Bertha Porter

Bertha Porter (* 1852 in London ; † January 17, 1941 in Oxford ) was a British Egyptologist and bibliographer . Together with Rosalind Moss , she founded the Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs, and Paintings (short title: Porter & Moss or PM ), one of the most important reference works in Egyptology.

Life

Bertha Porter was the daughter of the architect Frederick William Porter (1821-1901) and his wife. Her younger brother Horatio Porter (1861-1918) also worked as an architect. Bertha Porter received her education at Bedford College . She showed great interest in literature and psychology , but eventually specialized in the former. In the 1880s and 1890s she wrote numerous entries for the Dictionary of National Biography . After the turn of the century, she was hired by Francis Llewellyn Griffith to compile the Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs, and Paintings - a work that included all known monuments and objects of ancient Egypt with hieroglyphic inscriptions and complete bibliographies of them should contain. In preparation for this work, she studied hieroglyphic writing, first with Griffith in London and later with Kurt Sethe in Göttingen . In 1924 she received support from Rosalind Moss, another student of Griffith. After more than 20 years of work came in 1927 with The Theban Necropolis ( The Theban necropolis ), the first volume of the bibliography. Porter retired in 1929 and Moss continued her work with the support of Ethel Burney . Five more volumes were published by 1939. Bertha Porter died in 1941. The seventh volume of the bibliography, which had already begun, appeared only eleven years after her death.

Fonts

• with Rosalind Moss: Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs and Paintings.
  • Volume I. The Theban Necropolis. (1927)
  • Volume II. Theban Temples. (1929)
  • Volume III. Memphis (Abu Rawash to Dahshur). (1931)
  • Volume IV. Lower and Middle Egypt. (1934)
  • Volume V. Upper Egypt: Sites. (1939)
  • Volume VI. Upper Egypt: Chief Temples (excluding Thebes). (1939)
  • Volume VII. Nubia, the Deserts, and Outside Egypt. (1952)

literature

• Miss Bertha Porter. In: Nature , Volume 147, March 22, 1941, p. 350.

Web links

• Barbara S. Lesko: Bertha Porter (1852–1941) and Rosalind Moss (1890–1990) (PDF)
• The Griffith Institute: Topographical Bibliography (Porter & Moss)

Individual evidence

1. ^ The London Gazette. April 29, 1941, p. 2460