Elizabeth Errington is a specialist on the archaeology of

Gandhara Gandhāra is the name of an ancient region located in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent, more precisely in present-day north-west Pakistan and parts of south-east Afghanistan. The region centered around the Peshawar Vall ...

and the collections of

Charles Masson Charles Masson (1800–1853) was the pseudonym of James Lewis, a British East India Company soldier and reporter, independent explorer and pioneering archaeologist and numismatist. He was the first European to discover the ruins of Harappa nea ...

, and a

numismatist A numismatist is a specialist in numismatics ("of coins"; from Late Latin ''numismatis'', genitive of ''numisma''). Numismatists include collectors, specialist dealers, and scholars who use coins and other currency in object-based research. Altho ...

specialising in Asian coins.

Biography

Errington grew up in

Potchefstroom Potchefstroom (, colloquially known as Potch) is an academic city in the North West Province of South Africa. It hosts the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University. Potchefstroom is on the Mooi Rivier (Afrikaans for "pretty river" ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

and gained a diploma at the Johannesburg School of Art in 1967. Subsequently she worked as a

graphic designer A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography, or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, ...

in South Africa and London. Errington entered the

School of Oriental and African Studies SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury ar ...

in 1977 and gained her B.A. Honours in Near and Middle East History and Archaeology in 1980. Errington then worked part-time on her PhD from 1980-1987 on 19th-century archaeology in Gandhara and Afghanistan entitled: ''The Western Discovery of the Art of Gandhara and the Finds of Jamalgarhi''. Errington worked for the

British Institute of Persian Studies British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

in 1988 preparing the catalogue of the Ghubayra Excavations, Iran, for publication. After her PhD at the

, Errington worked on the "Crossroads of Asia" exhibition and catalogue at the

Fitzwilliam Museum The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiquities museum of the University of Cambridge. It is located on Trumpington Street opposite Fitzwilliam Street in central Cambridge. It was founded in 1816 under the will of Richard FitzWilliam, 7th Vis ...

, Cambridge, 1992. She then joined the Department of Coins and Medals at 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 ...

, working with

Joe Cribb Joe Cribb is a numismatist, specialising in Asian coinages, and in particular on coins of the Kushan Empire. His catalogues of Chinese silver currency ingots, and of ritual coins of Southeast Asia were the first detailed works on these subjects i ...

Helen Wang Helen Kay Wang (; ; born 1965) is an English sinologist and translator. She works as curator of East Asian Money at the British Museum in London. She has also published a number of literary translations from Chinese, including an award-winning tr ...

Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis is the British Museum's Curator of Middle Eastern coins. She is Joint Director of the International Parthian Coin Project, The Sylloge Nummorum Parthicorum (SNP), and Joint Editor of the SNP series. Curtis was born in Tehran ...

, and

Robert Bracey The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...

on Asian coins, making a significant contribution to Silk Road Numismatics. A major project - the

Project - was completed in 2021 with the publication of the third and final volume on the Masson Collection at the British Museum. Errington is an advisor to

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

's ''Gandhara Connections'' project.

Publications

Catalogues resulting from the Masson Project * ''Charles Masson and the Buddhist Sites of Afghanistan: Explorations, Excavations, Collections 1832-1835'', by Elizabeth Errington, British Museum Research Publication 215 (2017). * ''The Charles Masson Archive: British Library, British Museum and Other Documents Relating to the 1832–1838 Masson Collection from Afghanistan'', by Elizabeth Errington, assisted by Piers Baker, Kirstin Leighton-Boyce and Wannaporn Kay Rienjang, British Museum Research Publication 216 (2017). * ''Charles Masson: Collections from Begram and Kabul Bazaar, Afghanistan 1833–1838'', by Elizabeth Errington, with contributions by Joe Cribb, Lauren Morris, Piers Baker, Paramdip Khera, Chantal Fabregues, Kirstin Leighton-Boyce and Wannaporn Kay Rienjang, British Museum Research Publication 219 (2021). Selected Other Publications *E. Errington and V.S. Curtis, ''From Persepolisto the Punjab. Exploring the Past in Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan'' (London, The British Museum Press, 2007), passim. *E. Errington, ‘“Boots”, “female idols” and disembodied heads’, ''Journal of Inner Asian Art and Archaeology'' I (2006), pp. 89–96 *E. Errington, ‘Charles Masson’, ''Encyclopaedia Iranica'' online (2004) *E. Errington, ‘Ancient Afghanistan through the eyes of Charles Masson: the Masson Project at the British Museum’, ''International Institute for Asian Studies Newsletter'' (March 2002), pp. 8–9 *E. Errington, ‘The collections of Charles Masson (1800-53)’, ''Circle of Inner Asian Art Newsletter'' 15 (2002), pp. 29–30 *E. Errington, ‘Discovering ancient Afghanistan, The Masson Collection’, ''Minerva'' 13/6 (2002), pp. 53–5 *E. Errington, ‘Discovering ancient Afghanistan’, ''British Museum Magazine'' 44 (2002), p. 8 *E. Errington, ‘Charles Masson and Begram’, ''Topoi'' 11/1 (2001

003 003, O03, 0O3, OO3 may refer to: *003, fictional British 00 Agent *003, former emergency telephone number for the Norwegian ambulance service (until 1986) *1990 OO3, the asteroid 6131 Towen * OO3 gauge model railway *''O03 (O2)'' and other related ...

, pp. 357–409 *A.D.H. Bivar; Geza Fehervari; Patricia Baker; Elizabeth Errington; Nigel Errington; Susan Tyler-Smith; Mehrdad Shokoohy ''Excavations at Ghubayra, Iran, 1971-1976 2000'' (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London) *E. Errington, ‘Rediscovering the collections of Charles Masson’, in M. Alram and D. E. Klimburg-Salter (eds.) ''Coins, Art and Chronology. Essays on the pre-Islamic History of the Indo-Iranian Borderlands'' (Vienna, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1999), pp. 207–37 *E. Errington, Joe Cribb, Maggie Claringbull, ''The Crossroads of Asia : transformation in image and symbol in the art of ancient Afghanistan and Pakistan'', Cambridge: Ancient India and Iran Trust, 1992.

References

External links

The Masson Project at the British MuseumElizabeth Errington on Academia.eduElizabeth Errington on Worldcat
{{DEFAULTSORT:Errington, Elizabeth English numismatists Living people Employees of the British Museum Women numismatists Alumni of SOAS University of London British curators Year of birth missing (living people) People from Potchefstroom