Humfry Gilbert Garth Payne (19 February 1902 – 9 May 1936) was an English

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

, director of the

British School at Athens The British School at Athens (BSA; ) is an institute for advanced research, one of the eight British International Research Institutes supported by the British Academy, that promotes the study of Greece in all its aspects. Under UK law it is a reg ...

from 1929 to his death.

Personal

Born at Wendover,

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...

, Payne was one of three children, the only son, of the historian Edward John Payne, fellow of University College Oxford, and Emma Leonora Helena ( Pertz). He attended

Westminster School Westminster School is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Westminster, London, England, in the precincts of Westminster Abbey. It descends from a charity school founded by Westminster Benedictines before the Norman Conquest, as do ...

and afterwards

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church (, the temple or house, ''wikt:aedes, ædes'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by Henry V ...

where he was awarded first class honours in classical Mods (1922) and Greats (1924). In 1926, he married the journalist Dilys Powell. Payne was the younger brother of the astronomer

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (born Cecilia Helena Payne; – ) was a British-born American astronomer and astrophysicist. Her work on the cosmic makeup of the universe and the nature of variable stars was foundational to modern astrophysics. She ...

(1900–1979).

Career

A research studentship at Christ Church (1926 to 1931) and an assistantship in the department of antiquities at the

Ashmolean Museum The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street in Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University ...

(1926 to 1928) followed, during which he researched in Mediterranean archaeology. Payne received the Conington Prize for classical learning in 1927 for work on painted Greek pottery. He supervised, partially, John Beazley and Alan Blakeway, and they published joint papers on black-figured

Attic An attic (sometimes referred to as a '' loft'') is a space found directly below the pitched roof of a house or other building. It is also known as a ''sky parlor'' or a garret. Because they fill the space between the ceiling of a building's t ...

pottery excavated at

Naucratis Naucratis or Naukratis (Ancient Greek: , "Naval Command"; Egyptian: , , , Coptic: ) was a city and trading-post in ancient Egypt, located on the Canopic (western-most) branch of the Nile river, south-east of the Mediterranean sea and the city ...

. There were large collections of vase material from Corinthia, Payne took up the challenge of studying and collating the information which he published in 1931 as ''Necrocorinthia'', which was admired and made his name throughout the archaeological world. Payne spent summer archaeological excavation seasons 1927–1929 on Crete, around

Knossos Knossos (; , ; Linear B: ''Ko-no-so'') is a Bronze Age archaeological site in Crete. The site was a major centre of the Minoan civilization and is known for its association with the Greek myth of Theseus and the minotaur. It is located on th ...

where

Arthur Evans Sir Arthur John Evans (8 July 1851 – 11 July 1941) was a British archaeologist and pioneer in the study of Aegean civilization in the Bronze Age. The first excavations at the Minoan palace of Knossos on the List of islands of Greece, Gree ...

was working. In 1929, his work had been recognised when he was appointed as the director of the British School of Archaeology in Athens. He then, in 1930, instigated the dig at Perachora, a settlement on the Gerania peninsula on the

Gulf of Corinth The Gulf of Corinth or the Corinthian Gulf (, ) is a deep inlet of the Ionian Sea, separating the Peloponnese from western mainland Greece. It is bounded in the east by the Isthmus of Corinth which includes the shipping-designed Corinth Canal and ...

. There, the sanctuary and harbour sites were to be dug from 1930 to 1933, and later in 1939 and in the 1960s. This work was written up as ''Perachora: the sanctuaries of Hera Akraia and Limenia'', mostly by Payne, edited by Thomas Dunbabin to be published in 1940; a second volume was to be published in 1962. Humfry Payne Grave

He also worked on archaic sculptures which had been found at the

Acropolis of Athens The Acropolis of Athens (; ) is an ancient citadel located on a rocky outcrop above the city of Athens, Greece, and contains the remains of several Ancient Greek architecture, ancient buildings of great architectural and historical significance, ...

50 years earlier. This work, published in 1936 as ''Archaic marble sculpture from the Acropolis'' was to confirm his reputation. It changed views on the origin of many pieces; for example it identified potential reunions of sculptured parts in French museums with other parts in the Acropolis Museum. His career came to an early end when he died from an infection of

staphylococcus ''Staphylococcus'', from Ancient Greek σταφυλή (''staphulḗ''), meaning "bunch of grapes", and (''kókkos''), meaning "kernel" or " Kermes", is a genus of Gram-positive bacteria in the family Staphylococcaceae from the order Bacillale ...

in the Evangelismos Hospital in Athens. He was 34 years old.Biography
aegeussociety.org. Accessed 6 September 2022. He is buried in the cemetery of Agios Georgios (St George) at

Mycenae Mycenae ( ; ; or , ''Mykē̂nai'' or ''Mykḗnē'') is an archaeological site near Mykines, Greece, Mykines in Argolis, north-eastern Peloponnese, Greece. It is located about south-west of Athens; north of Argos, Peloponnese, Argos; and sou ...

where his tombstone bears the words ''Mourn not for Adonais'', a quotation from

Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 1792 – 8 July 1822) was an English writer who is considered one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame durin ...

's poem '' Adonais'', an elegy for

John Keats John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tub ...

Written works

* ''Necrocorinthia: a study of Corinthian art in the archaic period''. (1931), Oxford: Clarendon Press. * ''Archaic marble sculpture from the Acropolis'', (1936), Manchester: Cresset Press (with Gerard Mackworth Young). * ''Perachora: the sanctuaries of Hera Akraia and Limenia'', (1940), Oxford: Clarendon Press (ed T J Dunbabin). * ''Protokorinthische Vasenmalerei'', (1974), Mainz: Verlag Philipp von Zabern, (reprint).

References

Sources

* Obituary, ''The Times'', 11 May 1936, pg 17. * ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. OUP (2004). {{DEFAULTSORT:Payne, Humfry Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford English archaeologists Scholars of ancient Greek pottery 1902 births 1936 deaths People from Wendover Infectious disease deaths in Greece Deaths from staphylococcal infection People educated at Westminster School, London Directors of the British School at Athens

Personal

Career

Written works

Further reading

References

Sources