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The real exploration of Egypt came with the French invasion
under Napoleon. Along with his army, he bought along a
number of scholars, who conducted surveys throughout Egypt.
These men were not only Egypt's earliest modern explorers, but
were probably more interested in documenting their findings
then the next generation of explorers and adventurers, who
seem to have put their greatest efforts into the collection,
and sell, of Egyptian antiquities. It was these predecessors
of modern Egyptology that stripped many of Egypt's fine
antiquities, carrying them off to European as well as American
Museums. In fact, the real age of Egyptology did not begin
until the key to Egypt's written language was deciphered by
Champollion, and not until Maspero and his contemporaries did
Egyptology begin to settle into the realm of scholarly work.
Real Egyptology probably began with Petrie, who's excavation
methods were closer to modern methods then any of his
predecessors (or contemporaries).
Of course, the following list is by no means complete.
Obviously there are thousands of working Egyptologists today,
not to mention those of the past. However, we will continue to
update this list as more information becomes available. Yet
this is a fairly complete list from the standpoint of past and
present important figures in Egyptology.
See also:
Andraos, Boutros
Boutros Andraos was a Luxor resident who, with his neighbor Shenouda Macarios, received
permission in 1900 from Howard Carter to excavate KV 42 (the tomb of Hatshepsut
Meryet-Ra). They had been promised a share of the contents, but little was found.
Arnold, Dieter
Dieter Arnold is a modern Egyptologist and architect, still living, who
carried out excavations at Tarif, Deir el-Bahari and
Dahshur for the German
Archaeological Institute in Cairo. Most of his research has focused on Egypt's
Middle Kingdom pyramids, and on pyramid construction. Currently he is directing
the excavations in Lisht and Dahshur under the sponsorship of the American
Archeological expedition from New York's Metropolitan Museum.
Ayrton, Edward Russell
Edward Russell Ayrton was an English archaeologist funded by Theodore Davis from 1905-1908 while he worked in the Valley of the Kings.
 Belzoni, Giovanni Battista (1778 - 1823)
Belzoni, an Italian, was the strong man of Egyptology, who worked in as a
circus strongman in London prior to his explorations in Egypt. He was an
imposing man with a height of about two meters (6ft, 6in). He was an adventurer and self taught
archaeologist who possibly studied hydraulics, and who ended up working for the Egyptian vice regent, Muhammad
Ali. He directed excavations, often using crude methods. However, he is
credited with discovering the previously unknown upper entrance of Khafre's
pyramid at Giza. He also documented and collected antiquities.
Borchardt, Ludwig (1863 - 1938)
A German Egyptologist and architect, Borchardt became famous for his
excavations in Abusir, Abu Ghurab and
Amarna (where he discovered the famous
bust of Nefertiti). He made an outstanding contribution to the understanding of
the architecture of the pyramid complex and founded the German Archaeological
Institute in Cairo, as well as the Swiss Institute for Egyptian Archaeology and
Architecture in Cairo.
 Brugsch, Emile
Charles Adalbert (1842 - 1930)
A German Egyptologist, he became an assistant in the Khedive's School of
Egyptology in Cairo where he worked
between 1870 and 1879. Later, he became an assistant to Mariette, and an
assistant conservator at the Bulaq Museum in Cairo. He later was promoted to
Keeper. He worked on Mariettee's behalf at Saqqara,
where he discovered the pyramid Texts in 1881, and was also responsible for
clearing the Deir el-Bahari
cache in the same year. With two other Boulak Museum assistants, Brugsch went straightaway to the site, claimed it for the
Antiquities Service and proceeded to have the cache-tomb hurriedly cleared of its some forty royal and anonymous coffined mummies,
during forty-eight hours over a six-day period He was a skilled lithographer and
photographer.
Unfortunately, he may also have surreptitiously sold museum objects, but to his credit, this may have been done to keep the museum afloat. Before
his death, he was made a Bey and Pasha by the Egyptian government.
 Budge, Ernest Alfred
Thompson Wallis (1857 - 1934)
An Englishman, Budge studied Egyptology under Samuel Birch
at the British Museum between 1870 and 1878. He later studied
at Christ's College at Cambridge. He went to work for the
British Museum after graduation in 1883, and between
1894 and 1924, was a Keeper in the Department of Egyptian and
Assyrian Antiquities. He excavated at Aswan,
Gebel Barkal, Meroe, Semna and other Nubian sites. Budge was
known as a prolific author with over 140 titles to his credit,
some of which continue to be printed.
