Campbell Cowan Edgar (26 December 1870–10 May 1938) was a Scottish

Egyptologist Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious ...

classical archaeologist Classical archaeology is the archaeological investigation of the Mediterranean civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Nineteenth-century archaeologists such as Heinrich Schliemann were drawn to study the societies they had read about i ...

and

papyrologist Papyrology is the study of manuscripts of ancient literature, correspondence, legal archives, etc., preserved on portable media from antiquity, the most common form of which is papyrus, the principal writing material in the ancient civilizations ...

. He is especially noted for his work with A. S. Hunt on translating the Zenon Papyri. Between 1925 and 1927 he served as the Keeper of the

Egyptian Museum The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, known commonly as the Egyptian Museum or the Cairo Museum, in Cairo, Egypt, is home to an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities. It has 120,000 items, with a representative amount on display a ...

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

Early life

Edgar was in

Tongland Tongland is a small village about north of Kirkcudbright, in the historic county of Kirkcudbrightshire in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. It lies on the west bank of the Dee near its confluence with the Tarff Water. History Tonglan ...

Kirkcudbrightshire Kirkcudbrightshire ( ), or the County of Kirkcudbright or the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright is one of the historic counties of Scotland, covering an area in the south-west of the country. Until 1975, Kirkcudbrightshire was an administrative county ...

, in south-west

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. His parents were Mary Sybilla Edgar (née Cowan, 1845–1928) and Rev Andrew Edgar (1830–1890), a

Church of Scotland minister A Church of Scotland congregation is led by its minister and elders. Both of these terms are also used in other Christian denominations: see Minister (Christianity) and Elder (Christianity). This article discusses the specific understanding ...

. They had nine children, among them Charles Samuel Edgar (1874–1945), Campbell's younger brother, who later became professor Of Greek at

Stellenbosch University Stellenbosch University ( af, Universiteit Stellenbosch) is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Stellenbosch is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest extant ...

in South Africa. The family later moved to

Mauchline Mauchline (; gd, Maghlinn) is a town and civil parish in East Ayrshire, Scotland. In the 2001 census Mauchline had a recorded population of 4,105. It is home to the National Burns Memorial. Location The town lies by the Glasgow and South Wes ...

in Ayrshire, where Campbell's father served as minister of Mauchline Parish Church.

Education

The young Campbell was educated at

Ayr Academy Ayr Academy (Scottish Gaelic: ''Acadamaidh Inbhir Àir'') is a non-denominational secondary school situated within the Craigie Estate area at University Avenue in Ayr, South Ayrshire. It is a comprehensive school for children of ages 11–18 fro ...

, before going on to study at

Glasgow University , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

1887–91 under noted classical scholars

Richard Claverhouse Jebb Sir Richard Claverhouse Jebb (27 August 1841 – 9 December 1905) was a British classical scholar. Life Jebb was born in Dundee, Scotland. His father Robert was a well-known Irish barrister; his mother was Emily Harriet Horsley, daughter of t ...

and

Gilbert Murray George Gilbert Aimé Murray (2 January 1866 – 20 May 1957) was an Australian-born British classical scholar and public intellectual, with connections in many spheres. He was an outstanding scholar of the language and culture of Ancient Greece ...

. After graduating from Glasgow, Edgar studied classical archaeology at

Oriel College, Oxford Oriel College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. Located in Oriel Square, the college has the distinction of being the oldest royal foundation in Oxford (a title formerly claimed by University College, wh ...

1891–95. As a gifted student, he was awarded the Craven Fellowship in 1896 and went to continue his education in Greece at the British School at Athens, where he studied under

Cecil Harcourt Smith Sir Cecil Harcourt-Smith (1859–1944) was a British archaeologist and museum director. He was Keeper of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the British Museum from 1904 to 1909, and Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum from 1909 to 1924. Ea ...

Career

Among C.C. Edgar's early archaeological expeditions was an investigation of the temple at Kynosarges near Athens in 1896–1897, and excavations of the prehistoric

Cycladic The Cyclades (; el, Κυκλάδες, ) are an island group in the Aegean Sea, southeast of mainland Greece and a former administrative prefecture of Greece. They are one of the island groups which constitute the Aegean archipelago. The nam ...

burials at Pelos on the island of

Milos Milos or Melos (; el, label=Modern Greek, Μήλος, Mílos, ; grc, Μῆλος, Mêlos) is a volcanic Greek island in the Aegean Sea, just north of the Sea of Crete. Milos is the southwesternmost island in the Cyclades group. The ''Venus d ...

in the Cyclades. Already a scholar of

Classical Greece Classical Greece was a period of around 200 years (the 5th and 4th centuries BC) in Ancient Greece,The "Classical Age" is "the modern designation of the period from about 500 B.C. to the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C." ( Thomas R. Marti ...

