Sir Alan Henderson Gardiner, (29 March 1879 – 19 December 1963) was an English Egyptologist, linguist, philologist, and independent scholar. He is regarded as one of the premier Egyptologists of the early and mid-20th century.

Personal life

Gardiner was born on 29 March 1879 in Eltham, which was then in the English county of Kent. His father was Henry John Gardiner, a highly successful entrepreneur and businessman who made a considerable fortune in the drapery and wholesale linen trade in

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

and London.{{cite book , last=Lloyd , first=Stephen , title= H. Balfour Gardiner , publisher=Cambridge University Press , date=2005 , isbn=9780521619226 , pages=2–3 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NHdVK2-3ITkC His mother, Clara Elizabeth ''née'' Honey, died in his infancy and he and his elder brother, the composer H. Balfour Gardiner, were brought up by their father's housekeeper. Gardiner was educated at Temple Grove School and Charterhouse. At school he developed an interest in ancient Egypt, and in 1895–96 he studied under the French archaeologist Gaston Maspero in Paris. He then went to Queen's College, Oxford with a scholarship to study '' Literae humaniores'' (

classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

). Having achieved a second in Mods, he changed to Hebrew and Arabic, graduating BA with a first class degree in 1901. He was later a student of the prominent Egyptologist Kurt Heinrich Sethe in Berlin. In 1901, after graduating, he married Hedwig von Rosen in Vienna. They had two sons and a daughter, including the rural revivalist campaigner Rolf Gardiner, and Margaret Gardiner, a patron of the arts. Gardiner moved to Iffley, near Oxford in 1947. He died there on 19 December 1963 and, after cremation, his ashes were interred in Iffley churchyard.{{cite book , last=Simpson, first=R. S., title=

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from History of the British Isles, British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') ...

: Gardiner, Sir Alan Henderson , date=2004 , publisher=Oxford University Press, isbn=019861411X

Career

In 1902 Gardiner moved to Berlin, to help gather material for Adolf Erman's projected Egyptian dictionary, serving as a sub-editor from 1906 to 1908. From 1906 to 1912, he was the Laycock Fellow of Egyptology at Worcester College, Oxford.{{cite web , title=Gardiner, Sir Alan (Henderson), (29 March 1879–19 Dec. 1963), Hon. Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford; President of the Egypt Exploration Society , url=http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whoswho/U52716 , website= Who Was Who , publisher=Oxford University Press , access-date=30 April 2022 , language=en , date=1 December 2007 From 1909 he spent two seasons assisting Arthur Weigall in surveying private tombs in the Thebes area. From 1912 to 1914, he was Reader in Egyptology at the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

. He otherwise avoided formal academic posts and followed his own academic interests, family wealth enabling him to be financially independent. He was an honorary fellow of The Queen's College, Oxford, his ''alma mater'' from 1935 until his death. Returning to Egypt in 1915, while working on inscriptions at Serabit el-Khadim in the Sinai Peninsula, he identified an unknown hieroglyphic script as the earliest known Semitic alphabet, probably the ancestor of all later Semitic and European ones. After Howard Carter discovered the near–intact tomb of Tutankhamun in November 1922, Gardiner provided advice and support. This included helping to decipher inscriptions and seal impressions found in the tomb, and advising on Lord Carnarvon's exclusive contract with ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', and during the 1924–25 legal dispute with the Egyptian Department of Antiquities on access to the partly-excavated tomb. Gardiner continued to research and publish books and articles until the early 1960s. He however exercised an influence on Egyptology far beyond his publications. Although he held no important academic post, he was universally respected as a senior member of the academic community, and was often consulted on academic appointments. He was a prominent figure in the Egypt Exploration Fund and served as honorary secretary for 1917 to 1920, and later served as its president. During his career, Gardiner obtained a number of academic honours, including DLitt from Oxford (1910),

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (post-nominal letters FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in t ...

