Kate Bosse-Griffiths

Kate Bosse-Griffiths (born July 16, 1910 in Wittenberg , † April 4, 1998 in Swansea , Wales ; born Käthe Bosse ) was a German-Welsh Egyptologist and Cymrian writer.

Life and Scientific Career

Käthe Bosse came from a Protestant family from Wittenberg with a German-Jewish background. Her father was the gynecologist Paul Bosse ; her mother Käthe (born February 12, 1886 in Wittenberg; † December 16, 1944 in Ravensbrück concentration camp ) came from a Jewish family (her parents were Max and Louise Levin) and was baptized Protestant in 1897. After finishing high school in Wittenberg, she studied classical philology and Egyptology in Munich, Berlin and Bonn.

After her doctorate in Munich on the human figure in the round sculpture of the late Egyptian period from the XXII. up to XXX. In the 19th Dynasty , Käthe Bosse became a research assistant at the Egyptian Museum of the State Museums in Berlin - but when it became known that her mother was of Jewish descent, she was dismissed after a short time. Käthe Bosse then emigrated to England and soon found positions as a part-time lecturer in Egyptology and research assistant in ancient history museums, first in the Petrie Museum at University College London and later in the Department of Antiquity at the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford University . Within the University of London she taught in the Department of Egyptology, in Oxford as a senior member at Somerville College .

In Oxford, Käthe Bosse met her future husband, the Egyptologist and Celtologist John Gwyn Griffiths - they married on September 13, 1939.

During World War II, Kate Bosse-Griffiths and her husband formed the Cylch Cadwgan , a group of intellectuals who met regularly at the Griffiths family home in Pentre in the Cwn Rhondda, south Wales. Largely due to the influence of Kate Bosse-Griffiths, the circle's discussions on literature, religion, politics and society in Wales always had a European dimension. One result of these discussions was her book Mudiadau Heddwch yn Yr Almaen , published in 1943 in Cymrian, about the peace movements in Germany.

From 1945 her husband taught in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at University College Swansea , a member college of the University of Wales .

Kate Bosse-Griffiths was also the curator of archeology at the Swansea Museum from 1947 until her retirement in 1994 , and in 1971 she made a major contribution to the acquisition of the Egyptian antiquities collection of pharmaceutical industrialist Henry Wellcome .

family

Kate Bosse-Griffiths' family was persecuted during the National Socialist rule in Germany: her mother died in the Ravensbrück concentration camp . Her sons Robat Gruffudd and Heini Gruffudd are well-known Cymrian writers.

Works

Egyptology and Classical Studies

• The human figure in the round sculpture of the late Egyptian period from the XXII. up to XXX. Dynasty . Glückstadt, Hamburg, New York 1936 (= Egyptological research; 1)
• Tywysennau o'r Aifft . Llandybie 1970
• Amarna studies: and other selected papers . Edited by John Gwyn Griffiths. Friborg 2001 (= Orbis biblicus et orientalis; 182), ISBN 978-3-525-53997-2

Literary works

• Anesmwyth hoen . Llandybie 1941
• Fy chwaer Efa: a storïau eraill . Dinbych 1944
• Mae'r galon wrth y llyw: nofel . Aberystwyth 1957
• Cariadau . Talybont, Dyfed 1995
• Teithiau'r meddwl: ysgrifau llenyddol . Casglwyd a golygwyd gan J. Gwyn Griffiths. Talybont, Ceredigion 2004, ISBN 0-86243-747-4 .

Other works

• Mudiadau Heddwch yn Yr Almaen (Peace Movements in Germany). 1943
• Trem ar Rwsia a Berlin . Llandysul 1962
• Byd y dyn hysbys: swyngyfaredd yng Nghymru . Talybont, Dyfed 1977

Web links

• Literature by and about Kate Bosse-Griffiths in the catalog of the German National Library