Aylward M. Blackman

Aylward Manley Blackman, FBA (30 January 1883 – 9 March 1956) was a British Egyptologist, who excavated various sites in Egypt and Nubia, notably Buhen and Meir. Having taught at Worcester College, Oxford, he was Brunner Professor of Egyptology at the University of Liverpool from 1934 to 1948. He was additionally a special lecturer at the University of Manchester, and was involved in or led a number of excavations with the Egypt Exploration Society.

Early life and education Blackman was born in Dawlish, Devon, the eldest son of Rev. James Henry Blackman and Mary Anne Blackman (née Jacob). He was educated at home and his interest in archaeology was inspired by his father, a keen amateur archaeologist who created archaeological digs by burying home made 'tablets' for his children to discover. Aylward's oldest sister, Winifred Susan Blackman, (1872–1950), also became an Egyptologist. He joined St Paul's School at the age of sixteen and gained a scholarship to study at Queen's College, Oxford. At Oxford, Blackman was a pupil of Francis Llewellyn Griffith, and graduated with a First Class degree in Oriental Studies in 1906. He was unable to complete the survey after he suffered a major attack of Typhoid fever at Gerf Hussein, which affected his health for the rest of his life.

From 1934 to 1948, he was the Brunner Professor of Egyptology at the University of Liverpool, and taught in the Liverpool Institute of Archaeology. His research during this period was affected by a serious accident in Germany in 1936 which left him hospitalised and a bombing raid in 1941 which destroyed his home and his work place. Despite the set backs, Blackman was able to introduced important changes to the teaching of Egyptology at Liverpool and lead the conversion of the Institute of Archaeology into a properly constituted school of the University. Blackman was also a special lecturer in Egyptology at the University of Manchester, (1936–1948), and the tutor of the Crown Prince of Ethiopia, Amha Selassie (1937–1939).

After his retirement in 1948, Blackman returned to Meir for one final season and published his research on the site in 1953. He was elected a fellow of the British Academy in 1953.

He died in 1956 in Abergele.

Selected works

English translation, from the German Literatur der Aegypter (1923): Adolf Erman, The Literature of the Ancient Egyptians, London, Methuen & Co., 1927. Reprinted by Harper & Row, 1966, as The Ancient Egyptians: A Sourcebook of their Writings.