Bucher, Paul
Paul Bucher was a French Egyptologist who copied and published texts
from the walls of KV 34 (Thutmes III) and KV 35 (Amenhetep II).
Burton, Harry
A British photographer born in Lincolnshire, though a
resident of Florence, Harry Burton worked from 1914 onward for the
Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Egyptian Expedition and for Howard Carter
in 1922 as the photographer in KV 62. Prior to that he worked
for Theodore Davis in the Valley of the Kings. The hundreds
of glass negatives he took during he course of the
Tutankhamun clearance provide an unparalleled body of
reference and are among the finest archaeological
photographs ever made.
Burton, James
Born in London in 1788 to James Haliburton (who changed his name to
Burton) and Elizabeth Westly, James Burton was educated at Trinity
College, Cambridge, where he received his B.A. in 1810 and M.A. in
1815. Between 1815 and 1822 Burton worked for the architect Sir John
Soane and traveled in Italy with his secretary, Charles
Humphreys, where he met Egyptologists Sir John Gardner Wilkinson, Edward William
Lane, and Sir William Gell.
In 1822 Burton accepted an invitation from Pasha Mohammed Ali to work as a mineralogist
in a search for coal with the Geological Survey of Egypt. Burton had absolutely no
mineralogical knowledge, however, and left the Geological Survey in 1824. He turned his
attention to the ancient monuments of Egypt. In 1825, he traveled south on the Nile
making his way from Cairo to Abu Simbel. En route, Burton spent
several months in ancient Thebes. He excavated at Madinat Habu and
Karnak and in several of the tombs in the Valley of the Kings. It was
during these months that he first entered KV 5 and sketched a plan of
its initial chambers.
Between 1825 and 1828, Burton published a volume of hieroglyphic inscriptions. Little is
known of Burton's whereabouts between 1825 and 1834, but on Christmas Day in 1835 he
returned home to England with animals, servants and slaves, including his wife,
Andreana, a Greek slave girl who had been purchased for him in his earlier years in Egypt.
Shortly thereafter, his family disowned him.
Burton is perhaps best known for his drawings and plans of ancient Egyptian monuments,
which are valuable because they can be used to compare the condition of the archaeological
sites in the early nineteenth century and today. In addition, throughout his years in
Egypt, Burton collected Egyptian antiquities, most of which were
auctioned off at Sotheby's in 1836 to repay his debts. The only item of
his collection which was not auctioned was a mummy and coffin, now in
the Liverpool Museum. James Burton died in Edinburgh in 1862, and
was buried with the epitaph "a zealous investigator in Egypt of its
language and antiquities."
Bruce, James
A British traveler who arrived in Egypt in 1768, James Bruce visited the
Valley of the Kings and partly cleared KV 11, which is still sometimes
known as "Bruce's Tomb
Carter, Howard (1874 - 1939)
Howard Carter is probably the most famous Egyptologist we know of because of
his discovery of the Tomb of
Tutankhamun, and the resulting media frenzy.
However, he worked on many other excavations. He was a British Egyptologist, who
began his career as a draftsman and artist, documenting work and excavations at
a number of locations in Egypt, including of course, the Valley of the
Kings.
Caviglia, Giovanni Battista (1770 - 1845)
An early explorer in Egypt, Caviglia was a
temperamental, uneducated Italian who spent his early life as
a sea captain. Nevertheless, he found his true calling in
Egyptology, at a time when perhaps adventurous men were more
suited to the profession than today's scholars. He was
employed by various European collectors and work with a
number of early explorers, including personalities such as
Henry Salt. Salt paid Caviglia to excavate the Sphinx,
but apparently the two men had a falling out after Caviglia
spent most of his time looking for mummy pits. He is noted at
the first explorer to carry out major excavations at Giza,
and specifically investigated the Davison Chamber in the Great
Pyramid, hoping to find a secret room. Apparently Caviglia
was a very religious man who felt the Pyramid's held mystic
secrets.
 Champollion,
Jean-Francois (1790 - 1832)
The world might never have heard of Champollion were it not for the Rosetta
Stone. He was the intellect who broke the mysterious code of hieroglyphics, and
because of this, is often recognized as the founder of Egyptology. In addition
to his work with the Rosetta Stone, he visited Egypt and studied the monuments
and collected a wide range of documentation. he also authored a series of
scholarly works on Egyptian history, religion and language. See
also Champollion's Notes.
Ciccarello, Mark
An American Egyptologist, Mark Ciccarello worked with John Romer on the clearing of KV 4 (Rameses XI).
