Artefacts of Excavation

British Egyptologist; he was born in Neath, West Glamorgan, 8 May 1923, son of Thomas Garnet J. and Edith Griffiths; he was educated at Neath Grammar School and Exeter College, Oxford; after a year, his education was interrupted by war service in the Royal Artillery where he attained the rank of captain; he returned to Oxford and studied under Gunn and Gardiner; BA in Classics, 1947; MA, 1948; BA in Egyptology, 1950; he became assistant keeper in the Dept. of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, 1951; deputy keeper in the Dept. of Egyptian Antiquities, 1974 and Keeper, 1974-88; he served as Laycock Student of Egyptology, Worcester Coll., Oxford, 1954-60; Wilbour Fellow, Brooklyn Museum, 1964; Visiting Prof. College de France, 1983 and Memphis State Univ., 1990; Chairman, Egypt Exploration Society 1983-9; Vice-Pres. 1990-2009; Editor JEA, 1960-70 and EES publications, 1960-89; Chairman, Freud Museum Committee, 1986-2003; President of ASTENE; Member of the Management Board of the Griffith Institute; CBE, 1984; Hon Fellow Exeter Coll, Oxford 1998; FBA, 1976; he undertook epigraphic work 278 at Saqqara in 1951and joined Emery’s expedition there in 1953; he undertook further epigraphic work with Caminos at Gebel es-Silsilah in 1955; apart from articles, he published The Mastaba of Khentika called Ikhekhi, 1953; Hieroglyphic Texts in the British Museum I, 1961; The Hekanakhte Papers and other Early Middle Kingdom Documents, 1962; Gebel es-Silsilah I, 1963, with Caminos; with Edwards and Shore, A General Guide to the Egyptian Collections in the British Museum, 1964; Egyptian Sculptures, 1966; Myths and Legends of Ancient Egypt, 1969; Hieroglyphic Texts in the British Museum 9, 1970; Archaeology of Ancient Egypt, 1972; Corpus of Hieroglyphic Inscriptions in the Brooklyn Museum I, 1974; Egyptian Sculpture, 1983, with W. V. Davies; Pharaoh’s People, 1984 (repr. 2003); Egyptian Painting and Drawing in the British Museum, 1985; Ancient Egypt: the land and legacy, 1988; The British Museum and Ancient Egypt, 1989; Howard Carter: the Path to Tutankhamun, 1992 (repr. 2006); Egypt: the living past, 1992; A Short History of Ancient Egypt, 1996; Egypt Revealed, 1997; Tutankhamun: the eternal splendours of the boy Pharaoh, 2000; Ramesses II, 2002; The British Museum Concise Introduction: Ancient Egypt, 2005; he edited An Introduction to Ancient Egypt, 1979 and Excavating in Egypt, 1982 and contributed to W. B. Emery, Great Tombs of the First Dynasty II, 1954; T. J. Dunbabin, Perachora II, 1962; and The Cambridge Ancient History, 3rd ed. Vol. II, 1973,Vol. III, 1991; he died in London, 16 Dec. 2009.