Sir Alan Henderson Gardiner (1879-1963) remains, almost sixty years after his death, an important and influential figure in the field of Egyptology. As a man of determination, ambition, and independent means he was ideally positioned to develop and mould the nascent discipline into a major force in world archaeology.
Substantially involved with the Egypt Exploration Fund (later Society) from a very young age, Gardiner engaged with many of the Egyptological greats of the nineteenth century, before going on to act as ‘kingmaker’ for subsequent generations of British Egyptologists. This heavily illustrated lecture examines Gardiner’s crucial involvement in some of the major Egyptological endeavours of the twentieth century, his own researches, and his relationships with key figures in the discipline from Petrie and Margaret Murray to Lord Carnavon and Howard Carter.
Portrait of Sir Alan Gardiner reproduced by kind permission of the Griffith Institute.
John J Johnston is a freelance Egyptologist, Classicist, and cultural historian. He has lectured extensively at major institutions such as the British Museum, the British Film Institute, the National Museum of Scotland, and the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology. His Egyptological research interests encompass mortuary belief and practice, gender and sexuality, Hellenistic and Roman Egypt, the history of Egyptology, and the reception of ancient Egypt in the modern world.
A former Vice Chair of the Egypt Exploration Society, he is, currently, a Trustee of By Jove Theatre Company and Ambassador for the International Society for the Study of Egyptomania. His writing is widely published in both academic and general books and periodicals. He has co-edited three volumes and served on the Editorial Board of ‘Egyptian Archaeology.’ He has made numerous onscreen contributions to television and Blu-Ray documentaries in the fields of both Egyptology and British cinema, respectively.
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