Years at Christ’s: 

• 1950-1955 (as Lady Wallis Budge Scholar) 
• 1956-1960 (as Lady Wallis Budge Junior Research Fellow)
• 1960-1963 (as Fellow)  

Biography: 

Born in 1928, Harry Smith attended Merchant Taylors’ School from 1940 through to 1946. He obtained six months’ deferment from National Service in order to sit the Open Scholarship examinations in Classics to Christ’s College, Cambridge. Following his period of National Service, he went up to Cambridge in September 1949, where Prof. Stephen Glanville became a close friend and mentor. Changing from Classics to Oriental Studies, Harry read Egyptology, Coptic and Arabic, and graduated with a Starred First Class Degree in 1953. 

Following his graduation, Harry visited Egypt, spending four weeks in Luxor copying inscriptions for the Theban Tombs Project, and then working with Prof. W. B. Emery in the Archaic Necropolis at North Saqqara. On his return to Cambridge, he began studying Demotic with Stephen Glanville, and, in September 1954, was appointed Assistant Lecturer in Egyptology in the Faculty of Oriental Studies. 

In January 1956 Harry was elected as Lady Wallis Budge Research Fellow at Christ’s College. A few months later, in April 1956, Glanville died unexpectedly, leaving the Cambridge Egyptological Department without a head. J. M. Plumley was appointed as Professor of Egyptology in 1957, and in 1959 Harry was promoted from Assistant Lecturer to Full Lecturer. 

In 1959-1960 Harry obtained leave to do fieldwork. To gain experience in settlement archaeology, he worked first with Prof. Seton Lloyd at Beycesultan on the Cappadocian Plateau in Turkey. From there he travelled to Sudanese Nubia to work with Prof. W. B. Emery on the Egypt Exploration Society’s excavations at Buhen. Following this, he went to north Iraq to work with Prof. David Oates at Nimrud.  While working at Buhen, Prof. Emery invited him to be Field Director of the Archaeological Survey of Egyptian Nubia, one of three projects undertaken by the Egypt Exploration Society (EES) as part of the UNESCO campaign to rescue and record the monuments of Nubia prior to the construction of the High Dam at Aswan. The survey was undertaken during two seasons in 1961. 

In 1961 Harry was elected as a Full Fellow of Christ’s College, where he acted as temporary tutor from 1961 to 1963. In autumn 1963 he was appointed Reader in Egyptology at University College London (UCL), with responsibility for the Petrie Museum there. He remained at UCL for the rest of his career. 

From 1963 to 1970, Harry worked for the EES in Sudanese Nubia as Field Director at Buhen and Kor, and as Principal Epigraphist and Site Supervisor to Prof. Emery at the site of the Sacred Animal Necropolis (SAN) at North Saqqara. In 1970 he was elected to the Edwards Chair of Egyptology at UCL on Emery’s retirement from it. As well as being Head of Department of Egyptology at UCL, he served as a member of the Board of Studies of Archaeology and Oriental Languages and Literatures, and as a member of the Committee of Management at the Institute of Archaeology. 

In March 1971 Prof. Emery died suddenly and unexpectedly in Egypt. Harry was appointed by the EES as Field and General Director at the SAN, and undertook study seasons and further excavations there between 1971 and 1976, when it was decided that fieldwork at the site should cease. In 1976 he was a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Harvard, Mass., USA. In the same year, he started the Temple-Town Survey at Saqqara for the EES, and from 1977 to 1981 excavated at the Anubieion. In 1981 he became a Corresponding Member of the Deutsches Archaologisches Institut. From 1981 he acted as Field and General Director of the Archaeological Survey of Memphis for the EES. In 1983 he became a Member of the Board of Management at the Institute of Classical Studies, London University, and in 1984 was a Visiting Lecturer at the College de France, Paris. In 1985 he became a Fellow of the British Academy, and in 1987 was awarded the D. Lit., London. 

In 1988 Harry retired from excavation work, leaving the Memphis project in the capable hands of Dr. David Jeffreys and Dr. Lisa Giddy. Following his retirement from UCL, he continued to teach part-time on an honorary basis, and in 1993 was a Visiting Lecturer at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. From 1994 onwards, he turned his attention to the publication of the full archaeological reports on the SAN and the Demotic documents recovered from that site. 

Harry passed away on 8th September 2024 at the age of 96 and will be greatly missed both by Christ's College and the wider Egyptology community.

