1922 she was fascinated by Howard Carter’s discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamon, and encouraged by Father Étienne Drioton, she joined the Egyptian Antiquities department at the Louvre. She was the first woman to be a fellow of the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology (IFAO), and was also the first woman to lead an archaeological dig, in 1938.
During World War II she joined the Resistance, and hid the Louvre’s Egyptian treasures in free areas of France.
She died on June 23, 2011 at 97.
Read more about this topic: Christiane Desroches Noblecourt
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