Person

Budge, (Sir) Ernest Alfred Thompson Wallis

1857-1934

British Egyptologist and orientalist; he was born at Bodmin, 27 July 1857, son of Mary Ann B. possibly by a Mr. Vyvyan, and became interested in Egyptian and oriental history at an early age, often visiting the British Museum as a boy; at fifteen he studied in his spare time while employed by W. H. Smith & Son, 1870-8, and was at this time encouraged and helped by Gladstone who took a personal interest in him, and Birch who taught him Egyptian and allowed him the use of the library in the Oriental Department of the British Museum; he later studied at Christ's College, Cambridge, 1879-82; Assyrian Scholar, Hebrew Prizeman, Tyrwhitt Hebrew Scholar; BA 1882; MA 1885; LittD; DLitt; DLit; FSA; assistant Keeper 1883-92, acting Keeper from 27 January 1892, Keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, British Museum, 1894-1924; Corr. Member of the Academy of Science, Lisbon; Member of the American Historical Society; Knight, 1920; married 1883, Dora Helen (d. 1926), daughter of the Reverend Titus Emerson; Budge went to Egypt, the Sudan, and Mesopotamia many times to obtain antiquities for the British Museum; he excavated at Aswan in Egypt; at Gebel Barkal, the Island of Meroe, Semna, and other sites in Nubia and the Sudan; and at Nineveh and Der in Iraq; Order of the Star of Ethiopia, 3rd class; Dongola medals, 1898; he had great success in his dealings with the local inhabitants and in overcoming official obstruction, and obtained for the British Museum many thousands of cuneiform tablets and other Assyrian and Babylonian antiquities, as well as Egyptian sculptures, papyri, and other objects; he also procured large numbers of Coptic, Syriac, Arabic, Ethiopic, and other oriental MSS, plus many important Greek papyri; his output of published works is the largest of any single orientalist; he edited texts in Cuneiform, Hieroglyphic, Coptic, Syriac, and Ethiopic; he produced many official publications of papyri and monuments, and a great number of popular or semi-popular works in all these fields; in his text editions, Budge was too prolific for careful work, and many of them are inaccurate by modern standards; he persisted in the use of an old system of transcription, and did not utilize many of the grammatical discoveries of the Berlin School; nevertheless without his phenomenal energy and devotion, many hieratic, Coptic, and other texts of fundamental importance would not have become known and been made available until a very much later date; his general works have been of value to students and helped to arouse much popular interest; the following is a list of some of his major Egyptological books: Coptic History of Isaac of Tiphre, 1884; Notes on the Egyptian Stelae, 1884; Dwellers on the Nile, 1885; The Sarcophagus of Ankhnesmineferab, 1885; The Book of the Bee, 1886; Coptic History of Elijah the Tishbite, 1886; Catalogue of Egyptian Antiquities (Harrow School Museum), 1887; Sepulchral Stele from Akhmîm, 1887; Coptic Martyrdom of George of Cappadocia, 1888; Account of Excavations at Aswân, 1888; On Cuneiform Despatches from Tushratta (Tell el-Amarna Tablets), 1888; The Nile, Notes for Travellers, 1890; Festival Songs of Isis and Nephthys, The Litanies of Seker, and The Book of Overthrowing Apepi, 1891; Tell el-Amarna Tablets in the British Museum, with C. Bezold, 1892; Catalogue of the Egyptian Antiquities in the Fitzwilliam Museum, 1893; The Mummy, 1894, St. Michael the Archangel, 1894; Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani), 1895; First Steps in Egyptian, 1895; An Egyptian Reading Book for Beginners, 1896; The Chapters of Coming Forth by Day (Book of the Dead), 1897; The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, 1898; A guide to the First and Second Egyptian Rooms, British Museum, 1898; A Guide to the Third and Fourth Egyptian Rooms, 1905; Facsimiles of the Papyri of Hunefer, Anhai, Kerasher, Nu, Texts etc., 1899; Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life, 1899; Egyptian Magic, 1899; Easy Lessons in Egyptian Hieroglyphics, 1899; On the Orientation of the Pyramids in the Sudan, 1899; The Book of the Dead, 1901; A History of Egypt from the end of the Predynastic Period to the death of Cleopatra VII, 8 vols., 1902; The Gods of Egypt, or Studies in Egyptian Mythology, 1903; The Rosetta Stone, and Decree of Canopus, 1904; Cook's Handbook of Egypt and the Sudan, 3rd ed. 1911; Egyptian Books of Heaven and Hell; The Book Am-tuat; The Book of Pylons; Egyptian Texts and Translations, 1905, 1925; The Egyptian Sudan, 2 vols., 1907; The Sarcophagus of Seti I (Soane Museum), 1908; The Book of the Kings of Egypt, 2 vols., 1908; Guide to the Egyptian Galleries in the British Museum (Sculpture), 1909; Texts relating to St. Minas etc., in a Nubian Dialect, 1909; Liturgy of Funeral Offerings, and Book of Opening the Mouth, 1909; Coptic Homilies in the Dialect of Upper Egypt, 1910; Book of the Dead, 1910; Hieratic Papyri in the British Museum, 1911; Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection, 1911; Legends of the Gods, and Annals of Nubian Kings, 1911; Coptic Biblical Texts in the dialect of Upper Egypt, 1912; The Papyrus of Nesi-ta-nebt-Ashru, 1912; Coptic Apocrypha, 1913; Papyrus of Ani, 1913; Coptic Martyrdoms, 1914; Short History of the Egyptian People, 1914; Literature of the Ancient Egyptians, 1914; Egyptian Wall-painting, 1914; Egyptian Sculptures, 1914; Miscellaneous Coptic Texts in the dialect of Upper Egypt, 1915; By Nile and Tigris, 2 vols., 1920; An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary, his largest work, 1920; British Museum Monographs, Book of the Dead, 1920; Guide to the 4th, 5th, and 6th Egyptian Rooms, 1922; Egyptian Hieratic Papyri, 2nd Series, 1923; Tutankhamen, 1923; Guide to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Egyptian Rooms, 1924; The Teaching of Amenemapt, 1924; Cleopatra's Needles, 1927; Egyptian Tales and Romances, 1931; Wit and Wisdom of the Christian Fathers of Egypt, 1934; From Fetish to God in Ancient Egypt, 1934; Budge founded in memory of his wife two Egyptological studentships at Christ's College, Cambridge, and University College, Oxford, and left his library to the former college; he died in London, 23 November 1934 and was buried in Nunhead cemetery in south London.

• Who Was Who in Egyptology (5th ed. 2019), 76-77 fig. (portrait).