Sole Publications

Archaeological 

UNESCO’s international campaign to save the monuments of Nubia: preliminary reports of the Egypt Exploration Society’s Nubian survey. Cairo: General Organisation for Government Printing Offices, 1962. [At head of title page: United Arab Republic, Ministry of Culture and National Guidance, Antiquities Department of Egypt.] 

‘The Nubian B-Group’, Kush 14 (1966), 69-124. 

‘Kor: report on the excavations of the Egypt Exploration Society at Kor, 1965’, Kush 14 (1966), 187-243. 

‘Preliminary report on excavations in the Sacred Animal Necropolis, season 1974-1975’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 62 (1976), 14-17. 

‘À l’ombre d'Auguste Mariette’, Bulletin de l’Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale 81 supplément: bulletin du centenaire (1981), 331-339. 

‘The excavation of the Anubieion at Saqqara: a contribution to Memphite topography and stratigraphy (from 400 BC - 641 AD)’, in Anonymous (ed.), L’Égyptologie en 1979: axes prioritaires de recherches, vol. 1, 279-282. Paris: Éditions du Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1982. 

‘Nubia’, in James, T. G. H. (ed.), Excavating in Egypt: the Egypt Exploration Society 1882-1982, 123-140. London: British Museum Publications, 1982. 

‘Saqqara, Late Period’ (‘Saqqara, Nekropolen, Spätzeit’), in Helck, Wolfgang and Wolfhart Westendorf (eds) Lexikon der Ägyptologie, V [=Lieferung 35 (1983)], cols 412-427. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1984. 

‘Settlements in the Nile Valley’, in Posener-Kriéger, Paule (ed.), Mélanges Gamal eddin Mokhtar, vol. 2, 287-294. Le Caire: Institut français d’archéologie orientale, 1985. 

‘The development of the “A-Group” culture in northern Lower Nubia’, in Davies, W. V. (ed.), Egypt and Africa: Nubia from prehistory to Islam, 92-111. London: British Museum Press; Egypt Exploration Society, 1991. 

‘Uncharted Saqqâra: an essay’, in Berger, Catherine and Bernard Mathieu (eds), Études sur l’Ancien Empire et la nécropole de Saqqâra dédiées à Jean-Philippe Lauer, vol. 2, 379-393. Montpellier: Université Paul Valéry-Montpellier III, 1997. 

Nubian memoirs; with a forward by Sue Davies. Reading: Paolo Scremin, 2022. 

Philological 

‘Another witness-copy document from the Fayyūum’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 44 (1958), 86-96. 

‘A Cairo text of part of the “Instructions of ꜥOnkhsheshonqy”’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 44 (1958), 121-122. 

‘Dates of the obsequies of the mothers of Apis’, Revue d’Égyptologie 24 (1972), 176-187. 

‘The rock inscriptions of Buhen’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 58 (1972), 43-82. 

‘Some Coptic etymologies’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 61 (1975), 197-200. 

The fortress of Buhen: the inscriptions (Excavation Memoir 48), London: Egypt Exploration Society, 1976. 

‘The story of ꜥOnchsheshonqy’, Serapis 6 (1980), 134-156. 

‘The death and life of the Mother of Apis’, in Lloyd, Alan B. (ed.), Studies in pharaonic religion and society in honour of J. Gwyn Griffiths, 201-225. London: Egypt Exploration Society, 1992. 

‘Sunt lacrimae rerum: A. F. Shore Honoris causa’, in Eyre, Christopher, Anthony Leahy, and Lisa Montagno Leahy (eds), The unbroken reed: studies in the culture and heritage of ancient Egypt in honour of A. F. Shore, 281-292. London: Egypt Exploration Society, 1994. 

‘Marriage and family law in ancient Egypt, I: marriage and family law’, in Geller, Markham J. and Herwig Maehler (eds), Legal documents of the Hellenistic world: papers from a seminar arranged by the Institute of Classical Studies, the Institute of Jewish Studies and the Warburg Institute, University of London, February to May 1986, 46-57. London: Warburg Institute; Institute of Jewish Studies, 1995. 

‘The Saqqara papyri: oracle questions, pleas and letters’, in Ryholt, Kim (ed.), Acts of the Seventh International Conference of Demotic Studies: Copenhagen, 23-27 August 1999, 367-375. Copenhagen: Carsten Niebuhr Institute of Ancient Near Eastern Studies, 2002. 

‘A Saqqara Letter’, Annales du Service des Antiquités de l’Égypte 81 (2007), 363-368. 

