Frankfort , Henri , 1897-1954 , archaeologist

Henri Frankfort was born, 1897; brought up in the Netherlands and served in the Dutch armed forces during the First World War. He later studied at University College London and the British School at Athens and led archaeological excavations in Egypt before taking his PhD from Leiden University in 1927. He subsequently spent several years in Iraq carrying out fieldwork for the University of Chicago, where he became a Professor in 1932; he also held an Extraordinary Professorship at the University of Amsterdam concurrently with the Chicago chair. In 1949 he left the United States to become Professor of the History of Pre-Classical Antiquity at the University of London and Director of the Warburg Institute, a post he retained until his death in 1954. Prominent among his research interests were the religions of Ancient Egypt and the Near East. The art historian Enriqueta Harris was his second wife.