Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
MacKay, Ernest John Henry
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1880-1943
History
British archaeologist; he was born Bristol, 5 July 1880, son of Richard Cockrill M. and Mary Dermott Thomas; he was educated at Bristol Grammar School and the University of Bristol; MA; D.Litt.; FSA; he married Dorothy Mary Simmons, 1912; he assisted in excavations in Egypt, 1907-12, receiving training in field work under Petrie and contributing to the publications of the British School; he was engaged on excavations and the photographic survey of the Theban Tombs, 1913-16; in 1913 he loaned his collection of Egyptian antiquities to the Bristol City Museum, selling it to the museum in 1919; he served during the First World War as a Capt. in the RASC, 1916-19, in Egypt and Palestine; Member of the Army Commission for the Survey of Ancient Monuments in Palestine and Syria, 1919-20; he was then appointed Custodian of Antiquities by the Palestine Govt., 1919-22; he was Field Director of the Oxford University and Field Museum, Chicago, Archaeological Expedition to Mesopotamia, 1922-6; at this time he also directed the excavations at Bahrain on the Persian Gulf for the BSAE, 1925; he became Special Officer for Exploration for the Archaeological Survey of India, 1926-31; he then was appointed Director of the Expedition of the American School of Indic and Iranian Studies and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts to Chandhu-daro, India, 1935-6; Mackay began his archaeological work in Egypt, but he later moved into Palestine and Iraq where he made important discoveries on early Sumerian sites; it is, however, his work in India for which he is best known, for with Sir John Marshall he was one of the founders and initiators of work on the Indus valley civilization; in Egyptology he was part author of Heliopolis, KO Ammar and Shurafa, with W. M. F. Petrie, 1915; City of Shepherd Kings and Ancient Gaza V, with M. A. Murray, Petrie, and others, 1952; he also wrote, The A 'Cemetery at Kish, 1925; A Sumerian palace and the A' Cemetery at Kish, 1926; Excavations at Jemdet Nasr, Iraq, 1930; Moheryadaro, and the Indus Civilization, with Sir J. Marshall and others, 1931; The Indus Civilization, 1935; Further Excavations at Mohenjodaro (1927-31), 1938; Chandu-daro Excavations, 1941; in addition he published numerous articles in journals, such as AE to which he contributed reviews; he died in London, 2 Oct. 1943.
Places
Legal status
Functions, occupations and activities
Mandates/sources of authority
Internal structures/genealogy
General context
Relationships area
Access points area
Subject access points
Place access points
Occupations
Control area
Authority record identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation, revision and deletion
Language(s)
Script(s)
Sources
- Who Was Who in Egyptology (4th ed. 2012), 348.