‘A Saqqara letter concerning a captive fugitive (Saq. H5-DP241)’, in Widmer, Ghislaine and Didier Devauchelle (eds), Actes du IXe Congrès International des Études Démotiques: Paris, 31 août - 3 septembre 2005, 331-346. Le Caire: Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale, 2009. 

Historical and General  

‘A note on amnesty’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 54 (1968), 209-214. 

‘Animal domestication and animal cult in dynastic Egypt’, in Ucko, Peter J. and G. W. Dimbleby (eds), The domestication and exploitation of plants and animals: proceedings of a meeting of the Research Seminar in Archaeology and Related Subjects held at the Institute of Archaeology, London University, 307-314. London: Gerald Duckworth, 1969. 

‘Society and settlement in ancient Egypt’, in Ucko, Peter J., Ruth Tringham, and G. W. Dimbleby (eds), Man, settlement and urbanism: proceedings of a meeting of the Research Seminar in Archaeology and Related Subjects held at the Institute of Archaeology, London University, 705-719. London: Duckworth, 1972. 

A visit to ancient Egypt: life at Memphis & Saqqara (c. 500-30 BC), Warminster: Aris & Phillips, 1974. 

‘La mère d’Apis: fouilles récentes de l’Egypt Exploration Society à Saqqara-Nord’, Bulletin de la Société Française d’Égyptologie 70-71 (1974), 11-27. 

‘Varia ptolemaica’, in Ruffle, John, G. A. Gaballa, and Kenneth A. Kitchen (eds), Glimpses of ancient Egypt / Orbis Aegyptiorum speculum: studies in honour of H. W. Fairman, 161-166. Warminster: Aris & Phillips, 1979. 

‘Nubia’, in Hall, Rosalind M. and H. S. Smith (eds), Ancient centres of Egyptian civilization, 73-86. London: The Egyptian Education Bureau, 1983. 

‘The making of Egypt: a review of the influence of Susa and Sumer on Upper Egypt and Lower Nubia in the 4th Millennium BC’, in Friedman, Renée and Barbara Adams (eds), The followers of Horus: studies dedicated to Michael Allen Hoffman, 235-246. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 1992. 

‘The princes of Seyala in Lower Nubia in the predynastic and protodynastic periods’, in Berger, Catherine, Gisèle Clerc, and Nicolas Grimal (eds), Hommages à Jean Leclant , vol. 2, 361-376. Le Caire: Institut français d’archéologie orientale, 1994. 

Obituaries 

‘Walter Bryan Emery’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 57 (1971), 190-201. 

‘The Reverend Dr Anthony J. Arkell’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 67 (1981), 143-148. 

‘Raymond O. Faulkner’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 69 (1983), 141-144. 

Joint Publications

Archaeological 

H. S. Smith, H and D. G. Jeffreys. ‘The Sacred Animal Necropolis, North Saqqâra: 1975/6’,  Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 63 (1977), 20-28. 

H. S. Smith, and D. G. Jeffreys. ‘The north Saqqâra temple-town survey: preliminary report for 1976/77’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 64 (1978), 10-21. 

Walter B. Emery, H. S. Smith, and A. Millard. The fortress of Buhen: the archaeological report; with contributions by D. M. Dixon, J. Clutton-Brock, R. Burleigh, and R. M. F. Preston (Egypt Exploration Society, Excavation Memoir 49), London: Egypt Exploration Society, 1979. 

H. S. Smith and D. G. Jeffreys. ‘The Anubieion, North Saqqâra: preliminary report, 1977-1978’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 65 (1979), 17-29. 

H. S. Smith and D. G. Jeffreys. ‘The Anubieion, North Saqqâra: preliminary report, 1978-9’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 66 (1980), 17-27. 

H. S. Smith and D. G. Jeffreys. ‘The Anubieion, North Saqqâra: preliminary report, 1979-80’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 67 (1981), 21-23. 

H. S. Smith, D. G. Jeffreys, and J. Malek. ‘The survey of Memphis, 1981’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 69 (1983), 30-42. 

Harry S. Smith, David G. Jeffreys, and Jaromir Malek. ‘Archaeological survey at Mitrahina (1981): Kom Rabiꜥa and Kom Fakhri’, Annales du Service des Antiquités de l’Égypte 69 (1983), 87-94. 

D. G. Jeffreys, J. Malek, and H. S. Smith. ‘The Survey of Memphis, 1982’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 70 (1984), 23-32. 

