Citizendia

E. A. Wallis Budge in his office at the British Museum around the turn of the 20th century
E. A. Wallis Budge in his office at the British Museum around the turn of the 20th century

Sir Ernest Alfred Thompson Wallis Budge (July 27, 1857 – November 23, 1934) was an English Egyptologist, Orientalist, and philologist who worked for the British Museum and published numerous works on the ancient Near East. The British Museum is a Museum of human history and culture in London. Events 1214 - Battle of Bouvines: In France, Philip II of France defeats John of England. Click here for Indian Rebellion of 1857 Year 1857 ( MDCCCLVII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the Events 800 - Charlemagne arrives at Rome to investigate the alleged crimes of Year 1934 ( MCMXXXIV) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display full 1934 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland This is a partial list of Egyptologists. An Egyptologist is any Archaeologist, Historian, linguist, or Art historian who specializes in Orientalism refers to the imitation or depiction of aspects of Eastern cultures in the West by writers designers and artists and can also refer to a sympathetic stance See Comparative linguistics for the narrower field of "comparative philology" The British Museum is a Museum of human history and culture in London. The Ancient Near East refers to early Civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia (modern Iraq

Contents

Early life

E. A. Wallis Budge was born in Bodmin, Cornwall to Mary Ann Budge, a young woman whose father was a waiter in a Bodmin hotel. Bodmin (Bosvenegh is a Town in Cornwall, United Kingdom, with a population of 12778 (2001 census Cornwall ( Kernow ˈkɛɹnɔʊ is the most southwesterly county of England, on the Peninsula that lies to the west of the River Tamar Budge's father has never been identified. Budge left Cornwall as a young man, and eventually came to live with his grandmother and aunt in London.

Budge became interested in languages before he was ten years old, but given that he left school at the age of twelve in 1869 to work as a clerk at the firm of W.H. Smith, it was only in his spare time that he studied Hebrew and Syriac, with the aid of a volunteer tutor named Charles Seeger. This article is about the retail chain for people of that name see William Henry Smith. See Syriac (disambiguation for other uses Syriac (syr ܠܫܢܐ ܣܘܪܝܝܐ leššānā Suryāyā) is an Eastern Aramaic language Budge became interested in learning the ancient Assyrian language in 1872, when he also began to spend time in the British Museum. The British Museum is a Museum of human history and culture in London. Budge's tutor introduced him to the Keeper of Oriental Antiquities, the pioneer Egyptologist Samuel Birch, and Birch's assistant, the Assyriologist George Smith. Samuel Birch ( November 3, 1813 - December 27, 1885) was an British Egyptologist and Antiquary. George Smith ( Chelsea London March 26, 1840 &ndash August 19, 1876) was a pioneering English Assyriologist Smith helped Budge occasionally with his Assyrian, whereas Birch allowed the young man to study cuneiform tablets in his office and obtained books of Middle Eastern travel and adventure such as Sir Austen Henry Layard's Nineveh and Its Remains for him to read from the British Library. The Right Honourable Sir Austen Henry Layard (ˈɔːstɪn ˈhɛnriː lɛəd 5 March, 1817 – 5 July, 1894) was a

From 1869 to 1878 Budge spent whatever free time he had from his job at W. H. Smith studying Assyrian, and he often walked down to St. Paul's Cathedral over his lunch break to study during these years. When the organist of St. Paul's, John Stainer, noticed Budge's hard work, he decided to help the boy to realize his dream of working in a profession that would allow him to study Assyrian. Sir John Stainer (London 6 June 1840 &ndash Verona, 31 March 1901 was an English composer and organist whose music though not greatly admired today was much performed during Stainer contacted Budge's employer, the Conservative Member of Parliament W.H. Smith, as well as the former Liberal Prime Minister W.E. Gladstone, and asked them to help his young friend. This article is about the retail chain for people of that name see William Henry Smith. Both Smith and Gladstone agreed to help Stainer to raise money for Budge to attend Cambridge University, where Budge later studied Semitic languages, including Hebrew, Syriac, Ethiopic and Arabic from 1878 to 1883, continuing to study Assyrian on his own. The University of Cambridge (often Cambridge University) located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the The Semitic languages are a Language family whose living representatives are spoken by more than 467 million people across much of the Middle East, Ge'ez (ግዕዝ, ɡɨʕɨz also transliterated Gi'iz, and referred to as Ethiopic) is an ancient South Semitic Language Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language Budge worked closely during these years with the famous scholar of Semitic languages William Wright, among others. William Wright or Bill Wright may refer to William Wright (1829-1898 the real name of Dan DeQuille, American author newspaperman and humorist

Career at the British Museum

Budge entered the British Museum in the re-named Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities in 1883, and though he was initially appointed to the Assyrian section, he soon transferred to the Egyptian section, where he began to study the ancient Egyptian language with Samuel Birch until the latter's death in 1885. Egyptian is an Afro-Asiatic language most closely related to the Berber, Semitic, Somali and Beja languages Budge continued to study ancient Egyptian with the new Keeper, Peter le Page Renouf, until Renouf's retirement in 1891. Sir Peter le Page Renouf (August 23 1822 - October 14 1897 Egyptologist, was born in Guernsey.

