Jean Emile Humbert
Encyclopedia
Jean Emile Humbert was a Dutch lieutenant-colonel who can be credited with rediscovering ancient Carthage
. As an agent for the Dutch government he procured vital parts of the collection of the National Museum of Antiquities
in Leiden. Humbert was awarded the Order of the Netherlands Lion for his archaeological
work.
, 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 guilder
s. 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.
, collect Punic material and work on plans, drawings and sketches.
The Dutch Department of Education, Arts and Sciences arranged for the expedition and financed it. Humbert received an increase in his pension, and was given funds for the excavations and purchases. At this time Humbert was awarded with the Order of the Netherlands Lion, both as a reward for his troubles and in order to impress the Tunisians.
After securing a positive relationship with the ruler in Tunis, Humbert set his mind on the purchase of nine sculptures discovered at Utica. Unfortunately a top piece in the group was sold and shipped to Denmark, but Humbert managed to procure the other eight statues. These still form an essential part of the current collection in Leiden, at the National Museum of Antiquities
.
Humbert continued to collect antiquities and went on to conduct numerous excavations. All of these excavations were small though, the longest one lasting only two weeks. Though there certainly were finds, none of the artifacts were very special. Most notable about these excavations is the level of precision with which Humbert conducted them, making notes and impressive drawings.
Upon returning to the Netherlands late 1824, Humbert delivered sixty-five crates full of art and artifacts. Professor Reuvens was pleased with the additions to the collection, but wanted a second expedition.
).
Reuvens won out, arguing that Humbert knew the area the best and that much more research into the Carthaginian peninsula was needed. In the summer of 1825 a royal decree decided on a second expedition, lasting four years. Humbert was at this point promoted to lieutenant-colonel.
from where he would take a ship to Tunisia. Arriving in the spring of 1826 however, Humbert argued that the summer in Tunisia would be too hot to excavate. Combining that argument with the raging anti-Christian sentiments among the Tunisians, Humbert persuaded Reuvens to allow him a delay of four months. Staying in Livorno
, he began collecting Etruscan antiquities and soon bought six urns.
These six urns would cause some commotion because Etruscan art was hardly known outside Italy at that point. Reuvens judged three of them to be fake, and had serious doubts about one. Humbert was not very happy with this verdict, being sure himself that the six urns were all genuine. He responded by composing a dossier about the discovery of the urns, and enlisted the aid of Italian archaeologists. Humbert had numerous compelling arguments and even proposed to ship the urns back to Italy for a public debate. The relationship between Reuvens and Humbert was considerably cooler for a while as a result of this incident, though eventually their friendship returned. Humbert would buy more urns, this time all with certificates of authenticity.
An important opportunity came when a large collection of Etruscan antiquities was offered for sale. The collection was known as the Museo Corazzi, and consisted of over 500 artifacts. Most of these were bronzes and Etruscan. Reuvens was interested in the Corazzi collection, because the study of the relatively unknown Etruscans could push Italian history back considerably. Taxating the group proved difficult though, since there were no masterpieces but Etruscan art was rare. The requested price for the collection had dropped from 60.000 guilders to 38.000, but this was still a huge amount of money and Etruscan antiquities lay outside the scope of the expedition which was supposed to be in Tunisia.
The decision to buy or not was left to the Dutch government, where discussion and correspondence took place between the king, various ministers and professor Reuvens. Financial difficulties in the Corazzi family led to the collection being offered for 5.000 guilders less, and Humbert boldly sealed the deal without permission to buy. Making clear that this was not the way things were supposed to go, the Dutch government permitted the buy after it was in fact made. The deal was not regretted, for the collection started Etruscan studies in the Netherlands.
Humbert around this time also bought a smaller collection of Roman, Egyptian and Punic antiquities, and shipped everything to the Netherlands.
Maria Cimba, a widow, offered the Egyptian collection of her deceased husband for 14.000 guilders. Humbert had permission to offer 8.000 guilders, but someone else offerend 9.000 and the collection was sold. The other buyer could not assemble the money in time though, and Humbert managed to buy the collection for a mere 5.000 guilders. 335 Egyptian pieces were now owned by the Dutch.
A while after the purchase of the Cimba collection, a much more impressive group of Egyptian pieces was offered for sale. The more than 5600 artifacts were owned by Jean d'Anasty, a very wealthy merchant of good reputation. Humbert inspected the impressive collection and sent Reuvens the catalogue of over 110 pages. Reuvens enlisted the aid of the Dutch ambassador in Rome. The enormous amount of 200,000 guilders was asked for this collection, and negotiations would be intense.