D'Athanasi, Giovanni (1798 - 1854)
A Greek adventurer and collector of Egyptian artifacts, D'Athanasi originally
came to Egypt in order to work for his father, a merchant. He was employed by
Henry Salt and later, John Barker to collect antiquities, and managed to build
up a sizable collection himself. He later disposed of this collection in three
sales at Sotheby's in London. Unfortunately, he apparently used these funds to
become a picture dealer in London, at which he did poorly, and died in
poverty.
Daressy, Georges
A French Egyptologist, Georges Daressy cleared and published KV 6 (Rameses IX), KV 9
(Rameses V and VI), and KV 38 (Thutmes I).
Dodson, Aidan
A current British Egyptologist, Dodson read Egyptian
archaeology at Durham, Liverpool and Cambridge Universities.
he received his Ph.d. in 1995. He has lectured in England,
Egypt, Canada and the United states, and is currently working
on a scientific publication of the coffins and canopic
equipment from the Tomb of
Tutankhamun. His books include Egyptian Rock Cut Tombs,
The Canopic Equipment of the Kings of Egypt and Monarchs of
the Nile.
Edwards, Iorwerth Eiddon Stephen (1909 - 1996)
Edwards was one of the better known Egyptologists during his day. He was
British, and in fact worked at the British Museum for many years. Considered an
important authority on the Egyptian pyramid, his book, The Pyramids of Egypt,
was one of the standards on the topic, and went through a number of editions and
translations into other languages.
 Emery, Walter Brian (1903 - 1971)
Emery, a British Egyptologist and archaeologist, is best known for his
work in Nubia, where he made a name for himself. He also worked in the early
dynastic period necropolis at Saqqara.
Fakhry, Ahmad (1905 - 1973)
Fakhry was an Egyptian archaeologist who worked in the Western desert of
Egypt, and also in the necropolis at Dahshur.
Ferlini, Giuseppe (1800 - 1870)
Even though Ferlini was born in Bologna, he managed to become the Surgeon
Major to the Egyptian army around 1830. He served in the Sudan, and upon
retiring in 1834, excavated at Meroe with Antonio Stefani. His finds were later
sold, and remain at the museums in Munich and Berlin.
Firth, Cecil Mallaby (1878 - 1931)
A British Egyptologist, Firth played a major role in archaeological work in
Nubia, and later in the early dynastic period necropolis in Saqqara, and
specifically in the Djoser
complex.
 Goneim, Muhammad Zakaria (1905 - 1959)
An Egyptian archaeologist, Goneim is best known for his work on and discovery
of Sekhemkhet's pyramid at
Saqqara. Unfortunately, after establishing his
worthiness on that complex, he was falsely accused of steeling and smuggling an
artifact. These accusations were proven false by his good friend, Jean-Philippe
Laucer, but not in time to prevent Goneim from committing suicide over the
matter.
Hassan, Selim (1886 - 1961)
Many of the younger Egyptian Archaeologist owe thanks to Hassan, because he
basically developed the discipline of Egyptology at the University of Cairo. His
work focused on archaeological excavations in the necropolis at Giza, though he
apparently worked elsewhere, including, for example, Abu Rawash. he later
published the results of his work in a ten volume study.
 Hawass, Zahi
Hawass is currently one of the most famous Egyptologists in the world,
credited with considerable work at Giza, as well as the Western Oasis. An
Egyptian, he has been greatly involved in work carried out around the Great
Pyramid of Giza. He also discovered and worked in the necropolis of the artists
who worked on those pyramids. In 2001, he was named as the eighth National
Geographic Explorer in Residence. In the first months of 2002, he was named as
the chairman of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), which oversees all
artifacts and monuments in Egypt under the authority of the Ministry of Culture.
Hay, Robert
Robert Hay was born in Berwickshire, Scotland in 1799. Navy service brought him to
Alexandria in 1818 and this visit, coupled with reading Belzoni's works, inspired him
to return to Egypt and travel. For ten years beginning in 1824, Hay explored Egypt,
making sketches and watercolors of sites. He often traveled with other artists, including Joseph Bonomi and
Edward Lane. He sailed up the Nile to Abu Simbel, stopping at sites along the way to
document them and make plaster casts of reliefs.
The area that impressed Hay most was ancient Thebes and he spent time in the
Valley of the Kings. During his stay there he lived in the tomb of Rameses IV (KV 2)
while his artist friends stayed in the tomb of Rameses VI (KV 9). During this time,
he made watercolors of tomb interiors. In 1828 Hay married Kalitza Psaraki, a former slave taken from her homeland of
Crete to Egypt by the Turks. She accompanied Hay during the rest of his exploration in
Egypt.
