Lydia Baumbach

Lydia Baumbach (* 1924 in Stellenbosch ; † 1991 ) was a South African classical philologist and mycenaeologist .

Baumbach came from a German missionary family of the Rheinische Missionsgesellschaft , who had settled in Stellenbosch. There she attended the Rhenish Girls' High School , then studied from 1942 to 1946 at the local university . She completed her studies in 1946 with an MA in Latin Philology, and in 1951 with an MA in Greek Philology. From 1947 on, Baumbach held a position as a junior lecturer at the University of Stellenbosch. From October 1955 to June 1957, she continued her studies as an affiliated student at Newnham College in Cambridge , graduating in 1962 with an MA from John Chadwick . Upon her return she received in Stellenbosch a lectureship ( lectureship ), in 1959 a senior lectureship at Rhodes University in Grahamstown , and after a short stay at the University of Pretoria in 1965, a senior lectureship at the University of Cape Town . From 1976 until her retirement she was Chair of Classics there . From 1983 to 1984 she was chair of the Classical Association of South Africa . She was a member of the Presbyterian Church of Africa , which she accepted into the council of elders in 1972.

Baumbach's main field of work was mycenology, in particular the deciphering and indexing of the linear B script , on which she worked together with her British teacher John Chadwick. The first such work is the collection of Greek words, the etymology of which was illuminated by the Mycenaean discoveries. The compilation of a comprehensive bibliography on the Mycenaean inscriptions and their language from previous collections by Michael Ventris , Leonard Robert Palmer , John Chadwick and Leopold John Dixon Richardson was particularly commendable .

Fonts (selection)

• Petroniana. In: Acta Classica 2, 1959, 70-71 ( PDF ).
• with John Chadwick: The Mycenaean Greek Vocabulary . In: Glotta 41, 1963, 157-271 ( online ).
• The Mycenaean Greek Vocabulary II. In: Glotta 49, 1971, 151-190.
• The Mycenean Contribution to Greek Etymology. In: Acta Classica 7, 1964, 1-8 ( PDF ).
• Studies in Mycenaean inscriptions and dialect. A Complete Bibliography and Index, I: 1953-1964; II: 1965-1978. Rome 1968-1986. - (The bibliography continues online at the University of Texas )
• The Dilemma of the Horns - An Analysis of the Knossos Mc Tablets. In: Acta Classica 14, 1971, 1-16 ( PDF ).
• Further thoughts on PY Vn 46. In: Minos. Revista de Filología Egea 12, 1972, 383-397.
• The "Coming of Age" of Mycenology - the First Twenty-one Years. In: Acta Classica 16, 1973, 1-14 ( PDF ).
• A Doric Fifth Column? In: Acta Classica 23, 1980, 1-12 ( PDF ).
• Shakespeare and the Classics. In: Acta Classica 28, 1985, 77-86 ( PDF ).
• The Personal Names on the Knossos Ap Tablets. In: Annemarie Etter (ed.): Oo-pe-ro-si. Festschrift for Ernst Risch on his 75th birthday. De Gruyter, Berlin - New York 1986, 273-278 ( excerpts from Google Books ).
• Names of Shepherds at Knossos. In: Acta Classica 30, 1987, 5-10 ( PDF ).
• An examination of the personal names in the Knossos tablets as evidence for the social structure of Crete in the Late Minoan II period. In: Olga Krzyszkowska, Lydia Nixon (eds.): Minoan Society. Proceedings of the Cambridge colloquium 1981. Bristol Classical Press, Bristol 1988, 3-10.

literature

• John Edward Atkinson: In Memoriam: Professor Lydia Baumbach. In: Akroterion 36, 1991, 2-4.
• John Chadwick: Lydia Baumbach's Contribution to Mycenaean Studies. In: Acta Classica 34, 1991, 3-5 ( PDF ).
• Anton Paap: In Memoriam: Lydia Baumbach 1924–1991. A personal reflection. In: Acta Classica 34, 1991, 1-3 ( PDF ; with photograph).
• Michael Lambert: The Classics and South African Identities. Bristol Classical Press, Bristol 2011, p. 151 online (evidence of various obituaries from Baumbach's pen).

Web links

• Literature by and about Lydia Baumbach in the SUDOC catalog (Association of French University Libraries)