Abbreviation | EES |
---|---|
Established | 1882 |
Founders | Amelia Edwards and Reginald Stuart Poole |
Type | Nonprofit |
Legal status | Charity |
President | Prof Alan B. Lloyd |
Chair | Dr Campbell Price |
Director | Dr Carl Graves |
Staff | 6 |
Website | ees.ac.uk |
Formerly called | Egypt Excavation Fund (1882–1919) |
The Egypt Exploration Society (EES) is a British non-profit organization. The society was founded in 1882 by Amelia Edwards and Reginald Stuart Poole in order to examine and excavate in the areas of Egypt and Sudan. The intent was to study and analyze the results of the excavations and publish the information for the scholarly world. [1]
The EES have worked at many major Egyptian excavation and sites. Their discoveries include the discovery of a shrine for the goddess Hathor, a statue of a cow from Deir el-Bahri, the mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut, and the sculpted model of Nefertiti from Amarna. The Society has made major contributions to the study of the ancient Egyptian world. [2] The Society is based in London and is a registered charity under English law. [3]
In 1873, the English writer Amelia Edwards was led to the sites of Egypt while encountering cold, wet climates in Europe. She and several friends ended up travelling up the River Nile from Cairo to Abu Simbel. She recorded the events and discoveries of this journey and eventually published it as A Thousand Miles up the Nile in 1876. The book became renowned for its description of 19th-century Egypt and the largely un-excavated antiques that she encountered. Edwards' descriptions changed the world's perspective on both modern and ancient Egypt. This attracted the attention of both scholarly society and the rest of the world. It ended up becoming a bestseller due to this increased interest, which prompted Edwards to think about continuing her studies of Ancient Egypt.
In 1882, Amelia Edwards and Reginald Stuart Poole, an employee from the Department of Coins and Medals at the British Museum, decided to create the Egypt Exploration Fund as a way to raise funds for more excavations in the Delta, which had been noted as being rarely visited. [1] After announcing their intentions in The Times , they started off being funded by individuals such as the Archbishop of Canterbury. the poet Robert Browning and Sir Erasmus Wilson. Wilson, in particular, showed enough interest to pledge £500 to the Egypt Exploration Fund. This marked the start of the Egypt Exploration Society. [2]
The first excavator of the Egypt Exploration Fund was Édouard Naville, a Swiss Egyptologist and Biblical scholar. In January 1883, Naville set out for Tell el-Maskhuta. His goal was to find the route of the Biblical exodus as the Fund had decided to broaden its interests in order to appeal to a wider audience. Naville's work attracted much interest from the public and at the first General Meeting of the Fund, which happened on 3 July 1883, the society was seen to have a good amount of funds in its accounts. A copy of Naville's work was distributed to the subscribers of the Fund. Eventually the Fund decided to have the subscribers become members instead. [2]
During the second excavation, the Fund sent Flinders Petrie, an English Egyptologist, who went to Tanis, a site linked to the Biblical city of Zoan. Petrie focussed much of his work on the ordinary dwellings of the site. This presented a new array of discoveries for the society. Petrie was among the first to understand that there was more than æsthetically appealing objects. Rather, he understood that many objects could provide information about the society of that time. He developed many techniques in which he could excavate and record the objects he found and his overall findings. At the end of his excavation, Petrie was able to bring back many valuable findings and items that he donated to the British Museum. The society became one of the first to provide scientifically excavated objects around Britain as well as overseas. [2] [4]
By the time of the third excavation, and the third year since the Fund was established, the society was able to send Edouard Naville, Flinders Petrie and Francis Llewellyn Griffith to Egypt. During this time and for the next few years, the Fund was able to bring back many findings, which resulted in the advancement of knowledge on Ancient Egypt. Some of the sites included the fortified camp and Tell Dafana and the temple of Bastet. [2]
In 1919, at the end of the First World War, the Egypt Exploration Fund changed its name to the Egypt Exploration Society. [5]
Today, the EES continues to publish its annual organ, the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology , which details the society's findings, for all of its members to read. [6] They also publish a newsletter bi-annually called Egyptian Archaeology. [7] The Egypt Exploration Society has been based in Doughty Mews, London WC1N since 1969. [8]
In October 2019 officials from the Egypt Exploration Society alleged that Oxford professor, Dirk Obbink, engaged in the theft and sale of "at least 11 ancient Bible fragments to the Green family, the Hobby Lobby owners who operate a Bible museum and charitable organization in Washington." The Museum of the Bible said it will return the fragments to the Egypt Exploration Society and Oxford University. [9]
Amarna is an extensive ancient Egyptian archaeological site containing the remains of what was the capital city during the late Eighteenth Dynasty. The city of Akhetaten was established in 1346 BC, built at the direction of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, and abandoned shortly after his death in 1332 BC. The name that the ancient Egyptians used for the city is transliterated as Akhetaten or Akhetaton, meaning "the horizon of the Aten".