Reuvens tried to evaluate the worth of the collection by comparing it to other large recently sold collections. Though the statues of the Anasty collection were not very impressive, there were some mummies and especially the large amount of papyri made the collection worth having. The Dutch opening bids of 50.000 guilders and then 70.000 were angrily rejected, and a representative was sent to the Netherlands to speak with Reuvens. It was clear that the negotiations were beyond Humbert at this point. Humbert was not happy with the way things were going, and thought Reuvens' taxation was much too low. Reuvens had meanwhile upgraded his estimation of the value.
In February 1828 Humbert offered the maximum he was allowed to offer, 200.000 francs or roughly 100,000 guilders. It would be yet another offer rejected out of hand, although by this time the asking price had been lowered to 300.000 francs and some objects were added to the collection.
Reuvens at this point thought that 150.000 guilders, or 300.000 francs, was a fair price. The king was not pleased however. 300.000 francs was too much to spend on antiquities, and an official maximum was set on 230.000 francs. Bypassing the consul in Rome, news of this was sent directly to Humbert who made the offer. Prospects were bleak, and no-one expected that the collection would be sold for the rough equivalent of 115.000 guilders. It is a mystery why, but Anasty accepted the offer and after a year of intense negotiations the collection was in the hands of the Dutch government.
On the first day of 1829 the antiquities arrived in Leiden, and Humbert received another three items as a gift by d'Anasty. These items were offered by d'Anasty before the deal was closed, but had been kept secret by his agents in Italy. Humbert was told of it by one of them though, and confronted the other one. A Byzantine helmet, a Greek manuscript and a Greek-Demotic bilingual papyrus were added to the collection.
The second Egyptian acquisition would be the largest sum the government would ever pay, and was the largest deal of Humberts career. There remained one and a half year of time set for the expedition though. Professor Reuvens at this point understood that Humbert had no serious plans to go to North Africa and hoped to make use of Humbert as an agent in Italy. He made a few more minor purchases and returned to the Netherlands early in the 1830s.
Carthage
Carthage , implying it was a 'new Tyre') is a major urban centre that has existed for nearly 3,000 years on the Gulf of Tunis, developing from a Phoenician colony of the 1st millennium BC...
. As an agent for the Dutch government he procured vital parts of the collection of the National Museum of Antiquities
Rijksmuseum van Oudheden
The Rijksmuseum van Oudheden is the national archaeological museum of the Netherlands. It is located in Leiden. The Museum grew out of the collection of Leiden University and still closely co-operates with its Faculty of Archaeology...
in Leiden. Humbert was awarded the Order of the Netherlands Lion for his archaeological
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
work.
1796 to 1821
Humbert was a son of Jean HumbertJean Humbert (painter)
Jean Humbert de Superville was a Dutch painter of Swiss and French extraction. Humbert was primarily known as a portrait painter....
, a Dutch painter of Swiss and French extraction. His brother David Pierre Giottino Humbert de Superville
David Pierre Giottino Humbert de Superville
David Pierre Giottino Humbert de Superville was a Dutch artist and art scholar. He was a draughtsman, lithographer, etcher, and portrait painter, and also wrote treatises on art, including the influential work Essai sur les signes inconditionnels dans l'art...
was a well-known artist and scholar.
As an officer in the army of the Dutch Republic
Dutch Republic
The Dutch Republic — officially known as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands , the Republic of the United Netherlands, or the Republic of the Seven United Provinces — was a republic in Europe existing from 1581 to 1795, preceding the Batavian Republic and ultimately...
he was faced with the political unrest of the Napoleon
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
era. When in 1795 the Dutch Republic was transformed by revolutionaries into the Batavian Republic
Batavian Republic
The Batavian Republic was the successor of the Republic of the United Netherlands. It was proclaimed on January 19, 1795, and ended on June 5, 1806, with the accession of Louis Bonaparte to the throne of the Kingdom of Holland....
, Humbert refused to serve the new state and found his way to an engineering project in Tunisia
Tunisia
Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
.
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
Tunis
Tunis is the capital of both the Tunisian Republic and the Tunis Governorate. It is Tunisia's largest city, with a population of 728,453 as of 2004; the greater metropolitan area holds some 2,412,500 inhabitants....
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
Third Punic War
The Third Punic War was the third and last of the Punic Wars fought between the former Phoenician colony of Carthage, and the Roman Republic...
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
Kingdom of the Netherlands
The Kingdom of the Netherlands is a sovereign state and constitutional monarchy with territory in Western Europe and in the Caribbean. The four parts of the Kingdom—Aruba, Curaçao, the Netherlands, and Sint Maarten—are referred to as "countries", and participate on a basis of equality...