(1929), election to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

(1943), an honorary DLitt from both Durham (1952) and

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

(1956),{{cite book, title=Who Was Who 1961–1970, year=1979, publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing, London, isbn=0-7136-2008-0 and election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1957). He was knighted in the 1948 Birthday Honours list.{{London Gazette , issue=38311 , page=3365 , date=4 June 1948

Works

Gardiner's publications include a 1959 book on his study of Turin King List, and his 1961 work ''Egypt of the Pharaohs'', which covered all aspects of Egyptian chronology and history at the time of publication. His works related mainly to ancient languages, with his major contributions to ancient Egyptian philology including three editions of '' Egyptian Grammar'' and its correlated list of all the Middle Egyptian hieroglyphs in '' Gardiner's Sign List''. Publishing ''Egyptian Grammar'' produced one of the few available hieroglyphic printing fonts. In 1914 he helped establish the Egypt Exploration Fund's '' Journal of Egyptian Archaeology'' which he edited intermittently between 1916 and 1946.

Selected bibliography

''The Admonitions of an Egyptian Sage from a Hieratic Papyrus in Leiden (Pap. Leiden 334 recto)''
Leipzig, 1909 (reprint Hildesheim - Zürich - New York, 1990).
''A Topographical Catalogue of the Private Tombs of Thebes''
with Arthur E.P. Weigall, London, Bernard Quaritch, 1913. *"New Literary Works from Ancient Egypt", '' Journal of Egyptian Archaeology'' 1 (1914), 20-36 and 100–106.
''Notes on the story of Sinuhe''
Paris, Librairie Honoré Champion, 1916 *"The Tomb of a much-travelled Theban Official", ''Journal of Egyptian Archaeology'' 4 (1917), 28–38. *"On Certain Participial Formations in Egyptian", ''Rev. ég.'' N.S. 2/1-2 (1920), 42–55. *"The Eloquent Peasant", JEA 9 (1923), 5-25. *'' Egyptian Grammar: Being an Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphs'', 3rd Ed., pub. Griffith Institute, Oxford, 1957 (1st edition 1927), {{ISBN, 0-900416-35-1
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''The Theory of Speech and Language''
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1932.
"The Earliest Manuscripts of the Instruction of Amenemmes I"
''Mélanges Maspero'' I.2, 479–496 df 62 Cairo, Imprimerie de l'Institut Français, 1934 *''Ancient Egyptian Onomastica''. Vol. I—III. London: OUP, 1947. *''The Ramesseum Papyri''. Plates (Oxford 1955) *''The Theory of Proper Names: A Controversial Essay''. London; New York: Oxford University Press, 1957. *''Egypt of the Pharaohs'', Oxford 1961

References

{{Reflist

External links

*{{cite journal , last=Gardiner , first=Alan H. , date=1904, title=The Installation of a Vizier , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8wkOAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA1, access-date= 19 November 2016, journal=Recueil de travaux relatifs à la philologie et à l'archéologie égyptiennes et assyriennes, publication-date=1904, volume=26-27, pages=1–19 *{{cite journal , last=Gardiner , first=Alan H. , date=1913, title=Proceedings of the session: Dr. Alan H. Gardiner on the Nature of the Egyptian Hieroglyphic Writing , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7lZ7IZG6PEwC&pg=PA18, access-date= 19 November 2016, journal=Journal of the Manchester Egyptian and Oriental Society, publication-date=1914, pages=18–19 *{{wikisource author-inline {{Authority control {{DEFAULTSORT:Gardiner, Alan H. 1879 births 1963 deaths 20th-century British philologists English Egyptologists Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences Alumni of the Queen's College, Oxford People educated at Charterhouse School People educated at Temple Grove School Independent scholars Proto-Sinaitic script Members of the German Academy of Sciences at Berlin Knights Bachelor Members of the American Philosophical Society

Personal life

Career

Works

Selected bibliography

See also

References

External links