Michael Allen Hoffman (October 14, 1944– April 23, 1990) 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 author.

Life

Michael A. Hoffman was born in Washington D.C. on October 14, 1944 and was raised in Virginia although he spent a lot of vacation time in Ohio. In 1966, he graduated from the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a public land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state's ...

with a B.A. He got his M.A. from the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...

and in 1971, he received his Ph.D. Hoffman went to Egypt for the first time in 1969, where he joined the American Museum of Natural History's Hierakonpolis Expedition. He helped in the excavation of the ancient city of

Nekhen Nekhen ( egy, nḫn, ); in grc, Ἱεράκων πόλις Hierakonpolis ( either: City of the Hawk, or City of the Falcon, a reference to Horus or ''Hierakōn polis'' "Hawk City" in arz, الكوم الأحمر, el-Kōm el-Aḥmar, lit=the ...

and spent time at Locality Hk14. This was the first excavation of a

Predynastic Prehistoric Egypt and Predynastic Egypt span the period from the earliest human settlement to the beginning of the Early Dynastic Period around 3100 BC, starting with the first Pharaoh, Narmer for some Egyptologists, Hor-Aha for others, with th ...

Upper Egyptian settlement in over 35 years. On an excavation in 1984, he used sludge pumps to keep the site dry which paid off because he found a stratigraphic link from Dynasty 1 to

Naqada Naqada (Egyptian Arabic: ; Coptic language: ; Ancient Greek: ) is a town on the west bank of the Nile in Qena Governorate, Egypt, situated ca. 20 km north of Luxor. It includes the villages of Tukh, Khatara, Danfiq, and Zawayda. Accord ...

1. Hoffman was the director of the Archaeology Laboratory at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville from 1972 to 1979 and was an associate professor in sociology and anthropology at

Western Illinois University Western Illinois University (WIU) is a public university in Macomb, Illinois. It was founded in 1899 as Western Illinois State Normal School. As the normal school grew, it became Western Illinois State Teachers College. History Western Illin ...

. He became a research professor in the Earth Sciences and Resources Institute at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. His book ''Egypt before the Pharaohs: the Prehistoric Foundations of Egyptian Civilization'' was published in 1979. Hoffman re-established excavations of

Hierakonpolis Nekhen ( egy, nḫn, ); in grc, Ἱεράκων πόλις Hierakonpolis ( either: City of the Hawk, or City of the Falcon, a reference to Horus or ''Hierakōn polis'' "Hawk City" in arz, الكوم الأحمر, el-Kōm el-Aḥmar, lit=the ...

in 1979-80. He took Barbara Adams as one of his experts.Obituary
Harry Smith, ''The Guardian'', 13 July 2002, Retrieved 11 October 2016

Death and legacy

Hoffman died from cancer on April 23, 1990. After Hoffmann's death in 1990, James O. Mills and

Walter Fairservis Walter Ashlin Fairservis (1921 – 1994) was an American archaeologist. Early life He was born in Brooklyn, New York, United States, in 1921. His mother, Edith Yeager, was an actress. His wife, Jano, was an artist and illustrator. He received B.A ...

served as codirectors of the Hierakonpolis expedition.. His life's work led to a fresh appreciation of Egypt's predynastic past and how it culminated into statehood. ''Egypt Before the Pharaohs'' was shown in the 1994 film ''Stargate'' by Roland Emmerich.

Life

Death and legacy

References

Further reading