László Török (13 May 1941 – 17 September 2020) was a Hungarian historian, archaeologist, and Egyptologist. His works on the ancient

Coptic language Coptic () is a dormant language, dormant Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language. It is a group of closely related Egyptian dialects, representing the most recent developments of the Ancient Egyptian language, Egyptian language, and histori ...

Ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

, ancient

Nubia Nubia (, Nobiin language, Nobiin: , ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the confluence of the Blue Nile, Blue and White Nile, White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), and the Cataracts of the Nile, first cataract ...

, and the

Kingdom of Kush The Kingdom of Kush (; Egyptian language, Egyptian: 𓎡𓄿𓈙𓈉 ''kꜣš'', Akkadian language, Assyrian: ''Kûsi'', in LXX Χους or Αἰθιοπία; ''Ecōš''; ''Kūš''), also known as the Kushite Empire, or simply Kush, was an an ...

were highly regarded. He was a member of the

Hungarian Academy of Sciences The Hungarian Academy of Sciences ( , MTA) is Hungary’s foremost and most prestigious learned society. Its headquarters are located along the banks of the Danube in Budapest, between Széchenyi rakpart and Akadémia utca. The Academy's primar ...

Biography

Török studied architecture at the

Budapest University of Technology and Economics The Budapest University of Technology and Economics ( or in short ), official abbreviation BME, is a public research university located in Budapest, Hungary. It is the most significant university of technology in the country and is considered ...

, graduating in 1964. In 1968, he earned a doctoral degree in architectural history. From 1971 to 1972, he studied coptology at

Eötvös Loránd University Eötvös Loránd University (, ELTE, also known as ''University of Budapest'') is a Hungarian public research university based in Budapest. Founded in 1635, ELTE is one of the largest and most prestigious public higher education institutions in ...

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

. From 1981 to 1984, Török headed the department of Roman archaeology at the Archaeological Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He also served as an honorary professor of Egyptology, starting in 1991. He became a full-fledged professor in 1992. Török was best known for his publications on ancient Nubia. He became a foreign member of the

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters (, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway. History The Royal Frederick University in Christiania was establis ...

in 1995. He was given an honorary doctorate from the

University of Bergen The University of Bergen () is a public university, public research university in Bergen, Norway. As of 2021, the university had over 4,000 employees and 19,000 students. It was established by an act of parliament in 1946 consolidating several sci ...

in 2000, and became a permanent member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 2010. The Hungarian Academy of Sciences awarded Török an academic tribute book for his archaeological discoveries and publications. László Török died on 17 September 2020 at the age of 79.

Awards

Széchenyi Prize The Széchenyi Prize (), named after István Széchenyi, is a prize given in Hungary by the state, replacing the former State Prize in 1990 in recognition of those who have made an outstanding contribution to academic life in Hungary. Recipients ...

(2015)

Publications

*''A szegedi eklektika'' (1966) *''Meroé és Nubia a 2.-7. században'' (1977) *''Economic Offices and Officials in Meroitic Nubia'' (1979) *''Der meroitische Staat'' (1986) *''The Royal Crowns of Kush. A Study in Middle Nile Valley Regalia and Iconography in the 1st Millennia BC and AD'' (1987) *''Late Antique Nubia'' (1988) *''Coptic Antiquities I–II.'' (1993) *''Fontes Historiae Nubiorum. Textual Sources for the History of the Middle Nile Region between the eighth Century BC and the sixth Century AD'' (1994) *''Meroe. Six Studies on the Cultural Identity of An Ancient African State'' (1995) *''The Birth of an Ancient African Kingdom'' (1995) *''Egyptian Terracottas of the Hellenistic and Roman Periods'' (1995) *''The Kingdom of Kush. Handbook of the Napatan-Meroitic Civilization'' (1997) *''A vadászó kentaur'' (1998) *''The Image of the Ordered World in Ancient Nubian Art'' (2002) *''Transfigurations of Hellenism. Aspects of Late Antique Art in Egypt AD 250-700'' (2005) *''Between Two Worlds. The Frontier Region between Ancient Nubia and Egypt 3700 BC - AD 500'' (2009) *''Hellenizing Art in Ancient Nubia 300 BC - AD 250 and its Egyptian Models. A Study in "Acculturation"'' (2011) *''Herodotus in Nubia'' (2014)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Török, László 1941 births 2020 deaths Hungarian Egyptologists 21st-century Hungarian historians Hungarian archaeologists Budapest University of Technology and Economics alumni Writers from Budapest Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters 20th-century Hungarian historians