Biography

Jaroslav Černý was born on 22 August 1898 in Pilsen

Plzen Region

Plzeň Region is an administrative unit in the western part of Bohemia in the Czech Republic. It is named after its capital Plzeň .- Communes :...

 in Austro-Hungary. He studied from 1917 till 1922 at the Charles University in Prague

Charles University in Prague

Charles University in Prague is the oldest and largest university in the Czech Republic. Founded in 1348, it was the first university in Central Europe and is also considered the earliest German university...

, where he received his doctorate in 1929. He took part in Bernard Bruyère's excavations at Deir el-Medina in 1925 and the village became the focus of a lifelong study. One volume, of a planned three, on the village was published before his death with other parts published posthumously. In 1946, he became professor for Egyptology at University College London

University College London

University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...

. From 1951 until 1965 he was Professor of Egyptology

Professor of Egyptology (Oxford)

The position of Professor of Egyptology at the University of Oxford was established in 1924. The post is associated with a fellowship at The Queen's College, Oxford. The holders of the post have been:*Francis Llewellyn Griffith, 1924–1932...

 at Oxford University. His specialties were the hieratic

Hieratic

Hieratic refers to a cursive writing system that was used in the provenance of the pharaohs in Egypt and Nubia that developed alongside the hieroglyphic system, to which it is intimately related...

 script, the New Kingdom

New Kingdom

The New Kingdom of Egypt, also referred to as the Egyptian Empire is the period in ancient Egyptian history between the 16th century BC and the 11th century BC, covering the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties of Egypt....

, and Late Egyptian

Late Egyptian

Late Egyptian is the stage of the Egyptian language that was written by the time of the New Kingdom around 1350 BC – the Amarna period. Texts written wholly in Late Egyptian date to the Ramesside Period and later...

 literature. He died on 29 May 1970 in Oxford

Oxford

The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

, England.

Works

• Catalogue des ostraca hiératiques non littéraires de Deir el-Medineh, 7 Bände, Kairo 1937-70
• Ostraca hiératiques, Kairo 1935. (Catalogue Général du Musée égyptien du Caire, 25501-25832.)
• Late Ramesside Letters, Brüssel 1939.
• Répertoire onomastique de Deir el-Médineh, Kairo 1949. in collaboration with B. Bruyère and J. J. Clère.
• The Inscriptions of Sinai, London 1952, 1955. in collaboration with Alan H. Gardiner and T. Eric Peet.
• Paper & Books in Ancient Egypt, London,.
• Ancient Egyptian Religion, London 1952 (1952, 1957).
• Hieratic Ostraca, Volume I. Oxford 1957.
• Egyptian Stelae in the Bankes Collection, Oxford 1958.
• Hieratic Inscriptions from the Tomb of Tutankhamun, Oxford 1965.
• A Community of Workmen at Thebes in the Ramesside Period, Kairo 1973.
• A Late Egyptian Grammar, Rom 1975 (1978, 1984). in collaboration with Sarah Israelit Groll, supported by von Christopher Eyre.
• Coptic Etymological Dictionary, Cambridge 1976.
• Papyrus hiératiques de Deir el-Médineh, Tome I. Kairo 1978. finished by Georges Posener.