Francis Llewellyn Griffith

Francis Llewellyn Griffith ( born May 27, 1862 in Brighton, † March 14, 1934 in Oxford ) was a British Egyptologist and philologist in the Nubian, and Meroitic Demotic languages. In addition to Flinders Petrie, he was one of the outstanding Egyptologists of his time. In 1924, he became the first professor of Egyptology at Oxford.

  • 4.1 Taharquas Shrine

Than school and university

As the youngest son of nine children of the Reverend John Griffith, the headmaster of Brighton College, his father insisted that Francis ( "Frank" ) students in college for at least a week so that he could call themselves " Brightonian " - before he in the parish of Sandridge, Hertfordshire, moved. Here he taught his son even in mathematics and classical languages ​​. So Francis is said to have been recited by eight years of his godfather, the Rev. John Ward, the Lord's Prayer in Greek. Impressed by this knowledge, he gave him a Testament in Greek language.

When a friend from Brighton College, Mr. Heppenstall, President of College Sedbergh in Yorkshire was, he took a number of students with, including Francis Griffith ( 1875-1878 ). In 1879 he was awarded a scholarship at Queen 's College, University of Oxford. Since at that time still no chair of Egyptology was ( Archibald Henry Sayce was there in 1891 the first professor of Assyriology ), he learned the Egyptian hieroglyphs in the self-study.

Griffith and the Egypt Exploration Fund

Griffith also had connection to Amelia Edwards, who had founded in 1882 the Egypt Exploration Fund ( EDF). When these Gaston Maspero, the first license for excavations in Egypt was that had ever been issued to a foreign organization, diplomatic approach was announced. The Swiss archaeologist Edouard Naville, the made ​​in December 1879 in a letter to the " Morning Post " on the urgent need of funds for excavations in Egypt attentive and Edwards the required had provided "ammunition" to build up their funds, the right man was. Maspero accepted Naville and allowed him excavations in Wadi Tumilat in the Nile Delta. In his second excavation season 1883 Amelia Edwards insisted that Naville now took Griffith, who had an urgent need to go to Egypt. Amelia Edwards had already collected earlier donations for his scholarship. Also Flinders Petrie, who had received the second excavation license, greeted him as assistants and found his knowledge of hieroglyphics particularly helpful. By 1888 Griffith regularly took part in the expeditions of Petrie and Naville.

Griffith founded the Archeological Survey

As an independent department of the Egypt Exploration Fund, Griffith had the " Archeological Survey of Egypt " was launched to continue the inventory begun by Jacques de Morgan of the monuments in Egypt. He believed that it would be possible with the support of the Egyptian government to create an index of the known ancient sites as well as explore new ones. He wanted each city as a whole describe a detailed list of its tombs and temples, instead of selecting individual architectural features, scenes and inscriptions and published separately. He also wanted to include all the already available sources, such as the descriptions of earlier travelers as background material. The increasing decay of the known sites made ​​it imperative to document them for science. It was a very ambitious project and required a lot of stamina, because it also had the money to be present. So had his original plan for the entire recording of Middle Egypt soon to be abandoned. Percy E. Newberry, who also worked in the office of the Egypt Exploration Fund, suggested initially restricted to the tombs of Beni Hassan and Deir al - Berscha. When the needed funds were finally raised, Griffith could then Newberry 1890 to Beni Hassan send along with George Willoughby Fraser, a trained engineer. 1893 Griffith was able to publish the first volume of the Memoir with their work in London. 1900 Norman de Garis Davies already followed in the eighth Memoir with an inventory of Sakkara and later Tell el- Amarna.

Griffith had now set the standards for a comprehensive documentation of the sites and created with releases a new approach, the other Egyptologists should serve as a model. The Egypt Exploration Fund employed regardless of the Archeological Survey of Egypt, for example, Edouard Naville with the excavations at Deir el- Bahari.

Griffith marries Kate Bradbury

1896 Griffith married the intelligent and financially independent Kate Bradbury ( 1854-1902 ), daughter of a wealthy cotton manufacturer from Ashton under Lyne. His wife had worked closely with Amelia Edwards, and she also accompanied on their journey to America in winter 1889/90. Translated the chapter on Egyptology in Gaston Maspero Book Les Origines and gave the English edition of Alfred Wiedemann's book " The religion of the ancient Egyptians. " Münster ( 1890), out. She also wrote about folkloric themes and published poems. They also translated parts of Heinrich Heine's " Bimini ". The Egyptology connected the two. Griffith moved in with his parents so that he could devote to the study of Egyptian writings all his time. Unfortunately, his wife died after six years of marriage.

The philologist

1891 Griffith had a place in the British Museum as an assistant of the Department of British and Mediaeval Antiquities and Ethnography - does not exist in Egyptian and Assyrian Department. However, he had access to all documents held there, including those of Robert Hay (1799-1863), who had 1824-1838 traveled extensively, often accompanied by artists, to Egypt and northern Sudan undertaken. Before Howard Carter went for the Egypt Exploration Fund to Percy E. Newberry to Egypt, he studied here in the Museum Egyptian art under the guidance of Griffith.

