Henri "Hans" Frankfort (24 February 1897 – 16 July 1954) was a Dutch

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 religiou ...

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landsca ...

and orientalist.

Early life and education

Born in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

, into a " liberal

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

" family, Frankfort studied history at the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being ...

and then moved to London, where in 1924, he took an MA under Sir Flinders Petrie at the University College. In 1927 he gained a Ph.D. from the

University of Leiden Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, as a reward to the city of Le ...

Career

Between 1925 and 1929 Frankfort was the director of the excavations of the

Egypt Exploration Society The Egypt Exploration Society (EES) is a British non-profit organization. The society was founded in 1882 by Amelia Edwards and Reginald Stuart Poole in order to examine and excavate in the areas of Egypt and Sudan. The intent was to study and ana ...

(EES) of London at El-Amarna,

Abydos Abydos may refer to: *Abydos, a progressive metal side project of German singer Andy Kuntz *Abydos (Hellespont), an ancient city in Mysia, Asia Minor * Abydos (''Stargate''), name of a fictional planet in the ''Stargate'' science fiction universe ...

and Armant. In 1929 he was invited by Henry Breasted to become field director of the Oriental Institute (OI) of Chicago expedition to Iraq. In 1931 he became correspondent of the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...

, he resigned in late 1944. He became foreign member in 1950. In 1937 Frankfort and

Emil Kraeling Emil Gottlieb Heinrich Kraeling (1892–1973) was an American Lutheran biblical scholar and Aramaicist. He came from an extended German-American Lutheran family. Kraeling attended the Lutheran Seminary of Philadelphia from 1909 to 1912, and then wa ...

identified a woman on the

Burney Relief The Burney Relief (also known as the Queen of the Night relief) is a Mesopotamian terracotta plaque in high relief of the Isin-Larsa period or Old- Babylonian period, depicting a winged, nude, goddess-like figure with bird's talons, flanked b ...

(c 1700BCE) as

Lilith Lilith ( ; he, לִילִית, Līlīṯ) is a female figure in Mesopotamian and Judaic mythology, alternatively the first wife of Adam and supposedly the primordial she-demon. Lilith is cited as having been "banished" from the Garden of Ed ...

of later Jewish mythology, though this identification is now generally rejected. In 1939 he published what

Gary Beckman Gary Michael Beckman (born 1948) is a noted Hittitologist and Professor of Hittite and Mesopotamian Studies from the University of Michigan. He has written several books on the Hittites: his publication ''Hittite Diplomatic Texts'' and ''Hittite ...

considers to be perhaps his most influential scholarly achievement ''Cylinder Seals: A Documentary Essay on the Art and Religion of the Ancient Near East''. In a collaborative work with Henriette Groenewegen-Frankfort, John A. Wilson, and

Thorkild Jacobsen Thorkild Peter Rudolph Jacobsen (; 7 June 1904 – 2 May 1993) was a renowned Danish historian specializing in Assyriology and Sumerian literature. He was one of the foremost scholars on the ancient Near East. Biography Thorkild Peter Rudolph Ja ...

he published ''The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man'' in 1946, an influential work on the nature of myth and reality. Frankfort published ''Kingship and the Gods'' in 1948, "a classic work" in the opinion of John Baines. In 1948 he became director of the

Warburg Institute The Warburg Institute is a research institution associated with the University of London in central London, England. A member of the School of Advanced Study, its focus is the study of cultural history and the role of images in culture – cro ...

in London. Along with EA Wallis Budge, he was revolutionary for his time for suggesting that Egyptian civilization, culturally, religiously, and ethnically arose from an African, instead of an Asian base.He wrote 15 books and monographs and about 73 articles for journals about ancient Egypt, archaeology and cultural anthropology, especially on the religious systems of the Ancient Near East. Erik Hornung in his influential work ''Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt, The One and the Many'' acknowledged his debt to previous work done by Henri Frankfort."''Egypt, Trunk of the Tree: The contexts''", Simson R. Najovits, p. 130, Algora, 2003, He died in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

Personal life

He married Henriette Groenewegen-Frankfort and later

Enriqueta Harris Enriqueta Harris Frankfort (17 May 1910 — 22 April 2006) was a British art historian and writer who specialised in Spanish art. Born into a family with an English father and a Spanish mother, she attended the University College London to read ...

Bibliography

*''The Mural Painting of el-Amarna'' (1929) *''The Cenotaph of

Seti I Menmaatre Seti I (or Sethos I in Greek) was the second pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt during the New Kingdom period, ruling c.1294 or 1290 BC to 1279 BC. He was the son of Ramesses I and Sitre, and the father of Ramesses II. The ...

at Abydos'' (together with A. de Buck and B. Gunn, 1933) *''The City of

Akhenaten Akhenaten (pronounced ), also spelled Echnaton, Akhenaton, ( egy, ꜣḫ-n-jtn ''ʾŪḫə-nə-yātəy'', , meaning "Effective for the Aten"), was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh reigning or 1351–1334 BC, the tenth ruler of the Eighteenth D ...

volume II'' (together with J. D. S. Pendlebury, 1933) *''Cylinder Seals: A Documentary Essay on Ihe Art and Religion of the Ancient Near East'' (1939) *''The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man'' (1946) (later retitled ''Before Philosophy'') *''Ancient Egyptian Religion: an Interpretation'' (1948) *''Kingship and the Gods. A Study of Ancient Near Eastern Religion as the Integration of Society and Nature'' (1948) *''The Birth of Civilization in the Near East'' (1951) *''The Art and Architecture of the Ancient Orient'' (1954)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Frankfort, Henri 1897 births 1954 deaths Directors of the Warburg Institute Dutch Egyptologists Dutch Jews Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Scientists from Amsterdam