8vo. 434 pp., half-title, 6 plans, (3 folding), tables, 1 folding map, figures in text, 14 engraved photographs by Chantre, original half-calf with marbled boards, title gilt on spine, original wrappers preserved, light scattered foxing, otherwise copy in good condition, publié sous les auspices du Ministére de L’Instruction Publique et des Beaux Arts. Troisiéme Serie, Tome X, Imprimerie Nationale, Paris, 1883.

Synopsis

Ernest Chantre ( 1843 – 1924) a leading French anthropologist who made research in North Africa, Syria, and Central Asia. This is a report he delivered to the minister of Fine Arts and education after a journey he made in Winter 1880 to Syria and Central Asia. During that journey he took with the help of the commander Barry ethnographic portraits of Kurds and Bedouins near Aleppo. These photographs are considered the earliest taken in that area.
Chantre discovered during excavation at Bogazkoy the Royal archive of Hittites Kings. Accordingly he discovered the federal structure of the Hittite Empire, and the existence of eight different languages, which indicate the polyglot nature of the Hittite Empire. The Bogazkoy archive consists of nearly 25.000 cuneiform clay tablets. They are mostly on political, military, social, commercial, religious and artistic lives of Hittites and the neighbouring nations.
Other reports published in this volume including:
!- A report on Mauritania by R. de La Blanchére.
II- A report on Abyssinia by A. Baffray.
III- A scientific mission to Central Asia by Capus & Bonvalot.
IV- A report on a mission to Tunisia by Charle Tissot.
And other reports on Africa and Europe.