Alan Jenvey Rowe (29 October 1891 – 3 January 1968) was a British archaeologist most famous for his studies on ancient Egypt. Rowe was an

Egyptologist Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , ''-logia''; ) is the scientific study of ancient Egypt. The topics studied include ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end ...

and lecturer in Near Eastern Archaeology in

Manchester University The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

Life

Born in

Deptford Deptford is an area on the south bank of the River Thames in southeast London, in the Royal Borough of Greenwich and London Borough of Lewisham. It is named after a Ford (crossing), ford of the River Ravensbourne. From the mid 16th century ...

and raised in

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

, Rowe's work included Egypt,

Cyrenaica Cyrenaica ( ) or Kyrenaika (, , after the city of Cyrene), is the eastern region of Libya. Cyrenaica includes all of the eastern part of Libya between the 16th and 25th meridians east, including the Kufra District. The coastal region, als ...

, Australia, Palestine and Syria.

Career

Excavations

Between 1923 and 1925 he took part in a core expedition to

Giza Giza (; sometimes spelled ''Gizah, Gizeh, Geeza, Jiza''; , , ' ) is the third-largest city in Egypt by area after Cairo and Alexandria; and fourth-largest city in Africa by population after Kinshasa, Lagos, and Cairo. It is the capital of ...

. He worked from 1928 to 1931 on the pyramid of Meidum, and surrounding areas, during this time he discovered the first royal

necropolis A necropolis (: necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli) is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek ''nekropolis'' (). The term usually implies a separate burial site at a distan ...

built in a style of a

royal court A royal court, often called simply a court when the royal context is clear, is an extended royal household in a monarchy, including all those who regularly attend on a monarch, or another central figure. Hence, the word ''court'' may also be app ...

. His work ended due to the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

of 1931. In 1934 he led an expedition to Tel Gezer (midway between

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

and

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

), but the locations identified for excavation turned out not to be workable. In 1938 he led a team from Liverpool University to the Pyramid of Athribis, unfortunately the structure was already in such a heavily damaged state, preventing more thorough examinations. Between 1952 and 1957 Rowe surveyed and excavated tombs of the Necropolis of Cyrene, in the course of four campaigns. Rowe was the first to make an extensive archaeological study of the Necropolis of Cyrene, however, many artifacts from his excavations are considered to be lost. Rowe published extensive findings from excavating large parts of the

Serapeum of Alexandria The Serapeum of Alexandria in the Ptolemaic Kingdom was an ancient Greek temple built by Ptolemy III Euergetes (reigned 246–222 BC) and dedicated to Serapis, who was made the protector of Alexandria, Egypt. There are also signs of Harpocr ...

in 1956 together with B. R. Rees, including a detailed floor plan. Rowe and Rees 1956 suggested that statues found at the Serapeum of Alexandria and Memphis

Saqqara Saqqara ( : saqqāra ), also spelled Sakkara or Saccara in English , is an Egyptian village in the markaz (county) of Badrashin in the Giza Governorate, that contains ancient burial grounds of Egyptian royalty, serving as the necropolis for ...

, share a similar theme, such as with

Plato's Academy mosaic Plato's Academy mosaic is a free standing mosaic panel found in the villa of T. Siminius Stephanus in Pompeii. It is roughly a square, 86 cm x 85 cm, and can be seen presently at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, where it is kept as i ...

Publications

The Four Canaanite Temples of Beth-shan
Beth-shan II:1, University Museum: Philadelphia, 1940. *''New Light on Aegypto-Cyrenaean Relations: Two Ptolemaic Statues Found in Tolmeita'' - l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale (1948). *''A Contribution to the Archaeology of the Western Desert: IV - The Great Serapeum of Alexandria'' (1956) (with B. R. Rees). in: ''Bulletin of the John Rylands Library''; vol. 39 *''A Contribution to the Archaeology of the Western Desert: I, II & III''; in: ''Bulletin of the John Rylands Library''; vols. 36 & 38 *''Studies in the Archaeology of the Near East: I & II''; in: ''Bulletin of the John Rylands Library''; vols. 43 & 44

References

1891 births 1968 deaths British Egyptologists 20th-century British archaeologists People from Deptford Academics of the University of Manchester {{UK-archaeologist-stub