Dows Dunham (1 June 1890 – 10 January 1984) was an American archaeologist,

Egyptologist Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious ...

, and curator of

Egyptian art Ancient Egyptian art refers to art produced in ancient Egypt between the 6th millennium BC and the 4th century AD, spanning from Prehistoric Egypt until the Christianization of Roman Egypt. It includes paintings, sculpture ...

at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Career

Dunham studied art history at Harvard University from 1909 to 1913. He was taught by

George Andrew Reisner George Andrew Reisner Jr. (November 5, 1867 – June 6, 1942) was an American archaeologist of Ancient Egypt, Nubia and Palestine. Biography Reisner was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. His parents were George Andrew Reisner I and Mary Elizabet ...

, who offered him a job and made him one of his main assistants. Dunham was a member of numerous expeditions in Egypt and Sudan beginning in 1914, where he worked mainly on Reisner's team. In Giza, for example, he worked in the grave of

Hetepheres I Hetepheres I was a queen of Egypt during the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt (c. 2600 BC) who was a wife of one king, the mother of the next king, the grandmother of two more kings, and the figure who tied together two dynasties. Biography Het ...

. He also searched the royal graves of the

Kingdom of Kush The Kingdom of Kush (; Egyptian: 𓎡𓄿𓈙 𓈉 ''kꜣš'', Assyrian: ''Kûsi'', in LXX grc, Κυς and Κυσι ; cop, ''Ecōš''; he, כּוּשׁ ''Kūš'') was an ancient kingdom in Nubia, centered along the Nile Valley in w ...

in Sudan.

He was a curator at the Egyptian department of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston until 1956, and published a large part of the excavations of George Andrew Reisner, whose excavation documents are kept in the Museum of Fine Arts after his retirement. In 1956, he published a proposal for

building A building, or edifice, is an enclosed structure with a roof and walls standing more or less permanently in one place, such as a house or factory (although there's also portable buildings). Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and funct ...

the

Great Pyramid The Great Pyramid of Giza is the biggest Egyptian pyramid and the tomb of Fourth Dynasty pharaoh Khufu. Built in the early 26th century BC during a period of around 27 years, the pyramid is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient Worl ...

with spiral ramps. On each of the four sides of the pyramid, a separate ramp path starts at the left corner. These are positioned on the inner step pyramid and wind upwards in an anti-clockwise direction. Walter Vose of the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...

advised the project with practical engineering knowledge.

Mark Lehner Mark Lehner is an American archaeologist with more than 30 years of experience excavating in Egypt. He was born in North Dakota in 1950. His approach, as director of Ancient Egypt Research Associates (AERA), is to conduct interdisciplinary archae ...

did write in his book: ''"This form of ramp would require far less material than the straight-on type"''.

Honors

* In 1954, he was elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, ...

. * He was awarded the

Gold Medal Award for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement The Gold Medal Award for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement is awarded by the Archaeological Institute of America in "recognition of a scholar who has made distinguished contributions to archaeology through his or her fieldwork, publications ...

in 1979.

Bibliography

*
Recollections of an Egyptologist
' (1972)

References

External links

Dows Dunham - Published Documents - The Giza Project at Harvard UniversityThe Founding of ARCEOral history with Dows Dunham
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunham, Dows American Egyptologists 1890 births 1984 deaths People from Irvington, New York American curators Harvard University alumni Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Museum of Fine Arts, Boston