, 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
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
professor Caspar Reuvens
Caspar Reuvens
Caspar Jacob Christiaan Reuvens was a Dutch historian and archaeologist. He was the founding director of the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden, the world's first ever professor of archaeology , and conducted the first excavations at the Roman provincial site Forum Hadriani...
. 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 guilder
Guilder
Guilder is the English translation of the Dutch gulden — from Old Dutch for 'golden'. The guilder originated as a gold coin but has been a common name for a silver or base metal coin for some centuries...
s. 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.
First archaeological expedition
Between 1822 and 1824 Humbert would go on his first archaeological expedition for the Dutch government. Reuvens wished to publish about Carthage, and with that be the first to do a serious large scale study about the city. He repeatedly noted how Carthage had been of huge importance in antiquity, but was not yet studied in modernity. Humbert was asked to conduct excavations at Carthage, buy antiquities unearthed at nearby UticaUtica, Tunisia
Utica is an ancient city northwest of Carthage near the outflow of the Medjerda River into the Mediterranean Sea, traditionally considered to be the first colony founded by the Phoenicians in North Africa...
, collect Punic material and work on plans, drawings and sketches.
The Dutch Department of Education, Arts and Sciences arranged for the expedition and financed it. Humbert received an increase in his pension, and was given funds for the excavations and purchases. At this time Humbert was awarded with the Order of the Netherlands Lion, both as a reward for his troubles and in order to impress the Tunisians.
After securing a positive relationship with the ruler in Tunis, Humbert set his mind on the purchase of nine sculptures discovered at Utica. Unfortunately a top piece in the group was sold and shipped to Denmark, but Humbert managed to procure the other eight statues. These still form an essential part of the current collection in Leiden, at the National Museum of Antiquities
Rijksmuseum van Oudheden
The Rijksmuseum van Oudheden is the national archaeological museum of the Netherlands. It is located in Leiden. The Museum grew out of the collection of Leiden University and still closely co-operates with its Faculty of Archaeology...
.
Humbert continued to collect antiquities and went on to conduct numerous excavations. All of these excavations were small though, the longest one lasting only two weeks. Though there certainly were finds, none of the artifacts were very special. Most notable about these excavations is the level of precision with which Humbert conducted them, making notes and impressive drawings.
Upon returning to the Netherlands late 1824, Humbert delivered sixty-five crates full of art and artifacts. Professor Reuvens was pleased with the additions to the collection, but wanted a second expedition.
Second archaeological expedition
Humbert was not at all happy to have to return to Tunisia. During the last expedition he had become increasingly depressed with the work and climate. He hoped to remain closer to home, or at least not return to the North African coast. Egypt was monopolized by France and England however, and colonel Rottiers was already working in Greece (see Rottiers CollectionRottiers Collection
The Rottiers Collection refers to three 19th century art collections that became an integral part of the collection of the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities. The first two collections were personal and sold by Flemish Colonel B.E.A...
).
Reuvens won out, arguing that Humbert knew the area the best and that much more research into the Carthaginian peninsula was needed. In the summer of 1825 a royal decree decided on a second expedition, lasting four years. Humbert was at this point promoted to lieutenant-colonel.
Etruscan antiquities
Humbert traveled to ItalyItaly
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
from where he would take a ship to Tunisia. Arriving in the spring of 1826 however, Humbert argued that the summer in Tunisia would be too hot to excavate. Combining that argument with the raging anti-Christian sentiments among the Tunisians, Humbert persuaded Reuvens to allow him a delay of four months. Staying in Livorno
Livorno
Livorno , traditionally Leghorn , is a port city on the Tyrrhenian Sea on the western edge of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of approximately 160,000 residents in 2009.- History :...
, he began collecting Etruscan antiquities and soon bought six urns.
These six urns would cause some commotion because Etruscan art was hardly known outside Italy at that point. Reuvens judged three of them to be fake, and had serious doubts about one. Humbert was not very happy with this verdict, being sure himself that the six urns were all genuine. He responded by composing a dossier about the discovery of the urns, and enlisted the aid of Italian archaeologists. Humbert had numerous compelling arguments and even proposed to ship the urns back to Italy for a public debate. The relationship between Reuvens and Humbert was considerably cooler for a while as a result of this incident, though eventually their friendship returned. Humbert would buy more urns, this time all with certificates of authenticity.
An important opportunity came when a large collection of Etruscan antiquities was offered for sale. The collection was known as the Museo Corazzi, and consisted of over 500 artifacts. Most of these were bronzes and Etruscan. Reuvens was interested in the Corazzi collection, because the study of the relatively unknown Etruscans could push Italian history back considerably. Taxating the group proved difficult though, since there were no masterpieces but Etruscan art was rare. The requested price for the collection had dropped from 60.000 guilders to 38.000, but this was still a huge amount of money and Etruscan antiquities lay outside the scope of the expedition which was supposed to be in Tunisia.