The 1840 publication of his lithographs of Cairo was not popular, but the images
are of great value to Egyptologists today. There is a 47-volume set of unpublished
books at the British Museum Library of Hay's notes and drawings. He gave the artifacts and plaster casts he
collected to the British Museum. Robert Hay died in East Lothian in 1863.
Hornung, Erik
A Swiss Egyptologist, Erik Hornung specializes in the study of royal funerary texts. He has
published scenes and texts from KV 1 (Rameses VII), KV 2 (Rameses IV), and KV 17
(Sety I).
Jequier, Gustave (1868 - 1946)
Jequier was a Swiss Egyptologist who specialized in ancient Egyptian art and
architecture. He participated in archaeological research at a number of
locations, most notable of which was his excavations in South
Saqqara.
Jones, Owen
Owen Jones was a British architect who published several accounts of his travels in Egypt.
Lane, Edward William
A British Arabist, Edward William Lane's Description of Egypt (written between 1825 and
1828, but published in 2000) covers Theban monuments in great detail.
 Lauer, Jean-Philippe
(1902 - 2001)
Lauer was a French architect and archaeologists who was
already working in Egypt around the age of 18. He was almost
exclusively involved with research at Saqqara,
particularly at the complex
of Djoser,
where he first went to work for Firth and Quibell. He was
considered to be the the foremost expert on pyramid
construction techniques and methods. Some of his work at
Saqqara focused on reconstructing, theoretically, many of the
buildings in the Djoser
complex. He lived to be about 99 years old, and spent 70 of
those years in the pyramid field at Saqqara.
Leblanc, Christian
Christian Leblanc is a French Egyptologist clearing and stabilizing KV 7
(Rameses II).
Leclant, Jean
A modern, living French Egyptologist and professor at the
Serbonne in Pairs, Leclant specializes in history, philology
and archaeology. His focus is mostly on the cultural legacy of
ancient Egypt through the Greco-Roman
period. While much of his work is concentrated on the Sudan
(Nubia), he is also very actively connected with the
documentation and editing of the pyramid text.
 Legrain,
Georges (1865 - 1917)
A French Egyptologist, originally studied under under Paul
Pierret and Eugene Revillout at the Louvre. He was a member of
the French Institute in Cairo
between 1892 and 1894, when he was excavating at Aswan,
Kom Ombo
and el- Amarna.
He became the Inspecteur-dessinateur of the Service des
Antiquites in 1894, and continued working at Kom Ombo and also
at Gebel el-Silsila and Dahshur.
In 1895, he undertook conservation work in Karnak.
In fact, the first archaeological excavations really started
at Karnak with the work of George Legrain in the court known as of the hiding-place, where were hidden more
than 800 statues of all periods and which count among the most beautiful objects found in Egypt. These statues
had been hidden in Antiquity, and are now in the Egyptian
Antiquities Museum in Caior. He was later appointed as the Chief Inspector of Antiquities
in Luxor. Upon his
death, he was replaced by Maurice Pillet in Luxor.
 Lehner,
Mark
Mark Lehner, an American Egyptologist who continues today
to work at Giza,
is one of the modern living legends of Egyptology. and in the
past has worked closely with Zahi Hawass. He directed the Sphinx
and Isis Temple project from 1979 to 1983, and since 1984, had
directed the Giza Plateau Mapping Project. He has developed
computerized reconstruction's of the sphinx and the Giza
plateau, as well as doing important work on the G 1a pyramid
in Khufu's
complex. Both he, and Hawass, were highly visible in the
debate that raged, and sometimes continues to raise its ugly
head, over the age of the Sphinx and the construction of the
pyramids. Of course, both Lehner and Hawass argued the side of
traditional Egyptology, maintaining that the Sphinx dates to
the 4th Dynasty
and was not built thousands of years earlier, and that there
was nothing supernatural or alien about the construction of
the great pyramids at Giza. Perhaps Lehner's voice is louder
on the subject than many other Egyptologists, for he
originally came to Egypt with the other camp, as a follower of
Edgar Cayce (the Sleeping Prophet). Cayce, a psychic,
maintained that the Atlantians had buried an advanced library
of information between the paws of the Sphinx. After spending
time examining the monuments of Egypt, he rejected Casey's
radical views and began studying traditional Egyptology.
Lehner is the author of The Complete Pyramids of Egypt,
as well as many other references, and is considered a leading
modern authority on Egypt's pyramid complexes.