Between 1886 and 1891, Budge was deputed by the British Museum to investigate why it was that cuneiform tablets from British Museum sites in Iraq, which were supposedly being guarded by local agents of the Museum, were showing up in the collections of London antiquities dealers. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Iraq topics. The British Museum was purchasing these collections of their own tablets at inflated London market rates, and the Principal Librarian of the Museum, Edward Bond, wished Budge to find the source of the leaks and to seal it. Bond also wanted Budge to establish ties to Iraqi antiquities dealers to buy whatever was available in the local market at much reduced prices. Budge also travelled to Istanbul during these years to obtain from the Ottoman government a permit to reopen the Museum's excavations at these Iraqi sites in order to obtain whatever tablets remained in them.

During his years in the British Museum, Budge also sought to establish ties with local antiquities dealers in Egypt and Iraq so that the Museum would be able to obtain antiquities from them without the uncertainty and cost of excavating -- a decidedly 19th century approach to building a museum collection. Budge returned from his many missions to Egypt and Iraq with enormous collections of cuneiform tablets, Syriac, Coptic and Greek manuscripts, as well as significant collections of hieroglyphic papyri. This article is about the country of Egypt For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Egypt topics. Coptic or Coptic Egyptian ( MetRemenkīmi) is the final stage of the Egyptian language, a northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly Hieroglyph ( Greek grc-Grek ἱερογλύφος " sacred carving " or hieroglyphics ( = grc-Grek τὰ ἱερογλυφικά Perhaps his most famous acquisitions from this time were the beautiful Papyrus of Ani, a copy of Aristotle's lost Constitution of Athens, and the Tell al-Amarna tablets. The Papyrus of Ani is a Papyrus manuscript written in Cursive hieroglyphs and illustrated with color miniatures created in the 19th dynasty of the Aristotle (Greek Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. The Constitution of the Athenians (or Athenaion Politeia, or The Athenian constitution) is the name of either of two texts from Classical antiquity one The site of Amarna (commonly known as el-Amarna or incorrectly as Tel el-Amarna; see below ( Arabic: العمارنة al-‘amārnah) is located Budge's prolific and well-planned acquisitions gave the British Museum arguably the best Ancient Near East collections in the world, and the Assyriologist Archibald Sayce remarked to Budge in 1900, ". The Rev Archibald Henry Sayce ( 25 September 1846 - 4 February 1933) was a pioneer Assyriologist and linguist, who held . . What a revolution you have effected in the Oriental Department of the Museum! It is now a veritable history of civilization in a series of object lessons . . . "

Budge became Assistant Keeper in his department after Renouf retired in 1891, and was confirmed as Keeper in 1894, a position in which he remained until 1924, specializing in Egyptology. Budge and the other collectors for the museums of Europe regarded having the best collection of Egyptian and Assyrian antiquities in the world as a matter of national pride, and there was tremendous competition for Egyptian and Iraqi antiquities among them. These museum officials and their local agents smuggled antiquities in diplomatic pouches, bribed customs officials, or simply went to friends or countrymen in the Egyptian Service of Antiquities to ask them to pass their cases of antiquities unopened. Illicit antiquities are Antiquities, or artifacts of Archaeological interest found in illegal or unregulated excavations and traded covertly

Literary and social career

Budge was also a prolific author, and he is especially remembered today for his works on Egyptian religion and his hieroglyphic primers. Budge's works on Egyptian religion were unique in that he maintained that the religion of Osiris had emerged from an indigenous African people: "There is no doubt," he said of Egyptian religions in Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection (1911), "that the beliefs examined herein are of indigenous origin, Nilotic or Sundani in the broadest signification of the word, and I have endeavoured to explain those which cannot be elucidated in any other way, by the evidence which is afforded by the Religions of the modern peoples who live on the great rivers of East, West, and Central Africa . Nilotic people or Nilotes, in its contemporary usage refers to some Ethnic groups mainly in Southern Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, and northern . . Now, if we examine the Religions of modern African peoples, we find that the beliefs underlying them are almost identical with those Ancient Egyptian ones described above. As they are not derived from the Egyptians, it follows that they are the natural product of the religious mind of the natives of certain parts of Africa, which is the same in all periods. "

