{{Short description|French archeologist, curator, orientalist and historian (1877-1964)}}
{{Infobox person | name = | image = Ghirshman team.jpg | imagesize = | caption = Tepe Sialk in 1934: seated from right to left: Roman Ghirshman, Tania Ghirshman, Georges Contenau. | birth_name = | birth_date = 9 April 1877 | birth_place = Laon | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1964|03|22|1877|04|09}} | death_place = Paris | othername = | occupation = Physician<br>Archaeologist<br>Historian | years_active = | spouse = | signature = }}
'''Georges Contenau''' (April 9, 1877 – March 22, 1964) was a French archeologist, curator, orientalist and religious historian who was an expert in the field of culture and religion of the ancient civilizations of the Near and Middle East.<ref>Dedi à Georges Contenau. Bruxelles, 1960 (Annuaire de l'Institut de philology et d'Histoire orientales et slaves Tome XV (1958–1960))</ref>
==Life== Contenau was professor at the University of Brussels from 1932 to 1947. He was chief curator of Oriental antiquities - in French the [https://www.louvre.fr/recherche-et-conservation/departement-des-antiquites-orientales/le-departement-3 Département des Antiquités orientales] - at the Musée du Louvre from 1927 to 1946.<ref>"Georges Contenau", in ''Je m'appelle Byblos'', Jean-Pierre Thiollet, H & D, 2005, p. 252.</ref> He led several archaeological expeditions to Susa, Sidon and Nahavand. From 1946 to 1957 he was director general of the French Archaeological Mission in Iran.
He wrote about the civilization of the Babylonians and Assyrians (1922), their daily life (1950), their Magic (1947) and divination (1940). He also wrote on the Phoenicians (1926), Hittite and Hurrians (1948). He issued a four-volume Handbook of Oriental Archaeology (1927–1947) and commenced the publication of the ''Encyclopédie d'archéologie orientale'' (1914–1957).
One of his students at the École du Louvre was Denise Cocquerillat<ref>{{Cite book |last=École du Louvre |first=Paris (France) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LkkwAQAAMAAJ&q=%2522Denise+Cocquerillat%2522+-wikipedia |title=Position des thèses et des mémoires |date=1956 |pages=349 |language=fr}}</ref> and his assistant was Marguerite Rutten.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Spycket |first=Agnés |title=Women in Old World Archaeology |url=https://www.brown.edu/Research/Breaking_Ground/results.php?d=1&first=Marguerite&last=Rutten |access-date=2022-02-10 |website=www.brown.edu}}</ref>
== Some publications == *''L'Art de l'Asie occidentale ancienne'', Paris, éd. G. van Oest, 1928 *''les civilisations des Hittites et des Mitanniens'', Paris, 1934 *''La Civilisation d'Assur et de Babylone'', Paris, 1937 *''La Médecine en Assyrie et en Babylonie'', Paris, 1937, 2de éd. 1951 *''La Divination chez les Assyriens et les Babyloniens'', 1940 *''La Vie quotidienne à Babylone et en Assyrie'', Paris, 1950 (translated into several languages) *''Les religions de l'Orient ancien'', 1957 *''Les civilisations anciennes du Proche-Orient'', Paris, éd. Presses Universitaires de France, coll. Que sais-je ?, 1960 *[https://portal.dnb.de/opac.htm?query=Woe%3D10110958X&method=simpleSearch Liste des ouvrages de Contenau traduits en allemand] {{in lang|de}}
== References == {{reflist|2}}
== External links == * [http://data.bnf.fr/12299349/georges_contenau/ Georges Contenau] on data.bnf.fr {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Contenau, Georges}} Category:French Assyriologists Category:1877 births Category:1964 deaths Category:People from Laon Category:Officers of the Legion of Honour Category:French expatriates in Belgium Category:French archaeologists Category:20th-century French historians Category:French historians of religion