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Henry R. H. Hall | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1873-09-30)30 September 1873 |
| Died | 13 October 1930(1930-10-13) (aged 57) London, UK |
| Alma mater | St John's College, Oxford |
| Known for | his excavations inEgypt andMesopotamia, being Keeper of the Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities at theBritish Museum |
| Father | Sydney Prior Hall |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Egyptology,Assyriology,archaeology |
| Institutions | British Academy,Egypt Exploration Society,Society of Antiquaries of London |
Henry Reginald Holland HallMBE,FBA,FSA (30 September 1873 – 13 October 1930) was an EnglishEgyptologist and historian. In life, he was normally referred to as Harry Reginald Hall.[1]
Henry R.H. Hall was the son ofSir Sydney Hall,MVO,MA, a portrait painter and illustrator forThe Graphic newspaper, and his wife Hannah Holland. He went toMerchant Taylors' School, London and showed an interest in history andancient Egypt from an early age. By the age of 11 he wrote a history ofPersia, and by 16 he had gained some knowledge of the ancientEgyptian language.[1]
Hall studiedclassics atSt John's College, Oxford, as well as Egyptian history and language under the tutelage of EgyptologistFrancis Llewellyn Griffith, gaining a BA in 1895, hisMA in 1897 and later hisD.Litt in 1920.[1]
In 1896 he started work at theBritish Museum as an assistant toE. A. Wallis Budge, becoming Assistant Keeper, Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities in 1919. On Budge's retirement in 1924, Hall became Keeper of the Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, a post he held until his death in 1930.[1]
He worked withÉdouard Naville andEdward R. Ayrton in the excavations atDeir el-Bahri,Egypt, from 1903 to 1907, and also dug atAbydos with theEgypt Exploration Society expeditions of 1910 and 1925.[1]
During theFirst World War he was attached to the military section of the press bureau, and in 1916 moved intoIntelligence and was later attached to the Political Service in Mesopotamia with the rank of captain. He was twice mentioned in dispatches, and was made aMember of the Order of the British Empire.[1]
Combining in an unusual manner a knowledge of Egyptology and Assyriology in almost equal degrees, he was indefatigable in the service of the joint departments in the British Museum. While in his later years he had not the opportunity to take part in excavating expeditions sent out by the Museum, he was of great assistance in organising the expeditions ofCampbell Thompson at Nineveh andGuy Brunton in Upper Egypt. He was, despite an initial and boyish brusqueness of manner, a charming colleague and tactful in the division of the spoils of excavation when these had been acquired jointly with other bodies. On the art of Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia he was perhaps the pre-eminent authority, and it was one of his first tasks as Keeper to rearrange many of the galleries so as to stress the artistic and historical side of archaeology and less the predominantly religious emphasis which previously existed. Of the collections in the British Museum Hall published a work on the Coptic and Greek texts of the Christian period, one volume of a catalogue of scarabs, and six volumes on the hieroglyphic texts.
Hall's interests were not confined to Egyptology; after the war he directed the British Museum excavations atUr andTell Ubaid, inMesopotamia. He travelled in Greece and western Asia, and published a variety of works on the history of these regions; he even cultivated an interest inChinese antiquities.[1]
He was a forceful speaker with an encyclopaedic knowledge of his subject, and had great success in presenting archaeological discoveries to the general public. He was a frequent contributor of short articles and communications, submitting more than 100 of these to various academic journals, including theJournal of Egyptian Archaeology and theBritish Museum Quarterly. He also contributed chapters toCambridge Ancient History as well as articles forEncyclopædia Britannica andDictionary of National Biography.
With later art, especially that of the last four centuries, he was well acquainted, collecting Dutch paintings of ships, and presenting to the National Portrait Gallery in the present year a remarkable collection of political and other portrait sketches made by his father. Among other interests outside his main field, he was devoted to the history of the Army and Navy and his acquaintance with the various types of German military buttons was of unexpected national service in the War.
In 1920 Hall was made honorary D.Litt. at Oxford and an honorary Fellow of his college in 1929. He was a Fellow of the British Academy, chairman of the Palestine Exploration Fund in 1922, and a member of Council of both the Hellenic Society and the Royal Asiatic Society.
On returning from an Egyptological seminar inBrussels, Hall caught a cold from which he did not recover, dying ofpneumonia in London on 13 October 1930, at the age of 57. His service was at St Mary the Virgin, Primrose Hill, and afterwards at Golders Green Crematorium on 15 October.[1]