, C.C. Edgar began to specialise in the study of Hellenistic Egypt. In 1900 the Egyptian Government appointed him to work on the ''Catalogue général des antiquités égyptiennes du Musée du Caire'' of the

Cairo Museum The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, known commonly as the Egyptian Museum or the Cairo Museum, in Cairo, Egypt, is home to an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities. It has 120,000 items, with a representative amount on display ...

, and Edgar learned to read Egyptian

hieroglyphics Egyptian hieroglyphs (, ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt, used for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with some 1,000 distinct characters.There were about 1,00 ...

. Edgar's career in Egypt advanced, and in 1905 was appointed chief inspector of antiquities in the Nile Delta. Edgar took part in some important archaeological digs, including assisting

David George Hogarth David George Hogarth (23 May 1862 – 6 November 1927), also known as D. G. Hogarth, was a British archaeologist and scholar associated with T. E. Lawrence and Arthur Evans. He was Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford from 1909 to 1927. Hog ...

at the ancient city of

Naukratis Naucratis or Naukratis (Ancient Greek: , "Naval Command"; Egyptian: , , , Coptic: ) was a city and trading-post in ancient Egypt, located on the Canopic (western-most) branch of the Nile river, south-east of the Mediterranean sea and the city ...

in 1903, and excavating the Tomb of Khesuwer at

Kom el-Hisn Kom el-Hisn ( ar, كوم الحصن ') is a Nile Delta settlement dating back to the Old Kingdom of Egypt with parts dating to the Middle Kingdom. Its location in the 3rd nome of Lower Egypt, or "House of the Lord of Ships (pr nb jmu)", focus ...

in 1910. In 1914, a hoard of ancient papyrus documents known as the Zenon Papyri was discovered in the Nile Valley, a cache of financial and legal records from the lost ancient city of

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. Together with fellow papyrologoist

Arthur Surridge Hunt Arthur Surridge Hunt, FBA (1 March 1871 – 18 June 1934) was an English papyrologist. Hunt was born in Romford, Essex, England. Over the course of many years, Hunt, along with Bernard Grenfell, recovered many papyri from excavation sites in E ...

, Edgar translated the documents from the original

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

and

Demotic Demotic may refer to: * Demotic Greek, the modern vernacular form of the Greek language * Demotic (Egyptian), an ancient Egyptian script and version of the language * Chữ Nôm, the demotic script for writing Vietnamese See also * * Demos (disa ...

. In 1925, C.C. Edgar was appointed keeper and secretary-general of the Cairo Museum. He retired in 1927 and returned to Britain.

Death and legacy

Campbell Cowan Edgar died in

Berkhamsted Berkhamsted ( ) is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, in the Bulbourne valley, north-west of London. The town is a civil parish with a town council within the borough of Dacorum which is based in the neighbouring large new town ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

, England. He was buried in Rectory Lane Cemetery, the burial ground of the

Church of St Peter, Great Berkhamsted The Parish Church of St Peter, Great Berkhamsted, is a Church of England, Grade II* listed church in the town of Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, in the United Kingdom. It stands on the main High Street of the town and is recognisable by its clock tow ...

and his grave is marked with a headstone carved in the shape of a papyrus scroll. His wife, Jessie Robertson Smith, outlived him by 32 years and was buried with him when she died in 1970. C.C. Edgar is still cited today by Egyptology scholars. Edgar donated a number of his archaeological finds to the collection of the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

in London, including Cycladic and Minoan artefacts, and items from Naukratis.

References

Citations

Sources

* *

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Edgar, Campbell Cowan People from Dumfries and Galloway 1870 births 1938 deaths Scottish Egyptologists People from Berkhamsted Egyptian Museum British papyrologists Hellenists Scottish classical scholars Alumni of Oriel College, Oxford Alumni of the University of Glasgow Classical scholars of the University of Glasgow Classical scholars of the University of Oxford Greek–English translators