Heinrich Karl Brugsch (18 February 1827 – 9 September 1894, Charlottenburg ) was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 Egyptologist, born in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

. He was associated with Auguste Mariette

Auguste Mariette

François Auguste Ferdinand Mariette was a French scholar, archaeologist and Egyptologist, the designer of the rebuilt Egyptian Museum under Maximilian of Austria orders when the later had gained control of the artifacts collected to that point.-Early career:Born at Boulogne-sur-Mer, Mariette...

 in his excavations at Memphis

Memphis, Egypt

Memphis was the ancient capital of Aneb-Hetch, the first nome of Lower Egypt. Its ruins are located near the town of Helwan, south of Cairo.According to legend related by Manetho, the city was founded by the pharaoh Menes around 3000 BC. Capital of Egypt during the Old Kingdom, it remained an...

. He became director of the School of Egyptology

Egyptology

Egyptology is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious practices in the AD 4th century. A practitioner of the discipline is an “Egyptologist”...

 at Cairo

Cairo

Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...

,producing numerous very valuable works, and did at some time pioneer the deciphering of demotic, the simplified script of the later Egyptian periods.

Biography

Brugsch was the son of a Prussia

Prussia

Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...

n cavalry officer, and was born in the barracks at Berlin. He early manifested a great inclination to Egypt

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...

ian studies, in which he was almost entirely self-taught. At the age of 16, he applied himself with success to the decipherment of Demotic

Demotic

Demotic may refer to:*Demotic Greek, a variety of the Greek language*Demotic , a script and stage of the Egyptian language...

, which had been neglected since the death of Champollion

Jean-François Champollion

Jean-François Champollion was a French classical scholar, philologist and orientalist, decipherer of the Egyptian hieroglyphs....

 in 1832. Brugsch's work, Scriptura Ægyptiorum Demotica (Berlin, 1848), containing the results of his studies, appeared while he was a student at the gymnasium

Gymnasium (school)

A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...

. It was followed by his Numerorum Demoticorum Doctrina (1849), and his Sammlung demotischer Urkunden (1850).

His 1848 work brought him to the attention of Alexander von Humboldt

Alexander von Humboldt

Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt was a German naturalist and explorer, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt...

 and Prussian King Frederick William IV. After completing his university course, support from the king enabled him to complete his studies with visits to foreign museums at Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, Turin

Turin

Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...

, and Leyden. In 1853, he was sent to Egypt by the Prussian government in 1853, and contracted an intimate friendship with Mariette, whom he assisted in his work. After this he returned to Berlin, where, in 1854, he was appointed privatdocent in the university

Humboldt University of Berlin

The Humboldt University of Berlin is Berlin's oldest university, founded in 1810 as the University of Berlin by the liberal Prussian educational reformer and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt, whose university model has strongly influenced other European and Western universities...

, and, in 1855, assistant in the Egyptian Museum of Berlin

Egyptian Museum of Berlin

The Egyptian Museum of Berlin is home to one of the world's most important collections of Ancient Egyptian artifacts.The collection is part of the Neues Museum.-History:...

. He visited Egypt again in 1857.

In 1860 he was sent to Persia on a special mission under Baron Minutoli

Julius Rudolph Ottomar Freiherr von Minutoli

Julius Rudolph Ottomar Freiherr von Minutoli was a Prussian chief of police, diplomat, scientist, and author, as well as a gifted draughtsman.-Life:...

, travelled over the country, and after Minutoli's death discharged the functions of ambassador.Founder (1863) the Egyptological journal, Zeitschrift für Aegyptische Sprache. In 1864 he was consul at Cairo, in 1868 professor at Göttingen, and in 1870 director of the school of Egyptology, founded at Cairo by the khedive

Khedive

The term Khedive is a title largely equivalent to the English word viceroy. It was first used, without official recognition, by Muhammad Ali Pasha , the Wāli of Egypt and Sudan, and vassal of the Ottoman Empire...

. He was soon raised to the rank of bey

Bey

Bey is a title for chieftain, traditionally applied to the leaders of small tribal groups. Accoding to some sources, the word "Bey" is of Turkish language In historical accounts, many Turkish, other Turkic and Persian leaders are titled Bey, Beg, Bek, Bay, Baig or Beigh. They are all the same word...

 (1873), and some time afterward to that of pasha

Pasha

Pasha or pascha, formerly bashaw, was a high rank in the Ottoman Empire political system, typically granted to governors, generals and dignitaries. As an honorary title, Pasha, in one of its various ranks, is equivalent to the British title of Lord, and was also one of the highest titles in...

