Richard David Barnett,

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

, FBA (23 January 1909 – 29 July 1986) was the Keeper, Department of Western Asiatic Antiquities of the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

Early life

Born on 23 January 1909, Barnett was the son of Lionel David Barnett, who was the Keeper of Oriental Books and Manuscripts at the British Museum from 1908 to 1936. He attended

Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Corpus Christi College (full name: "The College of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary", often shortened to "Corpus") is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. From the late 14th c ...

. He was a student of British School of Archaeology at Athens from 1930 to 1932.

Career

In 1932, Barnett was appointed an Assistant Keeper in the Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities at the British Museum. He remained in that office until 1939, when he moved to the Admiralty for war service; after spells there and at the Foreign Office, he served in the RAF from 1942 to 1946. On demobilisation, he returned to his post at the British Museum in 1946 and was promoted to Deputy Keeper in 1953."Barnett, Richard David"
''Who Was Who'' (online ed.,

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 2007). Retrieved 14 April 2021. In 1955, he became Keeper of the department, serving until 1974. He then spent the 1974-75 year as a visiting professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Barnett was elected a Fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...

in 1962 and appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1974. He served as president of the Jewish Historical Society of England from 1959 to 1961 and chairman of the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society between 1968 and 1986. He died on 29 July 1986.

Publications

* (ed) ''Treasures of a London Temple'', 1951 * (with Sir

Leonard Woolley Sir Charles Leonard Woolley (17 April 1880 – 20 February 1960) was a British archaeologist best known for his Excavation (archaeology), excavations at Ur in Mesopotamia. He is recognized as one of the first "modern" archaeologists who excavat ...

) ''British Museum Excavations at Carchemish'', Vol. III, 1952 * ''Catalogue of Nimrud Ivories in the British Museum'', 1957, 2nd edn 1975 * (trans.) ''The Jewish sect of Qumran and the Essenes'' (by J. Dupont-Sommer), 1954 * * * (with M. Falkner) ''The Sculptures of Tiglath-pileser III'', 1962, 2nd edn, 1970 * * * * *

References

1909 births 1986 deaths Archaeologists from London Commanders of the Order of the British Empire English Jews Fellows of the British Academy People associated with the British Museum {{UK-archaeologist-stub