James Burton (Egyptologist)

James Burton (born September 22, 1788 in London , † February 22, 1862 in Edinburgh ) was one of the first British Egyptologists .

Life

James Burton was the son of James Haliburton, who changed his name to Burton, and Elizabeth Westly. He was educated at Trinity College , Cambridge , where he received his BA in 1810 and his MA in 1815 . Between 1815 and 1822, Burton worked for the architect Sir John Soane and toured Italy . There he met Sir John Gardner Wilkinson , Edward William Lane and Sir William Gell , who interested him in Egypt .

In 1822 he traveled to Egypt at the invitation of Muhammad Ali Pasha . He was supposed to work on the Geological Survey, but had no idea about geology and left the job in 1824. In 1825 he traveled on the Nile from Cairo to Abu Simbel . On the way he spent seven months in Thebes . He carried out several excavations in Medinet Habu , Karnak and in the Valley of the Kings . Between 1825 and 1828 he worked on a compilation of various hieroglyphic inscriptions . Of particular importance are his drawings of ancient Egyptian monuments , which today allow us to draw conclusions about their condition in the first half of the 19th century.

There is no evidence of Burton between 1825 and 1834. At Christmas 1835 he returned to England with animals, servants and slaves. He was accompanied by his Greek slave Andreana, whom he had bought in Egypt. His family then expropriated him. Therefore, he was forced to auction his collections at Sotheby’s in 1836 . The only objects he kept were a mummy and a sarcophagus , now in the Liverpool Museum .

Fonts

• Excerpta Hieroglyphica. Malta 1825-1828. Reprint: LTR, Wiesbaden 1982, ISBN 3-88706-093-8 .

literature

• Morris L. Bierbrier: Who was who in Egyptology . 4th revised edition. Egypt Exploration Society, London 2012, ISBN 978-0-85698-207-1 , pp. 96-97.

Web links

• Literature by and about James Burton in the catalog of the German National Library