Identity area
Reference code
Arkell - Černý MSS 21.13, 229-35
Title
Date(s)
- 1947-1961 (Creation)
Level of description
File
Extent and medium
0.5 cm, 8 letters
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
British archaeologist; he was born at Hinxhill Rectory, Kent, 29 July 1898, son of Revd John Norris A. and Eleanor Jessy Bunting; he was educated at Bradfield College and The Queen's College Oxford; his education was interrupted by World War I during which he served in the Royal Flying Corps, 1916-8 and was awarded MC, 1918; he continued in the RAF, 1918-9 and in 1920 joined the Sudan Political Service in which he held various political posts culminating in Acting Deputy-Gov. of Darfur, 1932-7; he was appointed first Commissioner for Archaeology and Anthropology in 1939; he returned briefly to Oxford, 1938-9; B. Litt. 1939; he then took up his new Sudanese post which he held until 1949 with a break in 1940-4 when he was Chief Transport Officer; he undertook the organization of the Museums of Antiquities and Ethnography at Khartoum and the creation of the Sudan Antiquities Service; he was editor of Sudan Notes and Records, 1945-8; he was appointed lecturer in Egyptology at University College London, 1948, later reader, 1953-63 and Curator of the Flinders Petrie Collection, 1948-63; he undertook the onerous task of unpacking and cataloguing the collection which had been in store since World War II; he remained Archaeological Adviser to the Sudan Government, 1948-53; he excavated at Khartoum in 1944-5 and in 1949-50 at Shaheinab; FSA and member of its council, 1956-7; ordained in the Anglican church; assistant curate of Great Missenden, 1960-63; vicar of Cuddington with Dinton, 1963-71; his publications include Early Khartoum, 1949; Shaheinab, 1953; A History of the Sudan from the Earliest Times to 1821, 1955; Wanyanga, 1964; and The Prehistory of the .Nile Valley, 1975; he died in Chelmsford, 26 Feb. 1980.
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
7 letters from Arkell, 1 carbon copy of a letter by Černý to Arkell.
- consulting Černý for readings of texts
- news from Arkell's excavations in the Sudan
- request for information from Černý concerning University College students and their previous archaeological education
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
- English