Maurice Wildon Montague Pope (17 February 1926 – 1 August 2019) was a British linguist, specialist in Classics, one of leading researchers of the Cretan script Linear A. Born in London, he graduated from

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. In 1949, became a lecturer in Classics at the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a public university, public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest univer ...

, lecturer from 1952, professor from 1957. In 1957, he replaced professor George P. Gould as the Head of Classics. In co-authorship with Gould he published several articles on Minoan

Linear A Linear A is a writing system that was used by the Minoans of Crete from 1800 BC to 1450 BC. Linear A was the primary script used in Minoan palaces, palace and religious writings of the Minoan civilization. It evolved into Linear B, ...

script. Along with linguistics Pope was interested in archaeology. He often participated in archaeological expeditions, and in 1954 participated in an underwater expedition of the Archaeological School of Athens near

Chios Chios (; , traditionally known as Scio in English) is the fifth largest Greece, Greek list of islands of Greece, island, situated in the northern Aegean Sea, and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, tenth largest island in the Medi ...

. In 1960s, he was Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the

. The hero of

J. M. Coetzee John Maxwell Coetzee Order of Australia, AC Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, FRSL Order of Mapungubwe, OMG (born 9 February 1940) is a South African and Australian novelist, essayist, linguist, and translator. The recipient of the 2003 ...

's 2002 book "Youth" (pp 23–24) describes the Cape Town Classics Department: "Greek and pure mathematics are in his eyes the noblest subjects one can study at a university. From afar he reveres the lecturers in Greek, whose courses he cannot take: Anton Paap, papyrologist; Maurice Pope, translator of Sophocles; Maurits Heemstra, commentator on Heraclitus. Together with Douglas Sears, Professor of Pure Mathematics, they inhabit an exalted realm." In August 1968, Pope resigned from his position and left the university, as he strongly disagreed with the interference of the racist government in the university's policy (namely, the government forced the university authorities to dismiss a job offer previously issued to a Black person).SOUTH AFRICA: WHERE WERE WE LOOKING IN 1968? By John Daniel and Peter. Vale. Page 142
/ref> In 1969, Maurice Pope moved to teach and research in

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

. In the 1980s, in cooperation with Jacques Raison, he prepared and published a corpus of Minoan Linear A inscriptions.

Military service

Maurice served as an officer in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

from (July 1944 - November 1946). He served on the LCT 1187 that was part of the flotilla of H.M.S. Troubadour. In his autobiography "Amateur" he recounts his experiences of the war.

References

Selected works

* ''Corpus transnuméré du Linéaire A (avec J. Raison)''. *''The Story of Decipherment: From Egyptian Hieroglyphs to Maya Script: From Egyptian Hieroglyphics to Maya Script'' 1999, New York: Thames & Hudson. *''The Ancient Greeks: How They Lived and Worked'' 1976, Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0715370812 * ''Upon the Country – Juries and the Principle of Random Selection''. Social Science Information 28, no. 2 (June 1989): 265-289 * ''The Keys to Democracy - Sortition As a New Model For Citizen Power''. 2023, Imprint Academic. ISBN 9781788360975 {{DEFAULTSORT:Pope, Maurice Linguists from the United Kingdom Linguists from South Africa South African archaeologists 2019 deaths 1926 births Academics from London Alumni of the University of Cambridge Academic staff of the University of Cape Town Academics of the University of Oxford British expatriates in South Africa