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Oxford’s‘starman’

The poetrydetective

Rock of ages

ProfessorRichardParkinson onthe ‘ScotlandYard ofEgyptology’

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An ancient Egyptian poem hasspecial resonance for RichardBruce Parkinson, Professor ofEgyptology and a director ofOxford’s Griffith Institute of

Egyptology, tucked away in a wing of theSackler Library, just behind theAshmolean in St John’s Street.

“My two schoolboy enthusiasms collided inthe masterpiece of ancient Egyptian poetry, TheTale of Sinuhe,” Professor Parkinson explained.“I became aware that poetry need not bemodern or European. In this poem the herotells how his life journey took a wrong turn— it is a sort of portrait of a voice trying to finditself.”

Professor Parkinson says the GriffithInstitute, which this year is celebrating its 75thanniversary, has been described as the‘Scotland Yard of Egyptology’. And as‘Parkinson of the Yard’ many of the ancientmysteries he has investigated have involved

poetry. It should not really be a revelation thata culture which created such beautiful art alsowrote beautiful words.

As an 11 year-old, Professor Parkinson wasinspired by poetry and the beauty of thehieroglyph —and his interests eventually led toan intriguing career.

Professor Parkinson was born in 1963 inTeesdale, in County Durham, the only child oftwo teachers. His mother, Jessie, taught homeeconomics. Professor Parkinson said: “She hadwanted to study history but when she wasgrowing up academic choices for women fromher background were limited.

“My father, Harold Parkinson, was an artist,and because he had been interested in Egypt asa child, I grew up surrounded by art books onthe subject. I must have been about 11years-old when I was struck by the beauty ofthe Egyptian script.”

Professor Parkinson went to Barnard CastleSchool in the county town of the same name,where an inspirational English teacher, Alan

In this series we ask our subjectswhat favourite item— perhaps abook, antique or painting — theywould like to take with them to the

fictional island of Oxtopia.

Wilkinson (who happened to have studied atThe Queen’s College, Oxford) sparked apassion for literature in his young pupil.

“I can remember the precise moment inclass when I asked myself how poetry works,”Professor Parkinson said.”

But it is The Tale of Sinuhe that has echoedthroughoutProfessor Parkinson’s life. He sayshe enjoys how it shows that lives are notperfect or simple, and the awkward facts of the‘inner life’ have power.

“One of my chosen objects has to be the copyof The Tale of Sinuhe which is on display in theEgyptian galleries of the Ashmolean,” he said.

“Another would be Dad’s drawing ofTutankhamun’s tomb, done to teach memeasured perspective as a schoolboy in 1978.It was based on material from the GriffithInstitute, where it now hangs. It was includedin the recent Discovering Tutankhamunexhibition at the Ashmolean, which wouldhave delighted him.”

The young Richard was not attracted to

The poetrydetective

Sylvia Vetta talks toRichard Bruce Parkinson,

Professor of Egyptology and adirector of Oxford’s Griffith Institute

of Egyptology

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December 2014 Oxfordshire Limited Edition 9

Egyptology by mummies, gold and gruesomecurses — but by something much more humanand deeper. But this came at a cost.

Aged 13 he was in his mother’s living roomusing red ink to copy out the hieroglyphs of TheTale of Sinuhe.

“I clumsily spilled the ink onto the newcarpet,” he recalled. “My parents were notparticularly well off and I will never forget mymother’s horror and grief. She nobly kept hertemper, we tried to clean it as much as wecould, and then moved the settee to hide thestain.”

Professor Parkinson studied English, French,Latin and Art at A-Level and applied to readEgyptology at The Queen’s College, Oxfordwhich has a long association with the subject.He graduated with a first in 1985.

But during his time as an undergraduate atthe university he sometimes felt like anoutsider.

“I was very happy, but sometimes Oxfordseemed to be really intended for people who

were white, male, heterosexual, rich andprivileged — and southern. My father nevervisited me in Oxford. I think he worried thathis northern accent would be anembarrassment,” Professor Parkinson said.

“I felt culturally and socially marginal in theway many young gay people do, and I felt fartoo stupid to do anything worthwhile or useful— I still feel that.

“A friend and I would always joke about the‘Great Social Event To Which We Were NotInvited’. Remembering these feelings, Ithought twice about returning to work here,but it has been marvellous to come back to theInstitute and especially to Queen’s, whichis an immensely supportive and welcomingplace.

