The
renowned American Egyptologist and lover of Egypt professor William Kelly
Simpson passed away recently at the age of 89. Simpson was a great friend and
lover of Egypt. He spent his whole life and distinguished career in the service
of Egypt and its monuments, especially those of ancient times.
Simpson
was a professor of Egyptology emeritus at Yale University in the US. He was
born in New York City and received his BA in 1947, MA in 1948, and PhD in 1954
from Yale University. He was one of the most important public figures at Yale
University later in his career.
He
first worked in the Egyptian Department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in
New York. Then he obtained a Fulbright fellowship to Egypt and a research
fellowship at the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University. In
1958, he was promoted to professor of Egyptology and Near Eastern Languages and
Literatures at Yale University. He also served for around 20 years as curator
of Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
While
in Boston, he increased the museum’s collections tremendously, reinstalled the
galleries, and launched excavations and documentation at several sites in
Egypt, principally the Giza Pyramids area and in Sudan. He also taught at several
US universities, including as the Harvard University Department of Near Eastern
Languages and Civilisations and the University of Pennsylvania. He also
lectured at the Institute of Advanced Studies at Princeton, the Collège de
France in Paris, and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon. In
terms of fieldwork, Simpson was the director of the well-known
Pennsylvania-Yale Expedition to Egypt. He also participated in the UNESCO
campaign to rescue the Nubia monuments in Egypt and the Sudan in the 1960s. He
was the co-director of very important excavations at Abydos in Upper Egypt and
epigraphic missions in the Giza Pyramids area.
He
was the author of many books and articles on Egyptian art, archaeology and
literature. He co-authored a book on the history of the Ancient Near East and
also co-authored, with other scholars, one of the best-known anthologies of
ancient Egyptian literature. He was elected to three terms as president of the
International Association of Egyptologists and served as president and later
chairman of the Board of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, as
vice-chairman of the Board of the American University in Cairo, and as trustee
of the Archaeological Institute of America and the American Research Centre in
Egypt.
In
1965, Simpson was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship for the humanities in Near
Eastern Studies. He received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the
American Research Centre in Cairo on the occasion of its 50th anniversary in
1998. He also received the Award for Distinguished Service from the American
University in Cairo and the Medal of Honour for Distinguished Service to
Egyptology and Egypt from Farouk Hosni, Egypt’s minister of culture at the
time, and the Organising Committee of the Eighth International Congress of
Egyptologists in Cairo in 2000.
In
2001, he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from the
American University in Cairo. In 2003, he was awarded the Augustus Graham Medal
by the Brooklyn Museum in the US for services to Egyptology and the museum. He
was elected to membership of the American Oriental Society, the American
Philosophical Society, and the German and Austrian Archaeological Institutes.
I
met professor Simpson several times at the Giza Pyramids area and during the
Eighth International Congress of Egyptologists in Cairo in 2000. He served the
monuments of Egypt, especially the Giza Pyramids and the archaeological remains
in Nubia, with unstinting passion, and he also helped many Egyptians to study
Egyptology in the US. He was an unfailingly modest and helpful person, as well
as an authority on ancient art, archaeology and literature. He served as a
major channel between Egypt and the US to the benefit of the two nations and
the archaeological and cultural ties between the two countries.
Later
this year, Yale University will commemorate the memory of this distinguished
person and scholar, and Egypt should do the same for the country’s great
friend, professor William Kelly Simpson. Professor
Simpson will be very greatly missed, but his multifaceted legacy at all levels
between Egypt and the US and among many Egyptians and Americans will last
forever.
A
lintel inscribed with the cartouche of Sesostris II was unearthed at Heryshef
temple in Ihnasya. Written By/ Nevine El-Aref.
The
presence of the lintel at the Heryshef temple proves the interest of Sesostris
II in this site, and in Fayoum in general.
