Sir Alan Henderson Gardiner | |
|---|---|
 Gardiner in 1938 | |
| Born | (1879-03-29)29 March 1879 Eltham, England |
| Died | 19 December 1963(1963-12-19) (aged 84) Iffley, near Oxford, England |
| Resting place | Iffley churchyard |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | Charterhouse School Queen's College, Oxford |
| Occupation(s) | Egyptologist andphilologist |
| Known for | Advancing knowledge of ancient languages, aidedTutankhamun's tomb excavation |
| Children | 3, includingRolf Gardiner andMargaret Gardiner |
| Relatives | H. Balfour Gardiner (brother) Martin Bernal (grandson) John Eliot Gardiner (grandson) |
Sir Alan Henderson Gardiner,FBA (29 March 1879 – 19 December 1963) was an EnglishEgyptologist,linguist,philologist, andindependent scholar. He is regarded as one of the premier Egyptologists of the early and mid-20th century.
Gardiner was born on 29 March 1879 inEltham, which was then in the English county ofKent. His father wasHenry John Gardiner, a highly successful entrepreneur and businessman who made a considerable fortune in thedrapery and wholesale linen trade inBristol and London.[1] His mother, Clara Elizabethnée Honey, died in his infancy and he and his elder brother, the composerH. Balfour Gardiner, were brought up by their father's housekeeper. Gardiner was educated atTemple Grove School andCharterhouse.
At school he developed an interest in ancient Egypt, and in 1895–96 he studied under the French archaeologistGaston Maspero in Paris. He then went toQueen's College, Oxford with a scholarship to studyLiterae humaniores (classics). Having achieved asecond inMods, he changed to Hebrew and Arabic, graduatingBA with afirst class degree in 1901.[2] He was later a student of the prominent EgyptologistKurt Heinrich Sethe in Berlin.[3]
In 1901, after graduating, he married Hedwig von Rosen in Vienna. They had two sons and a daughter, including the rural revivalist campaignerRolf Gardiner, andMargaret Gardiner, a patron of the arts.[2]
Gardiner moved toIffley, nearOxford in 1947. He died there on 19 December 1963 and, after cremation, his ashes were interred inIffley churchyard.[2]
In 1902 Gardiner moved to Berlin, to help gather material forAdolf 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 atWorcester College, Oxford.[4] From 1909 he spent two seasons assistingArthur Weigall in surveying private tombs in theThebes area. From 1912 to 1914, he wasReader in Egyptology at theUniversity of Manchester. He otherwise avoided formal academic posts and followed his own academic interests, family wealth enabling him to be financially independent.[2] He was anhonorary fellow ofThe Queen's College, Oxford, hisalma mater from 1935 until his death.[2]
Returning to Egypt in 1915, while working on inscriptions atSerabit el-Khadim in the Sinai Peninsula, he identified an unknown hieroglyphic script as the earliest knownSemitic alphabet, probably the ancestor of all later Semitic and European ones.[2]
AfterHoward Carter discovered the near–intacttomb 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 onLord Carnarvon's exclusive contract withThe Times, and during the 1924–25 legal dispute with theEgyptian Department of Antiquities on access to the partly-excavated tomb.[5]
Gardiner continued to research and publish books and articles until the early 1960s.[6] 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.[2] He was a prominent figure in theEgypt Exploration Fund and served as honorary secretary for 1917 to 1920, and later served as its president.[6]
During his career, Gardiner obtained a number of academic honours, includingDLitt from Oxford (1910),Fellow of the British Academy (1929),[2] election to theAmerican Philosophical Society (1943),[7] an honorary DLitt from bothDurham (1952) andCambridge (1956),[6] and election to theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences (1957).[8] He wasknighted in the1948 Birthday Honours list.[9]
Gardiner's publications include a 1959 book on his study ofTurin King List, and his 1961 workEgypt 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 ancientEgyptianphilology including three editions ofEgyptian Grammar and its correlated list of all theMiddle Egyptianhieroglyphs inGardiner's Sign List. PublishingEgyptian Grammar produced one of the few available hieroglyphic printing fonts.
In 1914 he helped establish theEgypt Exploration Fund'sJournal of Egyptian Archaeology which he edited intermittently between 1916 and 1946.[6]
Works by or aboutAlan Gardiner atWikisource