The decision to buy or not was left to the Dutch government, where discussion and correspondence took place between the king, various ministers and professor Reuvens. Financial difficulties in the Corazzi family led to the collection being offered for 5.000 guilders less, and Humbert boldly sealed the deal without permission to buy. Making clear that this was not the way things were supposed to go, the Dutch government permitted the buy after it was in fact made. The deal was not regretted, for the collection started Etruscan studies in the Netherlands.
Humbert around this time also bought a smaller collection of Roman, Egyptian and Punic antiquities, and shipped everything to the Netherlands.
Egyptian antiquities
Humbert still remained in Livorno and did not cross to the destination of his second expedition, Tunisia. After considerably adding to the museums collection through buying the Etruscan antiquities, Humbert would again add an impressive amount of artifacts to the National Museum of Antiquities.Maria Cimba, a widow, offered the Egyptian collection of her deceased husband for 14.000 guilders. Humbert had permission to offer 8.000 guilders, but someone else offerend 9.000 and the collection was sold. The other buyer could not assemble the money in time though, and Humbert managed to buy the collection for a mere 5.000 guilders. 335 Egyptian pieces were now owned by the Dutch.
A while after the purchase of the Cimba collection, a much more impressive group of Egyptian pieces was offered for sale. The more than 5600 artifacts were owned by Jean d'Anasty, a very wealthy merchant of good reputation. Humbert inspected the impressive collection and sent Reuvens the catalogue of over 110 pages. Reuvens enlisted the aid of the Dutch ambassador in Rome. The enormous amount of 200,000 guilders was asked for this collection, and negotiations would be intense.
Reuvens tried to evaluate the worth of the collection by comparing it to other large recently sold collections. Though the statues of the Anasty collection were not very impressive, there were some mummies and especially the large amount of papyri made the collection worth having. The Dutch opening bids of 50.000 guilders and then 70.000 were angrily rejected, and a representative was sent to the Netherlands to speak with Reuvens. It was clear that the negotiations were beyond Humbert at this point. Humbert was not happy with the way things were going, and thought Reuvens' taxation was much too low. Reuvens had meanwhile upgraded his estimation of the value.
In February 1828 Humbert offered the maximum he was allowed to offer, 200.000 francs or roughly 100,000 guilders. It would be yet another offer rejected out of hand, although by this time the asking price had been lowered to 300.000 francs and some objects were added to the collection.
Reuvens at this point thought that 150.000 guilders, or 300.000 francs, was a fair price. The king was not pleased however. 300.000 francs was too much to spend on antiquities, and an official maximum was set on 230.000 francs. Bypassing the consul in Rome, news of this was sent directly to Humbert who made the offer. Prospects were bleak, and no-one expected that the collection would be sold for the rough equivalent of 115.000 guilders. It is a mystery why, but Anasty accepted the offer and after a year of intense negotiations the collection was in the hands of the Dutch government.
On the first day of 1829 the antiquities arrived in Leiden, and Humbert received another three items as a gift by d'Anasty. These items were offered by d'Anasty before the deal was closed, but had been kept secret by his agents in Italy. Humbert was told of it by one of them though, and confronted the other one. A Byzantine helmet, a Greek manuscript and a Greek-Demotic bilingual papyrus were added to the collection.
The second Egyptian acquisition would be the largest sum the government would ever pay, and was the largest deal of Humberts career. There remained one and a half year of time set for the expedition though. Professor Reuvens at this point understood that Humbert had no serious plans to go to North Africa and hoped to make use of Humbert as an agent in Italy. He made a few more minor purchases and returned to the Netherlands early in the 1830s.
Life after the expeditions
Humbert returned to the Netherlands and began working on a publication about Carthage, trying to decipher the notes of the deceased Borgia. No plans of a third expedition ever came near to success however, and Humbert decided to return to Italy to live on his military pension. He would return once more to the Netherlands, but by that time was a sickly man. In 1839 Humbert died in Italy, bequeathing his private collection of antiquities to the Leiden museum. His gravestone claims the discovery of Carthage.Further reading and external links
- Halbertsma, R. B. (1996). The King's Collector: The Archaeological Travels of Jean Emile Humbert, Aurora
- Halbertsma, R. B. (2003). Scholars, Travellers, and Trade: The Pioneer Years of the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, 1818-1840, Routledge, p. 71-111
- Article by co-operating museums about Humbert (in Dutch)