AMELINEAU, ÉMILE-CLÉMENT. - French Egyptologist, b. at La Chaize-Giraud (Vendée) on 28 Aug. 1850, d. at Châteaudun in Jan. 1915. A priest, he attended courses in Paris under G. Maspéro (v.) and S. Grébaud (v.); in 1882 he was sent to the Archaeological Institute in Cairo. He apostatized in 1887, and shortly thereafter occupied the chair of Egyptian religions at the École des Hautes-Études, which he held until his death.
Having earned his degree at the Sorbonne (1888) with the theses *Essai sur le gnosticisme égyptien* and *De Historia Laousiaca*, from 1895 to 1898 he explored part of the necropolis at Abydos, where he discovered the tombs of the pharaohs of the first three dynasties (*Les nouvelles fouilles d'Abydos*, Paris 1897-99; *Mission A.*, *Comptes rendus in extenso*, 3 vols., ibid. 1902-1905). Believing he had discovered the tomb of Osiris (*Le tombeau d'Osiris*, ibid. 1899), he argued that Osiris, Horus, and Seth had existed as kings and were deified after death; this strange thesis, rejected by Maspéro, found no support.
Among Amélineau’s many works (published in Paris) on ancient Egypt, Christian Egypt, and Coptic literature, we note:
*Fragments de la version thébaine de l'Écriture*, 1890; *La géographie de l'Égypte*, 1893; *Résumé de l'histoire de l'Égypte*, 1894; *Essai sur l'évolution historique et philosophique des idées morales de l'ancienne Égypte*, 1895; *Histoire de la sépulture et des funérailles dans l'ancienne Égypte*, 2 vols., 1896; *Manuscrits copies de la Bibliothèque Nationale renfermant des textes bibliques du Nouveau Testament*, 1897; *Les idées sur Dieu dans l'ancienne Égypte*, 1903; *Prolegomènes à l'étude de la religion égyptienne*, 1908.