 Lepsius,
Karl Richard (1810 - 1884)
Lepsius was a German Egyptologist who did important surveys
of Egyptian monuments, including the pyramids, and is
considered by many to be perhaps one of the most important
Egyptologists of all times. Lepsius was born in Namburg-am-Sale
in 1810 and earned his doctorate in Berlin in 1833. He founded the study of Egyptology
at the University of Berlin, and was also heavily involved in
the development of the Egyptian Museum in Berlin. Between 1842
and 1845, he led the famous Prussian expedition to Egypt and
Nubia. This work, sponsored by King Wilhelm IV of Prussia worked as far south in the Sudan as
Khartoum and Sennar, as well as visiting the Fayoum and the Sinai.
He published this information in his work, published in 12 volumes
called Denkmaler aus Aegypten und Aethiopien. This work
perhaps constitutes the greatest Egyptological study published
thus far. Collecting was also a mandate of the Expedition, and with the enthusiastic
approval of Muhammed Ali, some 15,000 objects were shipped back to augment the
growing Egyptian collection in Berlin.
 Loret,
Victor Clement Georges Philippe (1859 - 1946)
If anyone ever looked the part of a professor, it was Loret.
Born in Baris, he studied with Mapero at the Ecole des Hautes
Etudes and the College de France. He was a member of the
French Archaeological Institute in Cairo
and worked at the royal and private tombs at Thebes. He
founded the school of Egyptology at the University of Lyons,
where he was a Reader between 1886 and 1929. He also founded
the Antiquities service Journal. In 1897, he became the
Director General of the Egyptian Antiquities Service, and
served in that position until 1899. While director, he
apparently conducted important excavations in the Valley of the
Kings. He also worked at Saqqara.
 Lucas,
Alfred (1867-1945)
Born in Mancheser England, Alfred Lucas was a Chemist for
the Egyptian Antiquities Service between 1923 and 1932. For
nine seasons he worked closely with Howard Carter in the
consolidation of Tutankhamun's burial equipment and in
analyzing the various materials brought to light in the
tomb. His work was instrumental in the preservation of the
Tutankhamun collection. Without conservation, Carter
estimated that barely 10 per cent of the tomb's content
would have reached Cairo in a state fit for exhibition.
Thanks to Lucas' work, barely .25 per cent of the objects
were lost. As well as drawing upon his skills at
preservation, Carter also relied heavily on Lucas for his
forensic talents in his reconstruction of the ancient
robberies of the Tomb.
 Mace,
Arthur Cruttenden (1874-1928)
Arthur Mace was a former student and distant cousin of
Flinders Petrie, for whom he dug at Dendera, Hiw and Abydos.
After working with George A. Reisner at Giza and Naga el-Deir,
Mace joined the Metropolitan Museum in 1901 as Assistant
Curator of Egyptian Art. Mace's sound common sense and
practical skills were invaluable to Howard Carter during the
Tutankhamun Excavation, and he helped co-author the first
volume of "The Tomb of Tut.ankh.Amen. In 1924 Mace's health
failed, and he left Egypt for good.
Mariette,
Francois Auguste Ferdinand Pasha (1821 - 1881)
Mariette was a French Egyptologist who is often credited as
the founder of modern archaeological excavations and
preservation of Egyptian monuments. Yet he spent his early
life as a teacher of French and drawing in Stratford, England.
He began studying Egyptology at about the age of 21. He led
several dozen archaeological excavations throughout Egypt and
Nubia, paving the way for the founding of the French Institute
of Oriental Archaeology in Cairo.
Interestingly, he also participated in writing the libretto
for the opera Aida, by Verdi.
Marciniak, Marek
A Polish Egyptologist, Marek Marciniak published scenes and texts in KV11
(Rameses III).
 Martin,
Geoffrey Thorndike (1934 -)
Educated at the University College of London and the Corpus
Christi College and Christ's College at Cambridge, Martin
received his doctorate in 1969. At Christ's College, he was a
Lady Wallis Budge Research Fellow, and later was a lecturer in
Egyptology at UCL. His excavations include Buhen, Sudan in
1963 and from 1964, in Saqqara.
Since 1998, he has worked with Nicholas Reeves in the Valley of the
Kings, and he worked in 1969 and 1980 doing epigraphic
work and excavation in the royal wadi at el- Amarna.
 Maspero,
Gaston Camille Charles (1846 - 1916)
Maspero began studying Egyptology at the early age of 14.
Though a French Egyptologist born in Paris, Maspero was named
as the director of the first Egyptian Antiquities Museum,
which was located in Bulaq (a part of Cairo).