H. S. Smith, and D. G. Jeffreys. ‘The survey of Memphis, 1983’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 71 (1985), 5-11. 

Harry S. Smith, and Lisa L. Giddy. ‘Nubia and Dakhla Oasis in the late third millennium BC: the present balance of textual and archaeological evidence’, in Geus, Francis and Florence Thill (eds), Mélanges offerts à Jean Vercoutter, 317-330. Paris: Éditions Recherche sur les Civilisations, 1985. 

D. G. Jeffreys and H. S. Smith. The Anubieion at Saqqâra I: the settlement and the temple precinct (Excavation Memoir 54), London: Egypt Exploration Society, 1988. 

D. G. Jeffreys and H. S. Smith. ‘Memphis and the Nile in the New Kingdom: a preliminary attempt at a historical perspective’, in Zivie, Alain-Pierre (ed.), Memphis et ses nécropoles au Nouvel Empire, nouvelles données, nouvelles questions: actes du colloque CNRS, Paris, 9 au 11 octobre 1986, 55-66. Paris: Éditions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1988. 

Lisa L. Giddy. The Anubieion at Saqqâra II: the cemeteries; with a preface and contributions by H. S. Smith and a chapter by P. G. French (Excavation Memoir 56). London: Egypt Exploration Society, 1992. 

Sue Davies and Harry S. Smith. The sacred animal necropolis at North Saqqara: the falcon complex and catacomb. The archaeological report (Excavation Memoir 73), London: Egypt Exploration Society, 2005. 

Sue Davies. The sacred animal necropolis at North Saqqara: the Mother of Apis and baboon catacombs. The archaeological report; with contributions by H. S. Smith and K. J. Frazer (Excavation Memoir 76). London: Egypt Exploration Society, 2006. 

H. S. Smith, Sue Davies, and K. J. Frazer. The sacred animal necropolis at North Saqqara: the main temple complex. The archaeological report (Excavation Memoir 75). London: Egypt Exploration Society, 2006. 

Philological 

A. F. Shore and H. S. Smith. ‘Two unpublished demotic documents from the Asyūṭ archive’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 45 (1959), 52-60. 

A. F. Shore and H. S. Smith. ‘A demotic embalmers’ agreement (Pap. dem. B.M. 10561)’, Acta Orientalia 25 (1960), 277-294. 

G. T. Martin, E. G. Turner, J. B. Segal, H. S. Smith, R. H. Pierce, W. J. Tait, and J. D. Ray. ‘The Saqqara papyri’, in Anonymous (ed.), Proceedings of the XIV International Congress of Papyrologists, Oxford, 24-31, July, 1974, 247-267. London: The British Academy; Egypt Exploration Society, 1975. 

Alexandrina Smith and H. S. Smith. ‘A reconsideration of the Kamose texts’, Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde 103 (1976), 48-76. 

Anthea Page. Egyptian sculpture, archaic to Saite, from the Petrie Collection; with introduction and translations by H. S. Smith. Warminster: Aris & Phillips, 1976. 

H. S. Smith and W. J. Tait. ‘Demotic letter’, in Parsons, P. J. and J. R. Rea (eds), Papyri: Greek & Egyptian, edited by various hands in honour of Eric Gardner Turner on the occasion of his seventieth birthday, 75-79. London: British Academy; Egypt Exploration Society, 1981. 

H. S. Smith and A. Kuhrt. ‘A letter to a foreign general’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 68 (1982), 199-209. 

Anthea Page Ancient Egyptian figured ostraca in the Petrie collection (with translations by H. S. Smith). Warminster: Aris & Phillips, 1983. 

J. B. Segal. Aramaic texts from North Saqqâra, with some fragments in Phoenician; (ed.) by J. B. Segal, with contributions by H. S. Smith (Texts from Excavations 6; Excavations at North Saqqâra, Documentary Series 4). London: Egypt Exploration Society, 1983. 

H. S. Smith, and W. J. Tait. Saqqâra demotic papyri I (P. Dem. Saq. I) (Texts from Excavations 7; Excavations at North Saqqara, Documentary Series 5). London: Egypt Exploration Society, 1983. 

H. S. Smith and H. M. Stewart. ‘The Gurob shrine papyrus’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 70 (1984), 54-64. 

H. S. Smith and W. J. Tait. ‘A proposal to undertake tax-administration for a district official’, Enchoria 12 (1984), 43-49. 

