Françoise Dunand


Françoise Dunand is a French historian, professor emeritus of the University of Strasbourg. She is a specialist in Greek and Roman Egypt.

Career

Since 1981, Françoise Dunand has been leading the "Alpha Necropolis" team to excavate the necropolises at the Kharga Oasis in Egypt. She is a former member of the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale in Cairo, she has published a number of books and articles on late Egyptian religious beliefs and practices. Since 1983 she has directed IFAO archaeological excavations at the necropolis at the village of in Egypt's western desert. The findings at Duch are partly presented in her book Mummies: A Voyage Through Eternity.
She frequently collaborates with Roger Lichtenberg, a medical doctor and director of the radiology unit at the in Paris. He has conducted anthropological and palaeopathological studies on the mummies of Duch, and is co-author of Les momies : Un voyage dans l'éternité.
She participated in the writing of a collective work La mort et l'immortalité : Encyclopédie des savoirs et des croyances by signing in the second chapter entitled La mort et le devenir du corps, an article Des corps sortis du temps.

Awards

  • 1999: Prix Clio for archaeological research – Special Jury Prize for her Etude archéologique et anthropologique de la nécropole d'El Deioasis de Kharga
  • 2002: Prix Clio for archaeological research – for her ''Kharga''

Selected publications

; Participated in the collective work
  • AA.VV., La mort et l'immortalité : Encyclopédie des savoirs et des croyances, Bayard, 2004

Documentary

Les Momies du Désert, a 13-minute short documentary film about Françoise Dunand's archaeological dig at the Kharga Oasis, directed by Serge Tignères and Alain Zenou. It is part of the DVD Le mystère des momies from Arte's documentary series The Human Adventure, and available in English.