Count Robert du Mesnil du Buisson was a French historian, soldier, and archeologist. He was noted for his early use of geophysical survey for archaeology. He was the son of Auguste, comte du Mesnil du Buisson and Berthe Roussel de Courcy, and married Jeanne Leclerc de Pulligny on 26 June 1923. He was the nephew of the geologist Geoffroy d'Ault du Mesnil. He named one of his daughters Ita after the Sphinx found at Ita.

Qatna was an ancient city located in Homs Governorate, Syria. Its remains constitute a tell situated about 18 km (11 mi) northeast of Homs near the village of al-Mishrifeh. The city was an important center through most of the second millennium BC and in the first half of the first millennium BC. It contained one of the largest royal palaces of Bronze Age Syria and an intact royal tomb that has provided a great amount of archaeological evidence on the funerary habits of that period.