He also edited a series of standard works on Egyptology,
including a four volume, comprehensive catalog of the Egyptian
Museum in Cairo. He was a longtime director of the Egyptian
Antiquities Service, the forerunner of the modern Supreme
Council of Antiquities (SCA). Prior to this elevation in his
carrier, he directed the French archaeological mission in
Egypt, which later became the French Institute for Oriental
Archaeology in Cairo.
Montet, Pierre (1885 - 1966)
Pierre Montet was a student of Victor Loret at the
University of Lyons, who apparently did as much Egyptological
work outside of Egypt as within. He excavated at Byblos,
Lebannon between 1921 and 1924. There, he discovered the tombs
of local rulers who were contemporary with the Egyptian Middle
Kingdom. Between 1929 and 1939, he excavated at Tanis,
finding the royal necropolis of the 21st
and 22nd
Dynasties. He also excavated at Abu Rawash. He later became
Professor of Egyptology at the University of Strasbourg.
Morgan, Jacques Jean Marie de (1857 - 1924)
A French archaeologist and geologist, de Morgan studied at
the Pair School of Mines and in his early carrier, became a
prospector in various parts of the world. He became Director
General of the French Service des Antiquities in 1892, where
he remained until 1897. He focused on prehistoric Egypt,
though he also prepared an archaeological map of the Saqqara
necropolis, and conducted excavations in Dahshur,
Saqqara and also Kom
Ombo.
Naville, Henri Edouard (1844 - 1926)
Few Egyptologists seem to have a religious background, but
Naville was both a Swiss Egyptologist and a Bible scholar. He
studied under Lepsius and was considered to be one of the
leading Egyptologists around the beginning of the 1900s. He
conducted excavations in the east delta, at Abydos
and particularly in the area of Deir el-Bahari
on the West
Bank at Luxor
(ancient Thebes).
Newberry, Percy Edward (1869-1949)
Newberry, a professor of Egyptology at the University of
Liverpool, served on the Tutankhamun excavation team for
several seasons. His specialty was actually the botanical
specimens form the tomb, upon which he would briefly report
in the second volume of "The Tomb of Tut.ankh.Amen". His
wife also helped by mending a number of the textiles found
in the tomb.
Passalacqua, Giuseppe (1797 - 1865)
Born in Trieste, Italy, Passalacque originally came to
Egypt in order to trade for horses, but ended up recognizing
the potential of antiquities and turned to digging. His
collection was refused by the Louvre, because of the outrageous
price he was asking, and was later sold to the Berlin Museum,
where he became the curator in 1827.
Perring, John Shae (1813 - 1869)
Many Egyptologists, as can be seen from these short
biographies, were trained in several disciplines. Many were
also architects. Perring, a British Egyptologist, was also and
engineer, who mostly applied his skills to the investigation
of Egyptian Pyramids.
 Petrie,
William Matthew Flinders (1853 - 1942)
Petrie is one of the most famous Egyptologists of all
times. He is considered by many to be the founder of modern
Egyptologists. Known as the "Father of Pot Shards",
because he learned to extract considerable amounts of
information from what other's might see merely as refuge. Yet,
Petrie had no formal education and was self taught in the
areas that he worked. He worked at dozens of sites in Egypt,
devoting himself to the organization and methodology of
archaeological investigation. His work at the pyramids in Giza
set the standard for later research in the area, but he did a
vast amount of other important work in Egypt.
Piankoff, Alexandre
Alexandre Piankoff was born in St. Petersburg in 1897. He became
interested in Egyptology as a boy after seeing a museum collection
from ancient Egypt. His academic work in classics, Egyptian philology,
and languages was interrupted by World War I, but after the war he
studied in Berlin, at the Sorbonne, and at the University of Paris. He
received his Ph.D. from the University of Paris in 1930.
After World War II, Piankoff traveled to Cairo where he worked for the
French Institute, the Bollingen Foundation, and the Centre National de
la Recherche Scientifique, specializing in Egyptian philology and
religion. He translated many religious texts. His best-known work was
at Thebes. He documented the tomb of Rameses V and VI (KV 9) and
studied the wall reliefs in the tomb of Tutankhamen (KV 62).
Piankoff died in Brussels in 1966.
Pococke, Richard
A British traveller, Richard Pococke recorded many Egyptian sites. He produced one of the
first modern (albeit highly stylized) maps of the Valley of the
Kings.