Buto, Bouto, Butus or Butosus was a city that the Ancient Egyptians called Per-Wadjet. It was located 95 km east of Alexandria in the Nile Delta of Egypt. What in classical times the Greeks called Buto, stood about midway between the Taly (Bolbitine) and Thermuthiac (Sebennytic) branches of the Nile, a few kilometers north of the east-west Butic River and on the southern shore of the Butic Lake.
Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie, commonly known as simply Sir Flinders Petrie, was a British Egyptologist and a pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology and the preservation of artefacts. He held the first chair of Egyptology in the United Kingdom, and excavated many of the most important archaeological sites in Egypt in conjunction with his wife, Hilda Urlin. Some consider his most famous discovery to be that of the Merneptah Stele, an opinion with which Petrie himself concurred. Undoubtedly at least as important is his 1905 discovery and correct identification of the character of the Proto-Sinaitic script, the ancestor of almost all alphabetic scripts.
Naqada is a town on the west bank of the Nile in Qena Governorate, Egypt, situated ca. 20 km north of Luxor. It includes the villages of Tukh, Khatara, Danfiq, and Zawayda. According to the 1960 census, it is one of the most uninhabited areas and had only 3,000 inhabitants, mostly of Christian faith who preserved elements of the Coptic language up until the 1930s.
Heracleopolis Magna, Heracleopolis or Herakleoupolis (Ἡρακλεούπολις) is the Roman name of the capital of the 20th nome of ancient Upper Egypt, known in Ancient Egyptian as nn nswt. The site is located approximately 15 km (9.3 mi) west of the modern city of Beni Suef, in the Beni Suef Governorate of Egypt.
The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology in London is part of University College London Museums and Collections. The museum contains over 80,000 objects, making it one of the world's largest collections of Egyptian and Sudanese material. It is designated under the Arts Council England Designation Scheme as being of "national and international importance".
Pithom was an ancient city of Egypt. References in the Hebrew Bible and ancient Greek and Roman sources exist for this city, but its exact location remains somewhat uncertain. Some scholars identified it as the later archaeological site of Tell el-Maskhuta. Others identified it as the earlier archaeological site of Tell El Retabeh.
Anedjib, more correctly Adjib and also known as Hor-Anedjib, Hor-Adjib and Enezib, is the Horus name of an early Egyptian king who ruled during the 1st Dynasty.
Francis Llewellyn Griffith was an eminent British Egyptologist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Edward Russell Ayrton was an English Egyptologist and archaeologist.
Henry Reginald Holland Hall MBE, FBA, FSA was an English Egyptologist and historian. In life, he was normally referred to as Harry Reginald Hall.
Tall al-Ajjul or Tell el-'Ajul is an archaeological mound or tell in the Gaza Strip. The fortified city excavated at the site dates as far back as ca. 2000-1800 BCE and was inhabited during the Bronze Age. It is located at the mouth of Wadi Ghazzah just south of the town of Gaza.
Percy Edward Newberry was a British Egyptologist.
Henri Édouard Naville was a Swiss archaeologist, Egyptologist and Biblical scholar.
Count Riamo d'Hulst (c.1850–1916) was an Egyptologist and antiquarian of possible German origin.
Tell Nebesha or Nebesheh is an archaeological site in Egypt, and the location of the ancient city of Imet. It is found around 10km south of Tanis in the Eastern Nile Delta. This was the ancient capital of the 19th Nome of Lower Egypt. By the Assyrian period, it was succeeded by Tanis.
Hilda Mary Isabel, Lady Petrie, was an Irish-born British Egyptologist and wife of Sir Flinders Petrie, the father of scientific archaeology. Having studied geology, she was hired by Flinders Petrie at age 25 as an artist, which led to their marriage and a working partnership that endured for their lifetimes.
Kate Bradbury Griffith was a British Egyptologist who assisted in the early development of the Egypt Exploration Society and the Department of Egyptology at University College London (UCL). Bradbury was born in Ashton-under-Lyne, near Manchester, UK, to Elizabeth Ann Tomlins and businessman Charles Timothy Bradbury.
Saft el-Hinna, also written as Saft el-Hinneh, Saft el-Henna, Saft el-Henneh, is a village and an archaeological site in Egypt. It is located in the modern Al Sharqia Governorate, in the Nile Delta, about 7 km southeast of Zagazig.
Dorothy Charlesworth (1927–1981) was a Roman archaeologist and glass specialist who served as Inspector of Ancient Monuments. She worked within Britain and Egypt.