 (1881). From this post, he was unceremoniously dismissed in 1879 by the Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an controllers of the public revenues, determined to economize at all hazards; and French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 influence prevented his succeeding his friend Mariette at the Bulaq Museum in 1883. He afterwards resided principally in Germany until his death in 1894, but frequently visited Egypt, took part in two more official missions to Persia in 1883 (with Prince Frederick Charles) and 1885. He organized an Egyptian exhibit at the Philadelphia Exposition

Centennial Exposition

The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. It was officially...

 in 1876.

He published his autobiography in 1894, concluding with a warm panegyric upon British

British Empire

The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...

 rule in Egypt. Brugsch's services to Egyptology are most important, particularly in the decipherment of Demotic and the making of a vast Hieroglyphic-Demotic dictionary (1867–1882).

He was buried in Berlin-Charlottenburg

Charlottenburg

Charlottenburg is a locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, named after Queen consort Sophia Charlotte...

. His tombstone is a reused lid of an Egyptian sarcophagus of the Old Kingdom

Old Kingdom

Old Kingdom is the name given to the period in the 3rd millennium BC when Egypt attained its first continuous peak of civilization in complexity and achievement – the first of three so-called "Kingdom" periods, which mark the high points of civilization in the lower Nile Valley .The term itself was...

.

Brugsch brought some biblical manuscripts from Sinai to Berlin (Minuscule 257

Minuscule 257

Minuscule 257 , α 466 , is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament, on parchment. Palaeographically it has been assigned to the 14th century. Formerly it was labelled by 302a and 260p...

, Minuscule 653

Minuscule 653

Minuscule 653 , ε 182 , is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament, on parchment. It is dated by a colophon to the year 1077. The manuscript has not complex contents. Scrivener labelled it by 640e....

 and Minuscule 654

Minuscule 654

Minuscule 654 , ε 1217 , is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament, on parchment. Palaeographically it has been assigned to the 12th century. The manuscript is lacunose...

).

The Brugsch Papyrus

Brugsch Papyrus

The Brugsch Papyrus , also known as the Greater Berlin Papyrus, is an important ancient Egyptian medical papyrus. It was discovered by Giuseppe Passalacqua in Saqqara, Egypt. Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia acquired it in 1827 for the Berlin Museum, where it is still housed...

, also known as the Greater Berlin Papyrus, in the Berlin Museum (Pap. Berl. 3038), an important ancient Egyptian medical papyrus, bears the name of Heinrich Karl Brugsch. It was studied originally by him.

Works

Among the most important of his works besides those mentioned are:

• Trip report from Egypt(Reiseberichte aus Ägypten) (1855)
• Demotic grammarGrammaire démotique (Paris, 1855)
• Monuments of Egypt Monuments de l'Egypte (1857)
• Geographic inscriptions(Geographische Inschriften) (Leipzig, 1857-60)
• History of EgyptHistoire d'Egypte (Leipzig, 1859)
• Anthology of Egyptian monumentsRecueil des monuments égyptiens (Leipzig, 1862-63)
• That of royally Prussian embassy 'travels to Persia (1862-63)
• hieroglyphically demotisches dictionary (Leipzig, 1867-82)
• hieroglyphic grammar (Leipzig, 1872)
• story of Egypt (Leipzig, 1877; English of train oil. "History of Egypt of from the monument")
• Geographical dictionary of ancient EgyptDictionnaire géographique de l' ancienne Egypte (Leipzig, 1877-81)
• Thesaurus Inscriptionum AEgyptiacarum (Leipzig, 1883-91)
• religion and mythology of the egyptians (Leipzig, 1887)
• the egyptology (1890)
• out of the East, old and new (1893)
• My life and hiking, at autobiography (1894)

• Reise der königlich Preussischer Gesandtschaft nach Persien (1862-63)
• Hieroglyphisch-demotisches Wörterbuch (Leipzig, 1867-82)
• Hieroglyphische Grammatik (Leipzig, 1872)
• Geschichte Aegyptens (Leipzig, 1877; English trans. “History of Egypt from the Monuments”)
• Dictionnaire géographique de l'ancienne Egypte (Leipzig, 1877-81)
• Thesaurus Inscriptionum Ægyptiacarum (Leipzig, 1883-91)
• Religion und Mythologie der Aegypter (Leipzig, 1887)
• Die Ägyptologie (1890)
• Aus dem Morgenlande, Altes und Neues (1893)
• Mein Leben und Wandern, an autobiography (1894)

(german translations made from freetranslation.com)

External links

britannica

OPENBOOKS History under the Pharoahs & other texts