 Quibell,
James Edward (1867 - 1935)
Quibell, a British Egyptologist, graduated from Christ
Church at Oxford. He worked with Petrie in Egypt at various
locations, including Koptos, Naqada and Ballas, the Ramesseum
and Hierakonpolis.
He also assisted Cecil Firth in his excavations in Saqqara.
Between 1899 and 1904, he also served as the Chief Inspector
of antiquities for the Delta and Middle Egypt (Howard
Carter's, who was Chief Inspector at Luxor
was his opposite). Later, between 1904 and 1905, he was
appointed as the Chief Inspector at Saqqara. Between 1914 and
1923, he was a Keeper in the Cairo
Museum, and served as director of excavations at the Step
Pyramid between 1931 and 1935.
 Reeves,
Nicholas
A well known living Egyptologist, Reeves is a former
curator in the Department of Egyptian Antiquities at the
British Museum. He is an expert in the field of tomb robbery
and the history of exploration in the Valley of the
Kings. Curator of Egyptian and Classical Art, Eton College, Windsor.
He is also the Egyptological adviser to the Freud Museum
in London and the Myers Museum at Eton College. He was
previously the curator of the Department of Egyptian Antiquities, British Museum,
London until 1991. He is a
prolific writer with books that include Valley of the Kings:
the Decline of the Royal Necropolis, Akhenaten, Egypt's False Prophet,
the Compete Tutankhamun,
Howard Carter before Tutankhamun and Ancient Egypt: The Great
Discoveries. He has also written a children's book called Into
the Mummy's Tomb. He is currently the Director of the Amarna
Royal Tombs Project in the Valley of the Kings, but has done
previous field work in Saqqara, Quseir el-Amarna and at
Ashmunein.
 Redford,
Donald B. (1934 - )
Redford received his Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies at the
University of Toronto, and seemingly is the only Canadians
within our list. He was a lecturer at Brown University, an
Associate Professor at the University of Toronto and became a
full professor at Pennsylvania State University. He functioned
as the director of excavations of the University of Toronto
and State University of New York, Binghampton working at the
Temple of Osiris at Karnak.
He was also the director for the Akhenaten Temple Project of
the University of Pennsylvania, and the director of the East
Karnak excavations. Finally, he was the Director of
excavations at Mendes and the Epigrapher of the Theban Tomb
Survey, which is apparently ongoing.
Reisner, George Andrew (1867 - 1942)
An American Egyptologist and archaeologist, Reisner worked at Harvard
University and led American excavations to both Egypt and the Sudan (Nubia). His
work at the pyramid necropolises in ancient Nubia are instrumental to our
understanding of those structures, and he also worked in Giza.
Roeder, Gunther (1881 - 1966)
Roeder was a German Egyptologist educated at Jena and at
Berlin under Adolf Erman, receiving his doctorate in 1904. He
first worked as an Egyptologist at the Berlin Museum. He went
to work for the Egyptian Antiquities Service in 1907 and
worked in Nubia copying the inscriptions at Debod, Kalabsha
and Dakka.
He cataloged these at the Cairo
Museum. He became the Director of the Pelizaeus Museum in
Hildesheim in 1915, and directed work at Hermopolis
for the museum between 1929 and 1939.
Romer, John
A British artist and television presenter, John Romer has written
extensively on the history of the Valley of the Kings and
worked in KV 4 (Rameses XI).
Rose, John
A British Egyptologist, John Rose partially cleared KV 39.
Salt, Henry
Henry Salt is best known in the field of Egyptology for his efforts at
collecting antiquities. He was born in Lichfield, England in 1780, the son
of a local doctor, and trained as a painter of portraits, studying at the
Royal Academy under Farington and Hoppner. A tour of the East between 1802 and 1806, accompanying the collector George
Annesley, Viscount of Valentia, was his first introduction to Egypt. After a
government mission to Abyssinia from 1809 to 1811, he was appointed
British Consul-General to Egypt, arriving there in 1816 and serving in
this post until his death from dysentery in 1827, three years after his
wife’s demise from cholera. Salt was buried in the garden of his
residence in Alexandria, which subsequently became a European cemetery.
During his tenure as Consul-General, he sponsored many excavations in Egypt and Nubia,
acquiring many valuable antiquities for the British Museum, as well as amassing his own
collection. Through the services of Giovanni d’Athanasi and Giovanni Belzoni, he procured
several important monuments from Thebes. At the urging of the Swiss
Orientalist Burckhardt, Salt hired Belzoni to remove a colossal granite
bust of Rameses II known as the Young Memnon from the Ramesseum in 1816, which Salt presented to the British Museum the
following year. Over the next two decades, the British Museum purchased many artifacts from
Salt’s collections, including some of the larger works of Egyptian sculpture in their galleries.
