Maspero, Gaston Camille Charles

Maspero, Sir Gaston Camille Charles (gästôN` kämē`yə shärl mäspərō`), 1846–1916, French Egyptologist. He taught at the Collège de France and was director of archaeology in Egypt, where he established the French School of Oriental Archaeology at Cairo and accomplished valuable work, especially in Luxor and Karnak. Maspero returned to France in 1914 as permanent secretary of the Académie des inscriptions et belles lettres. Among his chief works is L'Histoire ancienne des peuples de l'Orient classique, of which three volumes were translated as The Dawn of Civilization (1884), The Struggle of Nations (1897), and The Passing of the Empires (1900). An excellent brief version is his Histoire ancienne des peuples de l'Orient (1875).