“My only problem is that as I walk throughthe college now I am never entirely surewhether I am 20 or 50, and whether I amgoing to bump into old or new friends ,orboth.”

Professor RichardParkinson, a director ofthe Griffith Institute of

Egyptology, photographedin the Library at The

Queens College, Oxford

Photograph: Ed Nix

“Sometimes Oxford seemedto be really intended forpeople who were white,

male, heterosexual, rich andprivileged — and southern.My father never visited me

in Oxford. I think heworried that his northern

accent would be anembarrassment.”

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Despite those worries, in 1985, ProfessorParkinson remained in Oxford to read for hisDPhil. His thesis was an edition andcommentary on another poem, The Tale of theEloquent Peasant.

He said: “It is about a quest for social anddivine justice. It dies on the page if you read itonly for the vocabulary and grammar, but not ifyou read it for its passion — then it is a livingwork of art. It is still cited by modern Egyptianwriters such as Ahdaf Soueif in connectionwith the Arab Spring.”

Professor Parkinson is best knowninternationally as an expert on the poetry ofthe classic age, 1940–1640 BC.

He said, “As well as the philological study ofmanuscripts, I work on material contexts,literary theory and modern receptions inliterature, art and film.

“What I enjoy is the experience ofattempting an integrated reading of ancienttexts, thinking about their changing contextsand their emotional and intellectual impact ontheir audiences — what they meant for theiroriginal audiences and what they can meannow.”

Being in the Egyptian landscape is veryimportant to Professor Parkinson.

“You cannot read a poem without knowingthe feel of its landscape,” he said. “But I havebeen an insulin-dependent diabetic since I was11, and when I was in Egypt on excavation as agraduate student it all went badly wrong whenI experienced a 48-hour coma. After that I

The Tomb of Tutankhamun, drawn by Professor Parkinson’s father Harold in 1978 © The Griffith Institute, Oxford

could never ask another fieldwork team to takeme on, but I spend as much time as I can inEgypt, lecturing on Nile cruises wheneverpossible.”

One work of art made a mark on ourcastaway’s life in 1987—the release of the filmMaurice, based on the novel of the same title byE M Forster. It is a tale of same-sex love in theearly 20th century.

Professor Parkinson said: “I was already agreat admirer of E M Forster and his advocacyof the ‘inner life’, and his novels were veryimportant for my own self-awareness. When Isaw the Merchant Ivory film, I found it veryinspirational —it is wonderfully romantic andquietly heroic.

“By a strange coincidence I met my husbandTim in Oxford exactly three years to the dayafter seeing the film. So I would want a DVD ofthat on the island.”

In 1990, Richard was still in Oxford as ajunior research fellow at University CollegeOxford.

He said, “Florence has always been afavourite city, thanks to my father and toForster— it was the first place I ever travelledon my own, using the advance payment frommy first book, and I went there with Tim soonafter we met.

“We privately exchanged rings in SantaCroce— sometimes one has to reinvent rites foroneself. We would often eat sandwiches inPiazza S Maria Novella under a loggia, and wepicked up a small fragment of pietra serena

(limestone) which was lying in the gutter. Itnow sits on the mantelpiece at our flat in NorthLondon.

“That I must have for the island, to remindme of all the times in Florence with Tim andall the works of art created with that lovely greystone from the hills of Fiesole.”

In 1991, there was a job opening at theBritish Museum.

“Permanent jobs in Egyptology are few andfar between,” Professor Parkinson said. “Part ofthe job requirement was that the candidateneeded to be able to copy inscriptions. I couldread hieroglyphs and, thanks to dad, I coulddraw. I ended up with the job and stayed formore than 20 years.”

At the British Museum, Professor Parkinsonbecame a curator in the Department ofAncient Egypt and Sudan. His academicresponsibilities included curating the papyri, aswell as inscribed material such as the RosettaStone, the iconic key to Egyptian hieroglyphs.

He said: “On the bicentenary of thediscovery of the Rosetta Stone, we had itconserved and cleaned, and discovered that itwas not black basalt but grey granite with apink streak. It was a bit of a shock, but that iswhat works of arts do. You think you knowthem, but they always surprise you.

“What I particularly like about the museumworld is the emphasis on public service andaccessibility, and I enjoy seeing the effect

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From page 11

encounters with art have on people, how theycan change lives.