Other museums benefited from his activities, including that of Sir John Soane which
purchased the alabaster sarcophagus of Sety I, discovered by
Belzoni. The Louvre acquired Salt’s second collection in 1826, including the
sarcophagus box of Rameses III.
Salt operated at a time when interest in Egypt and its antiquities was
reaching a high level in Europe and when the desire to acquire objects
for national collections as well as private ones was aided by a lax
attitude towards antiquities on the part of Muhammad Ali’s government.
Rivalry between the representatives of European colonial powers
resulted in the unofficial division of the country into private zones for
exploitation, especially so with the competition between Salt’s agents
and those of the French consul-general Drovetti. On the heels of this
wholesale frenzy of acquisition followed the efforts of scholarly
expeditions such as a those of Champollion, Lepsius, Wilkinson, Hay
and others in the 1820s through 1840s to record the monuments remaining in Egypt. In fairness, Salt also made use of his drafting skills
to record monuments. His attempts at scholarly pursuits, however, were
not taken seriously by his contemporaries. Few of his drawings have
survived or have been published.
Sicard, Claude
A French priest, Claude Sicard recorded many monuments in Egypt while
there as a missionary, and was the first European to describe
Philae, Elephantine, and Kom Ombo.
Stadelmann, Rainer
A modern, living, German Egyptologist and a former director of the German
Archaeological Institute in Cairo,
Stadelmann has conducted archaeological excavations at various sites in
Egypt. He has been particularly active at the pyramid field in Dahshur,
and is considered to be one of the most important contemporary experts on the
Egyptian pyramids.
 Verner, Miroslav
A modern, living Egyptologist, Verner directed the Czech
Institute of Egyptology for seventeen years, and apparently
continues to be an Egyptology professor at Charles University
in Prague. He often serves as a guest professor at the
universities of Vienna and Hamburg, and since 1976, has led
the Czech excavations in the pyramid field of Abusir.
He is also the author of The Pyramids, one of the
leading modern references on Pyramids throughout Egypt.
Vyse, Richard William Howard (1784 - 1853)
Vyse was a British military officer and researcher who worked with Perring
and made important contributions to research, though apparently his methods were
sometimes crude. He used gunpowder to blast his way into Menkaure's pyramid at Giza,
and also blasted out the back end of the Great Sphinx.
However, he is also noted for clearing the lower entrance to
the pyramid
of Khafre
(but again with explosives, blasting apart the granite barrier
plugs.
 Weeks,
Kent R.
Kent Weeks is one of the top guns of current Egyptology,
alongside names such as Lehner and Hawass, among others. He is
a professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo
and Director of the Theban Mapping Project. He is also
credited with discovering KV 5, the tomb of the sons of
Ramesses II in the Valley of the
Kings, and is the author of numerous books, including
Valley of the Kings (with many others) and The Lost
Tomb.
Wilkinson, John Gardner
John Gardner Wilkinson was a British Egyptologist and traveler who, as
part of his topographical survey of Thebes, assigned the numbering
sequence to the tombs in the Valley of the Kings that was later
continued and is still in use today. He also copied and studied
scenes and inscriptions of the Theban tombs and carried out limited
excavations in 1824 and 1827-1828. Fifty-six volumes of Wilkinson’s
work are preserved in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.
 Wilkinson, Richard H.
Director of the University of Arizona Egyptian Expeditions,
Wilkinson is a living Egyptologist who has been engaged in
excavation and research in Egypt for many years. He
has written a number of books, including Reading Egyptian
Art, Symbol and Magic in Egyptian Art, Valley of the Sun
Kings, The Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt, and The Complete
Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt. He also co-authored The
Complete Valley of the Kings with Nicholas Reeves. An
authority on the Valley
of the Kings, Wilkinson is particularly interested in the
symbolic aspects of the royal tombs and his Expedition is
currently preparing the first computerized study of this
aspect of the Valley of the Kings. His excavations are
ongoing.
Winlock, Herbert Eustis (1884 - 1950)
Winlock was an American Egyptologist, educated at Harvard,
who led the expeditions sponsored by the New York Metropolitan
Museum during his lifetime between 1906 and 1931. He conducted
excavations at various sites in Egypt, including el- Lisht,
the Kharga Oasis
and the West
Bank at Luxor.
He became the Curator of Egyptian Art at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art in 1929, and was the Director of the Museum
beginning in 1932.
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