Raymond O. Faulkner Explained

Raymond O. Faulkner
Birth Date:26 December 1894
Birth Place:Shoreham-by-Sea, Sussex, UK
Death Place:Ipswich, Suffolk, UK
Nationality:English
Field:Egyptology, philology
Work Institutions:Egypt Exploration Society, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries
Alma Mater:University College London, University of London
Known For:His dictionary of Middle Egyptian and translations of ancient Egyptian texts

Raymond Oliver Faulkner, FSA, (26 December 1894  - 3 March 1982) was an English Egyptologist and philologist of the ancient Egyptian language.

Life

Raymond O. Faulkner was born in Shoreham, Sussex, and was the son of bank clerk Frederick Arthur Faulkner and his wife Matilda Elizabeth Faulkner (née Wheeler). He spent his childhood in the isle of Wight. In 1912 he took up a position in the British Civil Service, but his employment was interrupted by World War I, when he entered the armed forces. After a brief period of service, he was invalided out and rejoined the Civil Service in 1916.

Faulkner developed an interest in Egyptology, and in 1918 he took to studying Egyptian hieroglyphs in his spare time at University College London under the tutelage of Margaret Murray. In 1926 he became the full-time assistant to Alan Gardiner, from whom he received philological training and encouragement to publish his works on hieroglyphic texts.

He was the editor of the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology from 1946 to 1959, and wrote many books, articles, and reviews. In 1950 he was admitted as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.

In 1951 Faulkner became an assistant in language teaching at University College London, progressing to become a lecturer in Egyptian language – a post he held from 1954 to 1967. He received his Doctor of Letters degree from the University of London in 1960.

Faulkner's main area of interest was Egyptian philology, and he made major contributions to Egyptology with his translations and indexes of many important ancient Egyptian texts, as well as his autographic dictionary of Middle Egyptian (which remains an important and standard reference for modern Egyptologists and students of the ancient Egyptian language).

He died in Ipswich, Suffolk, on 3 March 1982.

Personal life

He was interested in astronomy, philately, horse riding and sailing. He married in 1937.

Selected bibliography

See also

Further reading