Christine Insley Green. The temple furniture from the sacred animal necropolis at North Saqqâra 1964-1976  [with transcriptions and translations of demotic inscriptions by H. S. Smith] (Excavation Memoir 53). London: Egypt Exploration Society, 1987. 

Hastings, Elizabeth Anne. The sculpture from the sacred animal necropolis at North Saqqāra 1964-76 [with introduction and two appendixes by H. S. Smith]. Egypt (Excavation Memoir 61). London: Egypt Exploration Society, 1987. 

H. S. Smith and S. Davies. ‘The sacred animal necropolis at North Saqqara yet again! Some Late period inscribed offering-tables from the site’, in Schneider, Thomas and Kasia Szpakowska (eds), Egyptian stories: a British Egyptological tribute to Alan B. Lloyd on the occasion of his retirement, 329-352. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2007. 

Harry S. Smith and Cary J. Martin. ‘Demotic papyri from the Sacred Animal Necropolis of North Saqqara, certainly or possibly of Achaemenid date’, in Briant, Pierre and Michel Chauveau (eds), Organisation des pouvoirs et contacts culturels dans les pays de l’empire achéménide: actes du colloque organisé au Collège de France par la “Chaire d’Histoire et Civilisation du Monde Achéménide et de l’Empire d’Alexandre” et le “Réseau International d'Études et de Recherches Achéménides” (GDR 2538 CNRS), 9 - 10 novembre 2007, 23-78. Paris: De Boccard, 2009. 

Cary J. Martin and Harry S. Smith. ‘Demotic letters from the Sacred Animal Necropolis, North Saqqara’, in Knuf, Hermann, Christian Leitz, and Daniel von Recklinghausen (eds), Honi soit qui mal y pense: Studien zum pharaonischen, griechisch-römischen und spätantiken Ägypten zu Ehren von Heinz-Josef Thissen, 85-97. Leuven: Peeters, 2010. 

Cary J. Martin, H. S. Smith, and Sue Davies. ‘Two demotic letters from the sacred animal necropolis, north Saqqara’, in Hawass, Zahi A., Khaled A. Daoud, and Ramadan B. Hussein (eds), Scribe of justice: Egyptological studies in honour of Shafik Allam, 273-291. Le Caire: Ministry of State for Antiquities, 2011. 

H. S. Smith, C. A. R. Andrews, and Sue Davies. The sacred animal necropolis at North Saqqara: the mother of Apis inscriptions (Texts from Excavations 14). 2v. London: Egypt Exploration Society, 2011 (Volume 1: The catalogue; volume 2: Commentaries and plates). 

H. S. Smith and Sue Davies. ‘The “Pewenhor” documents from the Sacred Animal Necropolis at North Saqqara’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 98 (2012), 139-184. 

Cary J. Martin, H. S. Smith, and Sue Davies, ‘Correspondence from the necropolis: two demotic letters from the Sacred Animal Necropolis, North Saqqara’, in Dodson, A. M., John J. Johnston, and W. Monkhouse (eds), A good scribe and an exceedingly wise man: studies in honour of W. J. Tait, 213-228. London: Golden House, 2014. 

Harry S. Smith and Sue Davies. ‘Demotic papyri from the sacred animal necropolis at North Saqqara: pleas, oracle questions and documents referring to mummies’, in Depauw, Mark and Yanne Broux (eds), Acts of the Tenth International Congress of Demotic Studies: Leuven, 26-30 August 2008, 263-317. Leuven; Paris; Walpole, MA: Peeters. 2014. 

H. S. Smith, H, Cary J. Martin, and Sue Davies. ‘The “Horhotep letters” from the Sacred Animal Necropolis at North Saqqara’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 100 (2014), 437-465. 

Cary J. Martin, H. S. Smith, and Sue Davies. ‘Demotic letters from the Sacred Animal Necropolis of North Saqqara: the final instalment’, in Donker van Heel, Koenraad, Francisca A. J. Hoogendijk, and Cary J. Martin (eds), Hieratic, Demotic and Greek studies and text editions: of making many books there is no end; Festschrift in honour of Sven P. Vleeming, 123-147. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2018. 

H. S. Smith, Cary J. Martin, and Christopher J. Tuplin. ‘The Egyptian documents’, in Tuplin, Christopher J. and John Ma (eds), Aršāma and his world: the Bodleian letters in context, vol. 1, 287-299. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020.

Prof. Harry Smith at the EES:

Professor Harry Smith | Egypt Exploration Society (ees.ac.uk)