Robert Hay (Egyptologist)
Robert Hay (born January 6, 1799 in Duns Castle , Berwickshire , † November 4, 1863 in East Lothian ) was a Scottish traveler, antique dealer and early Egyptologist .
Life
Hay first visited Egypt in 1818 while serving in the Royal Navy . In 1824 he met Joseph Bonomi in Rome , whom he hired as an artist and who accompanied him to Egypt. Hay was a talented draftsman himself. From November 1824 to 1834 he and his expedition, which was later joined by other artists such as Frederick Catherwood , Edward William Lane , Francis Arundale (1807-1853), George Hoskins and Luchese Bandoni , made a series of precise drawings of the most important monuments of Pharaonic Egypt and Nubia as well as monuments from the Islamic period , which are now kept in the British Library in London together with numerous unpublished travel notes .
During his stay in Thebes in 1826, he made a first study of the Valley of the Queens , which had not been explored until then. With the discovery of the anonymous grave QV40 and the records of over 15 other graves, he carried out important pioneering work in the exploration of the valley.
In May 1828 Hay traveled to Malta , where he married the Greek Kalitza Psaraki, daughter of the chief judge of Crete , whom he had previously saved from being sold on the slave market in Alexandria . After his death in East Lothian , Scotland, in 1863 , part of Hay's Egyptian antiquities collection was sold to the British Museum . The Boston Museum of Fine Arts acquired some of the remaining objects in 1872.
Publications
- Illustrations of Cairo , London 1840
literature
- Leslie Stephen , Sidney Lee : Hay, Robert in: Dictionary of National Biography Vol. 25 , Smith, Elder & Co., London 1891.
- Selwyn Tillet: Egypt Itself. The Career of Robert Hay of Linplum and Nunraw, 1799–1863. London 1984.
- Paul Starkey, Janet Starkey: Travelers in Egypt. Tauris Parke, London 2001, ISBN 1-86064-674-3 .
- Joseph Attard Tabone: Robert Hay in Gozo and the Lost Stone Circle . In: 60th Anniversary of the Malta Historical Society: a Commemoration , Malta Historical Society, 2010, pp. 73-84.
Web links
- The lost portfolios of Robert Hay (English)
- Robert Hay on the website of the Qurna History Project (English, with panoramic drawings of Qurna)
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Christian Leblanc, Alberto Siliotti: Nefertari - excavations in the valley of the queens . Bechtermünz, Augsburg 1998, ISBN 3-8289-0705-9 , pp. 62 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hay, Robert |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Robert Hay of Linplum |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Scottish traveler, antique dealer and early Egyptologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 6, 1799 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Duns Castle , Berwickshire |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 4, 1863 |
| Place of death | East Lothian |