Louis Félicien de Saulcy
Louis Félicien Joseph Caignart de Saulcy, better known as simply Félicien or Félix de Saulcy, was a French numismatist, Orientalist, and archaeologist.
Early life
Louis Felicien de Saulcy was born in Lille, France, the scion of a noble family.Career
In 1843, De Saulcy deciphered the Libyco-Berber script almost fully, thanks to the Punic-Libyan Inscription. He travelled though Syria and Palestine in 1850–51, 1863, and 1869. On his first trip to Palestine in 1850, searching for something of interest "in a place fraught with danger", he toured the Dead Sea area, misidentified Sodom and Gomorrah, and sketched the first map of Masada. He discovered the Shihan Stele east of the Dead Sea and identified Tell es-Sultan as the site of the ancient city of Jericho.De Saucy conducted an early archaeological dig in the Holy Land in 1863. He excavated the Tombs of the Kings in Jerusalem, mistakenly identifying them as the tombs of the House of David. He discovered the sarcophagus of Queen Helena of Adiabene, although he believed the bones inside, wrapped in shrouds with golden embroidery, were the remains of the wife of a king of Judea from the First Temple period, possibly Zedekiah or Jehoash. De Saulcy was forced to suspend the dig when the news that human bones were being dug up drew the ire of the Jewish community of Jerusalem. The sarcophagus and other findings were sent to France and displayed at the Louvre.