“My biggest project was a permanent gallerywith the wall-paintings from the tomb of anofficial called Nebamun (around 1325 BC). Afriend, the artist Simon Davis, painted me withthem as part of a series of portraits of people intheir workplaces. They are very spectacular,and when we placed the fragments togetherthe most beautiful bits of painting often turnedout to be at eye level. You cannot explain thatexclusively through politics or ideology,”Professor Parkinson added.

“Perhaps a beautifully painted butterfly issometimes simply that — a beautiful butterfly.Sometimes academics are, as the philosopherRaymond Williams said, trained todetachment. What appeals to me is not theabstract and the academic, but the materialand the emotional, the touch of the real.”

“Working with designers, conservators,museum assistants and performers is such aprivilege. That’s why for my inaugural lectureat the Griffiths Institute — about Sinuhe ofcourse — I was accompanied by a great friend,the actress and novelist Barbara Ewing, whocan bring insights to a text that an academiclike me never can.”

Richard has published numerous papers andbooks on Ancient Egypt, for both academic andgeneral readers. But one recent publication hada broader remit.

A Little Gay History (British Museum Press2013) draws on 40 objects, ranging fromprehistoric carvings to prints by DavidHockney. One reviewer said that its “academicpower made it as explosive as a bombshell”,and the small book tries to present the diversityof human desire across the world from Indiangods to the Emperor Hadrian.

Hanging on the wall of his office is anotherisland choice which features in the book — acopy of a Piranesi print of the ruined chapel inHadrian’s villa at Tivoli (c. 1770).

The chapel was thought to have been builtby Hadrian for his dead lover, the handsomeAntinous. Richard explained that MargueriteYourcenar’s Memoires d’Hadrien (1951) wasinspirational for his academic interests as astudent, and that he always tends to take a copyof the book with him when he travels.

He said: “For Yourcenar, this print evokedthe interior life of the Emperor’s love and grief,and a copy of it hung in the home she sharedwith her partner. So for me it speaks aboutthings that are past, and present, and above allpersonal.”

Professor Parkinson was appointed OxfordProfessor of Egyptology in the Faculty ofOriental Studies in October, 2013. His firstterm was part-time due to commitments at theBritish Museum, and he took on the positionfull-time in January 2014.

He said: “The idea of a job where I was paidto read texts with students was irresistible, andsuch an immense privilege. This year — theinstitute’s 75th anniversary — has been ahorrifically exciting time to start, but it has alsobeen a perfect moment to take stock and toconsider how to move the subject forward.”

The Griffith Institute houses an archive ofwonderful things — containing the collectivememory and life works of some of Egyptology’sgreatest scholars, including its founderProfessor Francis Llewellyn Griffith.

Professor Parkinson said: “With this archive

we are uniquely placed as a home forEgyptology in Oxford, with the Ashmoleancollections next door, and the Sackler (one ofthe world’s greatest Egyptology libraries) — and,of course, the students. We hope to fullydigitise our archive and research resources sothat it is all accessible free of charge anywherein the world, especially for scholars andstudents in Egypt.

“Accessibility is the key thing,” he added.“When I started in the British Museum, I wastold that you had to bear in mind twoaudiences when writing a label — an 11 year-old school pupil and a visiting professor fromGermany. You had to speak to bothsimultaneously, and I think it is intellectuallyvery important to write for a diverse andinclusive audience.

“The Discovering Tutankhamun exhibition wasan amazing opportunity to connect theuniversity’s research with the public. In thepast, the Griffith Institute has benefited frommany endowments, but they need refreshing ifwe are to connect with new researchers acrossthe world. We are now looking for new

sponsors to help us project the Institute intothe 21st century.”

Richard took me into the temperaturecontrolled room where the archives are storedand showed me a leather-bound album ofexquisite watercolours by Howard Carter, whofamously discovered Tutankhamun’s tomb in1922. Carter copied hieroglyphic signs of birdsand then painted the same birds from nature.Surprisingly, it is the hieroglyphs that are moreanimated.

So we had gone full-circle back to the youngRichard copying out Egyptian signs andwrecking the front room carpet.

It was time for him to look at his list for thedesert island and pick which item he wouldchoose. The answer was immediate.

“James Ivory’s Maurice — the inner lifemust always come first.”

If readers would like to learn more about thepoetry of pharaonic Egypt, Richard has translatedsome for the Oxford World Classics series: The Taleof Sinuhe and Other Ancient Egyptian Poems1940–1640 BC, available from Amazon

LE

ProfessorParkinson

with his desertisland choice —E M Forster’s

Maurice