Griffith Institute Archive

Description of material

This description is based on the General International Standard Archival Description ISAD(G)

1. Identity statement

Reference code n/a

Title Sayce MSS.

Dates of creation of the material 1872 to early 1930s.

Extent 1 box and 1 album.

2. Context

Name of creator Sayce, Revd. Archibald Henry (1845-1933).

Administrative and biographical history
British Assyriologist. Born, Shirehampton 1845. Died, Bath 1933. Educated at Grosvenor College, Bath, then Queen's College, Oxford. Hibbert Lecturer, 1887. Gifford Lecturer, 1900-2. Professor of Assyriology, 1891-1919. Rhind Lecturer, 1906. Huxley Lecturer, 1906. D.Litt. LL.D. DD. Specialised in Carian and Hittite languages, as well as Assyrian and West Asian archaeology and philology. Also worked in Egypt copying inscriptions, etc.
See Who Was Who in Egyptology (3rd ed. 1995), 375.

Custodial history Material other than photograph album probably with Professor J. Garstang at the time of Sayce's death. The photograph album in the possession of Professor J. Garstang before being passed to Professor O. R. Gurney. Packet of correspondence presented by Professor O. R. Gurney.

Immediate source of acquisition Photographs album and other papers presented by Professor O. Gurney in 1987, the packet of correspondence probably handed over at the same time (info. Jaromir Malek). The rest of the material was presumably presented by Professor J. Garstang in 1949.

3. Content and structure

Scope and content Notes, photographs, squeezes, correspondence, and offprints. Contain, amongst others, references to Assyriological, Greek, Cypriot, and Egyptological material. Includes notes made by Petrie which were with Sayce at the time of his death.

System of arrangement Presumably kept as received.

4. Access and use

Legal status Property of the Griffith Institute.

Access conditions No restrictions.

Copyright conditions Copyright Griffith Institute, Oxford.

Language of material English.

Physical characteristics No problems.

Finding aids Catalogue.

5. Allied materials area

Location of originals These are originals.

Existence of copies None.

Related units of description None.

Associated material Not known.

Publications Not published.

Notes Letter sent by P. Fox on behalf of Dr Harden to Mr Penniman, dated 03-03-52, indicates that other Sayce material may have been passed on to the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford. The location of the bulk of his papers is currently not known.

(July 1, 2003)