Clarisse Herrenschmidt

Clarisse Herrenschmidt (born 1946, Strasbourg) is a French archaeologist, historian, philologist and linguist. She has been a researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research since 1978 and is a professor at the Social Anthropology Laboratory of the Collège de France. She is known for her researches into Achaemenid Iran, in particular the ideology and kinship structures of the early Persian royalty. She won the Prix Georges-Dumézil of the Académie Française in 2008.

Life

Clarisse Herrenschmidt was born in Strasbourg in 1946. She obtained a Licence de Lettres (including Sanskrit studies) from the University of Strasbourg in 1967, and further degrees in archaeology and the history of art in Paris (1968–1969). She received a diploma in Persian and Kurdish from the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales in 1971–1972, as well as in transformational and generative grammars from Paris VIII. In 1975, she graduated with a master's degree in Iranian studies; her thesis titled Étude formelle et interprétation historique des inscriptions en Vieux-Perse de Darius le Grande was supervised by Gilbert Lazard. She received a doctoral degree, supervised by ; her dissertation was titled Analyse formelle et interprétation historique des inscriptions royales achéménides.

Career

Herrenschmidt spent six months on site at the Ai-Khanum archaeological dig in Afghanistan, supervised by Paul Bernard. She joined the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres in the publications department, working with André Dupont-Sommer.