Antoine Poidebard

Antoine Poidebard SJ (12 October 1878 – 17 August 1955) was a French Roman Catholic priest, archaeologist and missionary. He pioneered aerial archaeology in the Middle East.

Biography

Antoine Poidebard was born at the 2nd arrondissement of Lyon. In 1924, he was appointed by the Jesuits to the Saint Joseph University in Beirut, where he was involved in helping Armenian refugees fleeing the genocide in Lebanon. Once in this position, he was commissioned by the Geography Society, thanks to his skills as a reserve observer captain in the 39th Aviation Regiment, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Frédéric Ruby (1883–1970), to search for lost water points and pipelines in Upper Syria. Antoine Poidebard flew over Armenia and the Near East on several missions.

Antoine Poidebard died in Beirut.

Research

In 1925, during his flights in the Syrian desert, Antoine Poidebard discovered minute reliefs in the shadows cast on the ground by the low-angled evening light, revealing geometric structures. Based on this observation, he became one of the first known aerial prospectors, mapping the entire route of the Roman limes using the technical resources of the French Air Force, thus initiating aerial archaeology.

Aerial prospector Raymond Chevallier identifies two periods of study in Antoine Poidebard's work:

• the first, from 1925 to 1932, during which Poidebard's research determined the course of the Imperial limes from Bosra to Palmyra and the Tigris;
• a second, from 1932 to 1942, which helped to clarify the Roman organization of the Euphrates and Orontes rivers.

His work totaled 550 flight hours, divided into 250 missions, during which thousands of images were taken over an area measuring 1,000 kilometers by 300 kilometers.

Works

• Carnet de route d'un aumônier de cavalerie. d'Arménie au front français, mai 1914-décembre 1917 (1919)
• "La trace de Rome dans le désert de Syrie. Le limes de Trajan à la conquête arabe. Recherches aériennes (1925-1932)," Bibliothèque archéologique et historique du Service des Antiquités de Syrie, tome XVIII (1934)
• "Un grand port disparu: Tyr. Recherches aériennes et sous-marines 1934-1936," Bibliothèque archéologique et historique du Service des Antiquités en Syrie et au Liban, tome XXIX (1939)
• "Le Limes de Chalcis. Organisation de la steppe en Haute Syrie romaine," Bibliothèque archéologique et historique, tome XXXVIII (1945; with René Mouterde)

References

• Chevallier, Raymond (1964). L'avion à la découverte du passé. Paris: Résurrection du passé Fayard.
• Denise, Fabrice; Lévon Nordiguian (2004). Une aventure archéologique, Antoine Poidebard, photographe et aviateur. Marseille, éd. Parenthèses; Arles, éd. Musée de l’Arles et de la Provence antiques; Beyrouth, Presses de l’Université St-Joseph.
• Nordiguian, Lévon; Jean-François Salles (2000). Aux origines de l'archéologie aérienne. A. Poidebard (1878-1955). Beyrouth: Presses de l'Université Saint-Joseph.
• Nordiguian, Lévon; Jean-Claude Voisin (2019). La Grande Guerre au Moyen-Orient, Antoine Poidebard sur les routes de la Perse, 1918. Beyrouth: Presses de l’Université Saint-Joseph.

External links

• Works by Antoine Poidebard at Gallica