Sybille Haynes

Sybille Edith Haynes, (née Overhoff; born 3 July 1926) is a British expert on Etruscology. She grew up and was educated in Germany and Austria before moving to the UK in the 1950s. She worked with Etruscan artefacts at the British Museum for many years as well as publishing numerous books, for fellow scholars and also for the general public. In the 1980s she joined the Centre for the Study of Greek and Roman Antiquity at Corpus Christi College, Oxford.

Early life and education Born Sybille Overhoff on 3 July 1926 to Edith née Kloeppel, her German mother, and Julius Overhoff, her Austrian father, she was one of five siblings including her twin sister Elfriede Knauer, an archaeologist. She grew up in a cultured family in Berlin, Frankfurt and Austria but her schooling was interrupted by the Nazi regime. She had to join Nazi youth organisations and spent a year doing compulsory labour in harsh conditions. She went on to write a thesis on Etruscan bronze mirrors, supervised and encouraged by Guido von Kaschnitz.

British Museum

While she was helping at the British Museum in 1950, where the Greek and Roman department had suffered severe bomb damage, she met Denys Haynes (1913–1994), later Keeper of Greek and Roman Antiquities, whom she married in January 1951. She had also come to know the previous Keeper, Bernard Ashmole, who offered her a voluntary position in the department where her work included answering questions about Etruscan subjects and handling correspondence in German and Italian. She described this as an opportunity to study and learn. as well as "authoritative, precise, engaging and articulate". Neil MacGregor, while director of the British Museum, called Haynes an "Etruscologist of international repute" in the introduction to a 2011 festschrift. A Sybille Haynes Lecturership in Etruscan and Italic Archaeology at Somerville College, Oxford was created in 2013, and the university hosts a recently established annual Sybille Haynes lecture series open to the public. The current Sybille Haynes lecturer is Charlotte Potts.

Select bibliography As well as writing numerous articles, Haynes published these books: 2023, Storia culturale degli Etruschi, Milan 2008, Die Etruskerin, Mainz 2005, Kulturgeschichte der Etrusker, Mainz 2000, Etruscan Civilization: A Cultural History, London (2nd edn in german: 2005; 3rd edition in italian: 2023 - see above) 1987, The Augur’s Daughter, (fiction) London (repr. 2008) 1981, Die Tochter des Augers, (fiction) Frankfurt(repr. 2008) as Die Etruskerin. 1985, Etruscan Bronzes, London and New York 1985, Zwischen Mäander und Taurus: eine archäologische Reise in Kleinasien, Munich. 1981, Die Tochter des Augurs. Aus dem Leben der Etrusker, Mainz 1974, Land of the Chimaera. An Archaeological Excursion in the SouthWest of Turkey, London 1971, Etruscan Sculpture, London 1965, Etruscan Bronze Utensils, London (rev. edn 1974)