Torgny Säve-Söderbergh (born 29 June 1914 in

Lund Lund (, , ) is a city in the southern Swedish provinces of Sweden, province of Scania, across the Øresund, Öresund strait from Copenhagen. The town had 91,940 inhabitants out of a municipal total of 121,510 . It is the seat of Lund Municipali ...

; died 21 May 1998 in

Uppsala Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inha ...

) was a Swedish writer, translator, and professor of

Egyptology 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 ...

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in opera ...

from 1950 to 1980. He was the younger brother of paleontologist

Gunnar Säve-Söderbergh Gunnar Säve-Söderbergh (31 January 1910 – 8 June 1948) was a Swedish palaeontologist and geologist. Säve-Söderbergh was born at Falun, the son of the neurologist Gotthard Söderbergh and Inga Säve. He passed his G.C.E. at Gothenburg i ...

Education and career

Torgny Säve-Söderbergh was born in

on 29 June 1914 to Gotthard Söderbergh and Anna Säve. Säve-Söderbergh studied at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

. He then attended the

for his doctoral studies and was awarded his doctorate at the age of 27 for his thesis ''Ägypten und Nubien'' (1941, written in German). After graduating, he performed archaeological and historical research. From 1935-1950, he participated in archaeological excavations in Greece and Turkey (1935, 1938-1939) and in Egypt (1937, 1950). From 1942-1980, he was a lecturer, then professor of Egyptology (1950) and dean (1960-1965) of the Faculty of Arts at the

. He also served as Director of the

Museum of Egyptian Antiquities 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 ...

from 1950-1980. From 1960-1964, he was directed excavations during the Scandinavian expedition in Sudanese

Nubia Nubia () (Nobiin: Nobīn, ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the first cataract of the Nile (just south of Aswan in southern Egypt) and the confluence of the Blue and White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), or ...

. He was also the director of the

Nag Hammadi Nag Hammadi ( ; ar, نجع حمادى ) is a city in Upper Egypt. It is located on the west bank of the Nile in the Qena Governorate, about north-west of Luxor. It had a population of close to 43,000 . History The town of Nag Hammadi is name ...

expedition from 1976-1977. In addition to his research, he also help to popularise archaeology and research, giving radio talks and writing popular books such as ''Egyptian Character'' (1945) and ''Pharaohs and Men'' (1958). When the

Aswan Dam The Aswan Dam, or more specifically since the 1960s, the Aswan High Dam, is one of the world's largest embankment dams, which was built across the Nile in Aswan, Egypt, between 1960 and 1970. Its significance largely eclipsed the previous Aswan L ...

was being built in the 1960s, Säve-Söderbergh became project leader for a joint Scandinavian expedition (1960-1964) in

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

's campaign to save temples and historical monuments from flooding - the

International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia The International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia was the relocation of 22 monuments in Lower Nubia, in Southern Egypt and northern Sudan, between 1960 and 1980. The success of the project, in particular the creation of a coalition of 50 ...

. The entire area was archaeologically investigated, and a large number of temples were saved. The wealth of findings and data from the expedition was published in 14 volumes edited by Säve-Söderbergh. He published his story of the expedition in the popular book ''Mission in Nubia: How the World Saved a Country's Cultural Monuments'' (1996).

Books

Popular books in Swedish: *''Egyptisk egenart'' ("Egyptian Character") (1945) *''Faraoner och människor'' ("Pharaohs and Men") (1958) *''Uppdrag Nubien: hur varlden raddade ett lands kulturminnen'' ("Mission in Nubia: How the World Saved a Country's Cultural Monuments") (1996)

Affiliations

Säve-Söderbergh was a member of the following academies and organisations: *

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien) is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special ...

(secretary, president) *

Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities also called simply the Royal Academy of Letters or Vitterhetsakademin abbreviated KVHAA ( sv, Kungl. Vitterhetsakademien Historie och Antikvitets Akademien or or ) is the Swedish royal ...

Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala The Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskaps-Societeten i Uppsala), is the oldest of the royal academies in Sweden, having been founded in 1710. The society has, by royal decree of 1906, 50 Swedish fellows and 100 foreign. ...

Royal Society of the Humanities at Uppsala The Royal Society of the Humanities at Uppsala ( sv, Kungl. Humanistiska Vetenskaps-Samfundet i Uppsala) is a Swedish Royal academy for the study of the humanities. Founding The society was founded in 1889 by a donation from tannery factory owner ...

Royal Society of Arts and Sciences of Uppsala The Royal Society of Arts and Sciences of Uppsala ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskapssamhället i Uppsala), is a Swedish royal academy in Uppsala Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Save-Soderbergh, Torgny 1914 births 1998 deaths Swedish Egyptologists Uppsala University alumni Academic staff of Uppsala University Swedish archaeologists Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences