Thirteen Egyptologists

1. Ludwig Borchardt (1863 – 1938):

   A German Egyptologist and architect, Borchardt became famous for his excavations in Abusir, Abu Ghurab and Amarna (where he discovered the famous bust of Nefertiti). He made an outstanding contribution to the understanding of the architecture of the pyramid complex and founded the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo, as well as the Swiss Institute for Egyptian Archaeology and Architecture in Cairo. There is still controversy regarding the bust of Nefertiti as it resides in the Berlin Egyptology Museum.

2. Giovanni Battista Belzoni (1778 – 1823):

   Belzoni, an Italian, was the strong man of Egyptology, who worked in as a circus strongman in London prior to his explorations in Egypt. He was an imposing man with a height of about two meters (6ft, 6in). He was an adventurer and self taught archaeologist who possibly studied hydraulics, and who ended up working for the Egyptian vice regent, Muhammad Ali. He directed excavations, often using crude methods. However, he is credited with discovering the previously unknown upper entrance of Khafre’s pyramid at Giza. He also documented and collected antiquities.

3. Howard Carter (1874 – 1939):

   Howard Carter is probably the most famous Egyptologist we know of because of his discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamun, and the resulting media frenzy. However, he worked on many other excavations. He was a British Egyptologist, who began his career as a draftsman and artist, documenting work and excavations at a number of locations in Egypt, including of course, the Valley of the Kings.

4. Jean-Francois Champollion (1790 – 1832):

   The world might never have heard of Champollion were it not for the Rosetta Stone. He was the intellect who broke the mysterious code of hieroglyphics, and because of this, is often recognized as the founder of Egyptology. In addition to his work with the Rosetta Stone, he visited Egypt and studied the monuments and collected a wide range of documentation. he also authored a series of scholarly works on Egyptian history, religion and language.

5. Amelia Edwards (1831 – 92):

   renowned in Egyptological circles for her major role in founding the Egypt Exploration Society, was not herself a trained archaeologist. She went to Egypt only once in her life (1873/74) and then on not much more than a whim. She and a friend had embarked on a walking tour in France but bad weather drove them to abandon it and to look for somewhere else they might find sun. After some hesitation, they chose Cairo. The journey so casually undertaken was to produce a book, A Thousand Miles up the Nile (first published 1877) which was much-read in its day and has been twice reprinted in recent years (Century, 1982; Darf, 1996). It was also to bring about a complete reorientation of Amelia Edward’s own life and a crucial development in the history of British Egyptology.
   
   Edwards’ travels in Egypt had made her aware of the increasing threat directed towards the ancient monuments by tourism and modern development. Determined to stem these threats by the force of public awareness and scientific endeavour, Edwards became a tireless public advocate for the research and preservation of the ancient monuments and, in 1882, co-founded the Egypt Exploration Fund (now the Egypt Exploration Society) with Reginald Stuart Poole, curator of the Department of Coins and Medals at the British Museum. Edwards was to serve as joint Honorary Secretary of the Fund until her death some 14 years later.

6. Zahi Hawass (1947- )

   Hawass is currently one of the most famous Egyptologists in the world, credited with considerable work at Giza, as well as the Western Oasis. An Egyptian, he has been greatly involved in work carried out around the Great Pyramid of Giza. He also discovered and worked in the necropolis of the artists who worked on those pyramids. In 2001, he was named as the eighth National Geographic Explorer in Residence. In the first months of 2002, he was named as the chairman of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), which oversees all artifacts and monuments in Egypt under the authority of the Ministry of Culture.

7. Jean-Philippe Lauer (1902 – 2001):

   Lauer was a French architect and archaeologists who was already working in Egypt around the age of 18. He was almost exclusively involved with research at Saqqara, particularly at the complex of Djoser, where he first went to work for Firth and Quibell. He was considered to be the the foremost expert on pyramid construction techniques and methods. Some of his work at Saqqara focused on reconstructing, theoretically, many of the buildings in the Djoser complex. He lived to be about 99 years old, and spent 70 of those years in the pyramid field at Saqqara.

8. Mark Lehner

   Mark Lehner, an American Egyptologist who continues today to work at Giza, is one of the modern living legends of Egyptology. and in the past has worked closely with Zahi Hawass. He directed the Sphinx and Isis Temple project from 1979 to 1983, and since 1984, had directed the Giza Plateau Mapping Project. He has developed computerized reconstruction’s of the sphinx and the Giza plateau, as well as doing important work on the G 1a pyramid in Khufu’s complex. Both he, and Hawass, were highly visible in the debate that raged, and sometimes continues to raise its ugly head, over the age of the Sphinx and the construction of the pyramids. Of course, both Lehner and Hawass argued the side of traditional Egyptology, maintaining that the Sphinx dates to the 4th Dynasty and was not built thousands of years earlier, and that there was nothing supernatural or alien about the construction of the great pyramids at Giza. Perhaps Lehner’s voice is louder on the subject than many other Egyptologists, for he originally came to Egypt with the other camp, as a follower of Edgar Cayce (the Sleeping Prophet). Cayce, a psychic, maintained that the Atlantians had buried an advanced library of information between the paws of the Sphinx. After spending time examining the monuments of Egypt, he rejected Casey’s radical views and began studying traditional Egyptology. Lehner is the author of The Complete Pyramids of Egypt, as well as many other references, and is considered a leading modern authority on Egypt’s pyramid complexes.

9. Karl Richard Lepsius (1810 – 1884):

   Lepsius was a German Egyptologist who did important surveys of Egyptian monuments, including the pyramids, and is considered by many to be perhaps one of the most important Egyptologists of all times. Lepsius was born in Namburg-am-Sale in 1810 and earned his doctorate in Berlin in 1833. He founded the study of Egyptology at the University of Berlin, and was also heavily involved in the development of the Egyptian Museum in Berlin. Between 1842 and 1845, he led the famous Prussian expedition to Egypt and Nubia. This work, sponsored by King Wilhelm IV of Prussia worked as far south in the Sudan as Khartoum and Sennar, as well as visiting the Fayoum and the Sinai. He published this information in his work, published in 12 volumes called Denkmaler aus Aegypten und Aethiopien. This work perhaps constitutes the greatest Egyptological study published thus far. Collecting was also a mandate of the Expedition, and with the enthusiastic approval of Muhammed Ali, some 15,000 objects were shipped back to augment the growing Egyptian collection in Berlin.

10. Francois Auguste Ferdinand Pasha Mariette (1821 – 1881):

    Mariette was a French Egyptologist who is often credited as the founder of modern archaeological excavations and preservation of Egyptian monuments. Yet he spent his early life as a teacher of French and drawing in Stratford, England. He began studying Egyptology at about the age of 21. He led several dozen archaeological excavations throughout Egypt and Nubia, paving the way for the founding of the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology in Cairo. Interestingly, he also participated in writing the libretto for the opera Aida, by Verdi.

11. Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (1853 – 1942):

    Petrie is one of the most famous Egyptologists of all times. He is considered by many to be the founder of modern Egyptologists. Known as the “Father of Pot Shards”, because he learned to extract considerable amounts of information from what other’s might see merely as refuge. Yet, Petrie had no formal education and was self taught in the areas that he worked. He worked at dozens of sites in Egypt, devoting himself to the organization and methodology of archaeological investigation. His work at the pyramids in Giza set the standard for later research in the area, but he did a vast amount of other important work in Egypt.

12. Kent R. Weeks (1941- ):

Kent Weeks is one of the top guns of current Egyptology, alongside names such as Lehner and Hawass, among others. He is a professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo and Director of the Theban Mapping Project. He is also credited with discovering KV 5, the tomb of the sons of Ramesses II in the Valley of the Kings, and is the author of numerous books, including Valley of the Kings (with many others) and The Lost Tomb.

13. John Gardner Wilkinson (1797-1875):

    John Gardner Wilkinson was a British Egyptologist and traveler who, as part of his topographical survey of Thebes, assigned the numbering sequence to the tombs in the Valley of the Kings that was later continued and is still in use today. He also copied and studied scenes and inscriptions of the Theban tombs and carried out limited excavations in 1824 and 1827-1828. Fifty-six volumes of Wilkinson’s work are preserved in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

Sources: Egypt: The Egyptologists, Wikipedia and Ancient Egypt by Oakes and Gahlin