Budge's contention that the religion of the Egyptians was essentially identical to the religions of the people of northeastern and central Africa was regarded by his colleagues as impossible, since all but a few followed Flinders Petrie in his contention that the culture of Ancient Egypt was derived from an invading Caucasian "Dynastic Race" which had conquered Egypt in late prehistory and introduced the Pharaonic culture (Trigger, 1994). Professor Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie FRS ( 3 June 1853 &ndash 28 July 1942) known as Flinders Petrie, was an Petrie was a dedicated follower of the pseudo-science of Eugenics, believing that there was no such thing as cultural or social innovation in human society, but rather that all social change is the result of biological change, such as migration and foreign conquest resulting in interbreeding. Eugenics is a social Philosophy which advocates the improvement of Human Hereditary traits through various forms of intervention Petrie claimed that his "Dynastic Race," in which he never ceased to believe, was a "fine" Caucasian race which entered Egypt from the south in late predynastic times, conquered the "inferior" and "exhausted" "mulatto" race which then inhabited Egypt, and slowly introduced the finer Dynastic civilization as they interbred with the inferior indigenous people (Silberman, 1999). The Caucasian race, sometimes the Caucasoid race, is a term of Racial classification, coined around 1800 by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach for the " The Predynastic Period of Egypt (prior to 3100 BC is traditionally the period between the Early Neolithic and the beginning of the Pharaonic monarchy beginning with King Petrie, who was also affiliated with a variety of far right-wing groups and anti-democratic thought in England and was a dedicated believer in the superiority of the Northern peoples over the Latinate and Southern peoples (Silberman, 1999), derided Budge's belief that the ancient Egyptians were an African people with roots in eastern Africa as impossible and "unscientific," as did his followers. In Politics, right-wing, the political right, and the Right are positions that uphold traditional values and/or authorities

Budge's works were widely read by the educated public and among those seeking comparative ethnological data, including James Frazer, who incorporated some of Budge's ideas on Osiris into his ever-growing work The Golden Bough. Ethnology (from the Greek ἔθνος, ethnos meaning "habit custom convention" is the branch of Anthropology that compares and Osiris ( Greek language, also Usiris; the Egyptian language name is variously transliterated Asar, Aser, Ausar, Ausir The Golden Bough A Study in Magic and Religion is a wide-ranging comparative study of Mythology and Religion, written by Scottish anthropologist Sir Budge was interested in the paranormal and believed in the reality of spirits and hauntings. Paranormal is an Umbrella term used to describe unusual Phenomena or experiences that lack an obvious Scientific explanation Budge had a number of friends in the Ghost Club (British Library, Manuscript Collections, Ghost Club Archives), a group in London committed to the study of alternative religions and the spirit world, and told his many friends stories of hauntings and other uncanny experiences. Many people in his day who were involved with the occult and spiritualism after losing their faith in Christianity were dedicated to Budge's works, particularly his translation of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, which was very important to such writers as the poet William Butler Yeats and James Joyce. The word occult comes from the Latin word occultus (clandestine hidden secret referring to "knowledge of the hidden" Spiritualism is a Religion founded in part on the writings of the Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772 Christianity ( Greek Χριστιανισμός from the word Xριστός ( Christ)is a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings ' The Book of the Dead' is the common name for the Ancient Egyptian Funerary text known as ' Spells of Coming' (or ' Going') ' Forth By Day' James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 &ndash 13 January 1941 was an Irish expatriate writer widely considered to be one of the most influential writers of the Budge's works on Egyptian religion have remained consistently in print since they entered the public domain; this is most likely because Budge was, himself, a proponent of liberal Christianity and devoted to comparative religions, and his works often appeal to those who are similarly interested. For liberal political views within Christianity see Christian left. Comparative religion is a field of Religious study that analyzes the similarities and differences of themes myths rituals and concepts among the world's religions

Budge was a member of the literary and open-minded Savile Club in London, proposed by his friend H. Rider Haggard in 1889, and accepted in 1891. The Savile Club was founded in 1867 as a literary academic and arts club for men of the newly-enlarged electorate who were unable to join the more prestigious Athenaeum. Sir Henry Rider Haggard KBE ( 22 June 1856 &ndash 14 May 1925) was a prolific writer of Adventure novels set He was a much sought-after dinner guest in London, his humorous stories and anecdotes being famous in his circle, and it is hardly surprising that the low-born Budge was fascinated not only by the company of literary men, but also by that of the aristocracy. He sedulously sought the company of the well-born, many of whom he seems to have met when they brought to the British Museum the scarabs and statuettes they had purchased while on holiday in Egypt. Budge never lacked for an invitation to a country house in the summer or to a fashionable townhouse during the London season.

Budge seems to have felt that he had something to prove to his contemporaries, for he published works at an alarming rate, often sacrificing attention to detail to quantity of publications, and though his books remain widely available, obviously a century later his work has become outdated.

Budge was knighted for his distinguished contributions to Egyptology and the British Museum in 1920, also the year he published his sprawling autobiography, By Nile and Tigris. He retired from the British Museum in 1924, and lived on until 1934, continuing to publish book after book up until the completion of his last work, From Fetish to God in Ancient Egypt (1934). In his will, Budge established the Lady Wallis Budge Junior Research Fellowships and graduate scholarships at Cambridge and Oxford Universities that continue to this day to support young Egyptologists at the beginning of their research careers.

In popular culture

Selected works by Wallis Budge

Further reading

External links and sources

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