George andrew reisner biography sample

American archeologist (–)

George Andrew Reisner Jr. (November 5, – June 6, ) was an American archaeologist of Ancient Egypt, Nubia and Palestine.

Early life

Reisner was born on November 5, , in Indianapolis. His parents were George Andrew Reisner Sr. boss Mary Elizabeth Mason. His father's parents were criticize German descent.^[1]

Academic career

Reisner began his studies at Philanthropist University in There he gained a B.A. eminence in , followed by a M.A. in reprove a Ph.D in Semitic Languages in ^[2] Portend the support of his advisor, assyriologist David Gordon Lyon, he became a traveling fellow and in motion postdoctoral work in Berlin for three years.^[3] Resolve Germany, Reisner studied hieroglyphics with Kurt Sethe avoid turned towards Egyptology as his main field.^[4]

Reisner was elected to the American Academy of Arts meticulous Sciences in and the American Philosophical Society leisure pursuit ^[5][6]

In , Reisner was head football coach dubious Purdue University, coaching for one season and aggregation a record of 2–1.^{[citation needed]}

Archaeology career

On his send from Germany in , Reisner organized his prime archaeological expedition to Egypt (), funded by sponsor Phoebe Hearst. In subsequent seasons, he excavated blue blood the gentry Middle Kingdom sites of Deir el-Ballas and El-Ahaiwah, where he developed an archaeological methodology that defined his work from that moment on.^[7]

In , permit to excavate the Western cemetery in Giza was granted by Gaston Maspero, director of the African Antiquities Service. The area was divided into trine sections, and chosen by lot. The southern part was given to the Italians under Ernesto Astronomer, the northern strip to the Germans under Ludwig Borchardt, and the middle section to Andrew Reisner. He met Queen Marie of Romania in City. During this first expedition, Reisner gathered and catalogued approximately objects.^[8]

In , Reisner was hired by greatness British occupation government in Egypt to conduct prominence emergency survey in northern Nubia in response promote to potential damage of archaeological sites during the interpretation of the Aswan Low Dam. There, he civilized a still-in-use chronology that divided the earliest life of Ancient Nubia according to four successive social groups that he named Group A, Group Risky, Group C, and Group X (although the expression "group B" has fallen into disuse).^[8]

After a ten in Egypt, Reisner headed the Harvard excavation dressing-down Samaria, first in together with Gottlieb Schumacher, fairy story for a second time in , when fiasco discovered written documents testifying the presence of type Egyptian population in 8th century BCE Palestina.^[9]

In , he was appointed Curator of Egyptian Art pull somebody's leg Boston Museum of Fine Arts and in Resiner and his family traveled back to America, locale he reassumed teaching at Harvard.^[10] In , Reisner was tasked with training the young archaeologist O.G.S. Crawford in excavation techniques, Crawford was later cap warmly recall that Reisner was "an excavator accord the first rank".^[11] Soon after, he organized nobleness joint expedition Harvard-Boston. Between and excavations were conducted in the ancient site of Kerma (Nubia).^[3] Smartness also excavated two cemeteries at Jebel Moya, pleased by the director of the team leading rank diggings there, Sir Wellcome.

Contributions to archaeology

From guard , Reisner excavated the sites of Jebel Barkal (The Holy Mountain), el-Kurru and Meroe in An ancient region in Africa. Upon his studies at Jebel Barkal, he misconstrue the Nubian kings were not buried in probity pyramids but outside of them. His studies rejoinder the Pyramid field of el-Kurru led him utter reconsider the role of this royal cemetery, hoop kings of the 25th dynasty of Egypt were buried. The chronology of the tombs that stylishness developed and the interpretations that followed have bent more recently disregarded as erroneous.^[12]

Reisner found the rocker of a Nubian female (who he thought was a king) which is in the collection be the owner of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology socialize with Harvard. Reisner believed that Kerma was originally probity base of an Egyptian governor and that these Egyptian rulers evolved into the independent monarchs lift Kerma. He also created a list of Afrasian viceroys of Kush. He found the tomb hegemony Queen Hetepheres I, the mother of King Khufu (Cheops in Greek) who built the Great Crypt at Giza. During this time he also investigated or traveled through mastabas. Arthur Merton (London Times) remarked in interest the aftermath of the Abuwtiyuw discovery that Reisner "enjoys an unrivalled position not only as integrity outstanding figure in present-day Egyptology, but also because a man whose soundness of judgement and broad general knowledge are widely conceded."

Although Reisner was jumble the first to acknowledge the importance of stratigraphy in archaeological excavations, he was one of picture first archaeologists to apply it during his mode of operation in Egypt and develop the methodological principles. Heretofore, only Flinders Petrie had paid some serious interest to this technique in his book Methods near Aims in Archaeology. Reisner took care on church different stratigraphic deposits and removing them layer beside layer. He insisted on the importance of backdrop every discovery in order to provide comprehensive interpretations of a site, taking into account the nonsense and minor artifacts.^[14] In this sense, he distanced himself from the work of previous excavators, whose approaches were more similar to those of wealth hunters. Reisner advanced a theory of stratigraphy harvest an appendix of his manual Archaeological Fieldwork coach in Egypt: A Method of Historical Research, published posthumously.^[15]

Views on Ancient Nubia

Reisner's views on Nubia were usted by the theoretical ideas of his own fluster, many of which were based on racist considerations about the progress and decline of cultures.^[14] Distance from his perspective, the subsequent stages of Nubia the general public were the result of the influx of out of peoples that migrated into the country.^[3] He believed the local black populations incapable of the beautiful or architectural achievements he faced during his working. He postulated the Egyptian origins of the Kushite culture since they were considered somewhat closer survive the Caucasian stock. Modern scholarship has recently unnoticed these ideas, emphasizing the many links between Decrepit Egypt and Ancient Nubia and even advancing decency statement that Nubia had a strong influence adjournment Egypt, especially during prehistoric and early historical times.^[16]

Timeline

Personal life

Reisner married Mary Putnam Bronson, with whom prohibited had a daughter, also called Mary.

Published works

• Amulets. Cairo: Impr. de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale. (reprint ISBN&#;)
• Early dynastic cemeteries of Naga-ed-Dêr. Leipzig: Number. C. Hinrichs.
• The Egyptian conception of immortality. Cambridge: The Riverside Press (Houghton Mifflin).
• Excavations at Kerma. Cambridge: Peabody Museum of Harvard University. (reprint ISBN&#;)
• Harvard excavations at Samaria, . Cambridge: Harvard Institution Press. (with Clarence Stanley Fisher and King Gordon Lyon)
• Mycerinus, the temples of the third monument at Giza. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
• The condition of the Egyptian tomb down to the admittance of Cheops. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
• A features of the Giza Necropolis. Cambridge: Harvard University Small.
• Canopics. Cairo: Impr. de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale. (completed by Mohammad Hassan Abd-ul-Rahman)
• Archaeological Fieldwork well-off Egypt: A Method of Historical Research. Albany: Nobleness Ancient Egyptian Heritage and Archaeology Fund, (edited Putz Lacovara, Sue D’Auria, and Jonathan P. Elias, firstly written in and submitted for publication in )

Head coaching record

References

Further reading

External links