Editing Tanis (section)

== Studies and excavations ==
[[File:Tanis (Sân). Plan des ruines et des environs (NYPL b14212718-1268196).jpg|thumb|The first map of Tanis as drawn by Jacotin in ''[[Description de l'Égypte]]'']]
The first study of Tanis dates to 1798 during [[Napoleon Bonaparte]]'s expedition to Egypt. Engineer [[Pierre Jacotin]] drew up a map of the site in the ''[[Description de l'Égypte]].''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Commission des sciences et arts d'Egypte |title=Description de l'Égypte, ou Recueil des observations et des recherches qui ont été faites en Égypte pendant l'expédition de l'armée française, publié par les orders de Sa Majesté l'Empereur Napoléon le Grand |publisher=French Government |year=1809–22 |edition=1st |language=fr |trans-title=Description of Egypt, the collection of observations and researches which were made in Egypt during the expedition of the French Army, published by the order of His Majesty the Emperor, Napoleon the Great}}</ref> It was first excavated in 1825 by Jean-Jacques Rifaud, who discovered the two pink [[Great Sphinx of Tanis|granite sphinxes]] now in the [[Musée du Louvre]]. He was followed by [[François Auguste Ferdinand Mariette]] who excavated between 1860 and 1864. [[William Matthew Flinders Petrie]] oversaw excavation from 1883 to 1886. The work was taken over by [[Pierre Montet]] from 1929 to 1956, who discovered the royal necropolis dating to the [[Third Intermediate Period]] in 1939. The Mission française des fouilles de Tanis (MFFT) has been studying the site since 1965 under the direction of [[Jean Yoyotte]] and Philippe Brissaud, and François Leclère since 2013.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Brewer |first=Douglas J. |date=1992 |title=Cahiers De Tanis I by Philippe Brissaud |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.2307/1357237?journalCode=basor |journal=Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research |volume=288 |pages=89–90 |doi=10.2307/1357237 |jstor=1357237 |issn=0003-097X}}</ref>

There has been much debate over whether or not Tanis could be the biblical city of [[Zoan]] in which the [[Hebrews]] would have suffered pharaonic slavery.<ref name=":02">{{Cite web |title=TANIS (SAN EL-HAGAR): THE LOST GOLDEN CITY DURING THE AGES (ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL STUDIES) |url=https://www.jotr.eu/index.php/volume25-2/283-tanis-san-el-hagar-the-lost-golden-city-during-the-ages-archaeological-and-historical-studies |access-date=2025-03-14 |website=www.jotr.eu}}</ref> Pierre Montet, in inaugurating his great excavation campaigns in the 1930s, began from the same premise. He was hoping to discover traces that would confirm the accounts of the [[Old Testament]]. His own excavations gradually overturned this [[hypothesis]], even if he was defending this biblical connection until the end of his life. It was not until the discovery of [[Qantir]]/[[Pi-Ramesses]] and the resumption of excavations under Jean Yoyotte that the place of Tanis was finally restored in the long chronology of the sites of the delta.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Biography and publications {{!}} Jean Yoyotte - Egyptology {{!}} Collège de France |url=https://www.college-de-france.fr/en/chair/jean-yoyotte-egyptology-statutory-chair/biography |access-date=2025-03-15 |website=www.college-de-france.fr}}</ref>