Jean Emile Humbert - 1796 To 1821

1796 To 1821

Humbert was a son of Jean Humbert, a Dutch painter of Swiss and French extraction. His brother David Pierre Giottino Humbert de Superville was a well-known artist and scholar.

As an officer in the army of the Dutch Republic he was faced with the political unrest of the Napoleon era. When in 1795 the Dutch Republic was transformed by revolutionaries into the Batavian Republic, Humbert refused to serve the new state and found his way to an engineering project in Tunisia.

In North Africa Humbert stayed with Antoine Nijssen, the Dutch consul for Tunisia. Humbert fell in love with the consul's daughter, Thérèse, and would marry her in 1801. During these years the new harbour for Tunis was built, and when the commanding officer of the project left the country for good, Humbert took charge.

During his lengthy stay in Tunisia, Humbert became fascinated with the history of the country. He started collecting antiquities, and began compiling notes about the history, customs and language of Tunisia. He took a special interest in the peninsula near Tunis where the ancient city of Carthage had once been. Although the location of Roman Carthage was known, the exact location of Punic Carthage was a matter of dispute. After the Third Punic War the Romans had completely destroyed the site. When a century later a new Roman colony was built, all Punic remains would be swamped in the later architecture. Humbert studied the area, drew an accurate map and escorted many travelers who visited the area. This led to him becoming an expert on the topography of the ancient site.

In 1817 Humbert made a monumental discovery when a plowing farmer stumbled upon four Punic stelae and two fragments with Punic inscriptions on them. These were the first complete Carthaginian remains discovered since antiquity. In 1821, already back in the Netherlands, Humbert would publish the finds.

Now that the Batavian Republic had collapsed and was replaced with the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Humbert could return to his homeland. While he was gone, disaster would strike in his household back in Tunisia. Humbert's daughter and son-in-law died because of the plague and his house had to be burned down. Humbert and his wife had not only lost their loved ones, but were financially devastated as well.

When returning to the Netherlands, Humbert hoped to get his new assignment to the Indies overturned. He also tried to sell his remaining possessions, most notably his collection of antiquities. Through his contacts he met with archaeology professor Caspar Reuvens. Reuvens would prove to be enthusiastic about Humbert's knowledge of ancient Carthage, and welcomed the collection of antiquities. He valued the artefacts at 17,000 guilders. Humbert's assignment in the Indies was changed into a major's pension without assignment, so that Humbert was now free to work on archaeological projects.