Griffith love was philology. In 1898 he published his seminal work The Petrie Papyri, in which he cursive ( hieratic ) Texts of the Middle Kingdom of Al - Lahun ( Kahun ) and Gurob enzifferte for the first time. Around the 7th century BC the hieratic was further simplified and shortened. This resulted in the demotic script, which became more and more everyday writing. However, the hieratic script was used still mainly for religious texts on papyrus. Therefore, the two Greek names come. " Demotic " means something like people writing and " hieratic " can be translated as priest writing.

His next release was in collaboration with his friend Sir Herbert Thompson, a talented tern philologists, The Demotic Magycal Papyrus of London and Leiden (3 volumes, 1904-1909 ).

His masterpiece provided Griffith with the deciphering and translating the 106 papyri in demotic writing of the John Rylands Library in Manchester. They appeared in 1909 as a Catalogue of the Demotic papyri in the John Rylands library, Manchester: with facsimiles and complete translations. This work showed the development of this document and has been an indispensable resource for all who dealt with it.

In addition, he was interested in the language and culture of the old Sudan. From the kingdom of Kush inscriptions were known and Griffith dealt with the Meroitic script, which he deciphered in 1907. While the ancient Egyptian language made ​​use of up to 9000 characters, the Meroitic hieroglyphs formed into a pure alphabetic writing. This came just once with 23 points, including a sign for word separation. 1908, the British Museum acquired the complete manuscript of Menaslegende, the Griffith published in the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin.

Expeditions to Nubia (now Sudan)

The interest in the history and archeology of Nubia was fueled by the construction of the first Aswan Dam by the British engineer Sir William Willcocks. This was completed in 1902 and should already be 1907 to 1912 increased. This meant a threat to the local antiquities. From the University of Chicago James Henry Breasted was from 1905 to 1907 with an expedition traveled 1600 km along the Nile and had the inscriptions in Nubia copied and photographed. His book was a unique snapshot and led the archaeologists urgency in mind.

During the expedition of the University of Pennsylvania to Nubia from 1907 to 1910 under the leadership of the two British archaeologist Leonard Woolley and David Randall - MacIver was found a number of Meroitic inscriptions in Shablul Areika, Aniba, Karanog, and booing. From the Harvard University / Boston Museum George Andrew Reisner came (1867-1942) after Napata at Gebel Barkal. 1909-14 John Garstang of the University of Liverpool, the city Meroe large area free.

The University of Oxford, supported by various museums and also from his personal funds of Griffith, it finally sent to Nubia. Between 1907 and 1913 he studied the ancient sites of Faras, Kawa and Sanam. In return for their support, many museums were valuable pieces of these expeditions.

They discovered the temples and pyramids - tombs of the " black pharaohs " - especially the last Pharaoh Taharqa. They were limited in Kawa on the uncovering of the temple and the palace, dig without the urban settlement in the area. Griffith found in Kawa one of the most spectacular finds: "The sphinx of Taharqo " as he held until 1931 for the Oxford Excavation Committee directed the excavations in 1929 in this city. The Shinx is about 40 cm high and 73 cm long and has the face of Pharaoh. It is located in the British Museum.

1909 Griffith had married Nora Christina Cobban MacDonald ( 1873-1937 ), who had studied Egyptology at him at Oxford. She helped him in his expeditions in Egypt, Nubia and the Sudan and prepared after his death in 1934 his unfinished manuscripts for publication.

Taharquas Shrine

The Sudanese government gave Griffith the shrine of Taharqa, who was part of a temple in Kawa and was built about 680 years BC, in recognition of his services to the excavations in Nubia. It consisted of 236 sandstone blocks that had to be dismantled, numbered and treated with an acid solution for preservation. The workers were plagued by terrible mosquitoes, which crept in hair, eyes and nostrils. The blocks were carefully packed in 200 wooden boxes and pulled on barges on the Nile 300 km to the nearest railway station. The train took them to Port Said, where they set out on their journey to England by ship.

Mrs. Griffith gave him in 1936 the Ashmolean Museum in memory of her husband. The Ashmolean Museum had to build a 2 m deep concrete slab on which the shrine was rebuilt. It is the largest intact building from the Egyptian Pharaohs in the UK.

Taharquas shrine was part of a temple, which was built about 680 BC, Kawa was on the orders of Taharqa, the 690-664 BC, the last pharaoh of Egypt. The temple was to help him help with the government of his vast empire. The shrine was Amun -Re, dedicated to the god of the sun and fertility. On the representation found in the temple of Amun -Re of God is represented by a ram's head with twisted horns. Therefore, a ram figure stands in the foreground.

In 1924 Griffith was the first professor of Egyptology at Oxford, where he remained for eight years, until 1932. He died in 1934 of a heart attack. The Griffith Institute in Oxford was set up according to his will in 1939 and named after him.

Griffith Institute

The Griffith Institute is part of the University of Oxford and was opened due to the legacy of Francis Llewellyn Griffith in 1938 to - according to his last will - " a permanent place to create ... to study the ancient languages ​​and antiquities of the Middle East ". His extensive library and collected the papyri to the ancient writings, notebooks, along with his desk, were the foundation. Griffith 's widow, Nora Christina Cobban Griffith, who died three years after her husband, bequeathed her estate in 1937 also the Institute. The old building has since been demolished and 2001, the Institute found a place in the new Sackler Library, near the Ashmolian Museum.

Publications

  • Publications by Francis Llewellyn Griffith at archive.org (English )
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