Henry Salt (Egyptologist)

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Henry Salt

Henry Salt (born June 14, 1780 in Lichfield , † October 30, 1827 in Desouk near Alexandria ) was an English artist, traveler, diplomat and Egyptologist .

Training and first activities

Salt was born in Lichfield as the son of the doctor Thomas Salt and his wife Alice Butt. He had a sister, Jane, two years his senior. He began his training as a painter first in Lichfield and then continued it in London with Joseph Farington and John Hoppner . In 1802 he was employed as a secretary and designer at George Annesley , the Viscount Valentia .

Stays abroad

Henry Salt made a trip to the east, across the Cape to India , later explored the area around the Red Sea and visited the Ethiopian highlands in 1805 . In Ethiopia, the expedition left Nathaniel Pearce , from whom Salt obtained information about the country for many years. In 1806 he returned to England. The drawings that Salt made on his journey were used to illustrate Lord Valentia's travelogue, Voyages and Travels to India (1809).

Salt returned to Ethiopia on a mission for the government in 1809. His task was to find out which diplomatic and trade relations exist between the Tigraians and the warlord ( warlord ) Ras Wolde Selassie . On his return he published: A voyage to Abyssinia, & travels into the interior of that country, executed under the orders of the British government in the years 1809 & 1810 . He later returned and continued his friendship with Sabagadis .

In Egypt

In 1815 he was appointed consul general to Cairo . During his time in Egypt he brought together a considerable collection of Egyptian artefacts , namely the head of a statue of Ramses II from the Ramesseum in Thebes , today's Luxor , which he gave to the British Museum , and the sarcophagus of Ramses III. bought by the Louvre in Paris . He also supported excavations in Thebes and Abu Simbel and was also involved in important archaeological investigations himself , such as the pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx . Salt paid Giovanni Battista Belzoni to direct the excavations for him. At Salt's instigation, various wall paintings were removed from the burial chapel of Nebamun and brought to London.

For his ability to decipher hieroglyphics , he earned high praise from Jean-François Champollion .

family

On October 10, 1819, Henry Salt married the daughter of the Italian trader Penza from Livorno . With her he fathered two daughters Georgina Henrietta Annesley, who was born in June 1821 and Julia, who was born on March 10, 1823 and died on the 26th of the same month. His wife died on April 15, 1824 at the age of only 20 after the birth of another daughter in puerperal fever and the newborn survived only a little longer.

Publications (selection)

  • New trip to Abyssinia in 1809 and 1810 , Weimar, 1815 ( digital ).
  • Essay on Dr. Young's and M. Champollion's phonetic system of hieroglyphics; with some additional discoveries, by which it may be applied to decipher the names of the ancient kings of Egypt and Ethiopia , London 1825. ( Digital ).

literature

Web links

Commons : Henry Salt  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Deborah Manley, Peta Rée: Henry Salt. Artist, traveler, diplomat, Egyptologist. Libri, London 2001, ISBN 1-901965-04-X , pp. 31-33.
personal data
SURNAME Salt, Henry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English artist, traveler, diplomat and Egyptologist
DATE OF BIRTH June 14, 1780
PLACE OF BIRTH Lichfield
DATE OF DEATH October 30, 1827
Place of death Desouk