30 Facts About Archibald Sayce

Archibald Henry Sayce was a pioneer British Assyriologist and linguist, who held a chair as Professor of Assyriology at the University of Oxford from 1891 to 1919.

Archibald Sayce was able to write in at least twenty ancient and modern languages, and was known for his emphasis on the importance of archaeological and monumental evidence in linguistic research.

Archibald Sayce began his formal education at Grosvenor College shortly after his family moved to Bath in 1858.

Archibald Sayce published his first academic paper, Cuneiform inscriptions of Van in 1865.

Archibald Sayce achieved a first-class in Classical Moderations in 1866 and in Literae Humaniores in 1868, and was elected to a vacant Fellowship in the same year.

In 1869, Archibald Sayce was appointed a lecturer at Queen's College.

Archibald Sayce was ordained a priest in the Church of England in 1870.

Ongoing problems with his sight almost led to the end of his Oxford career and Archibald Sayce spent much of his time travelling Europe.

Archibald Sayce began to deliver lectures to the Nineveh Society of Biblical Archaeology and contributed to The Times and the New York Independent.

In 1876 Archibald Sayce was appointed the Deputy Professor of Comparative Philology, a role shared with the continuing Professor, Max Muller, who wanted to reduce his duties.

From 1872, Archibald Sayce spent most of his summers travelling for his health and in search of new texts.

In 1881, Archibald Sayce was one of the first scholars to examine the Siloam Inscription, which he described in the Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly.

Archibald Sayce resigned his professorship in 1890 and briefly moved to Egypt, where he was instrumental in the reopening of the Museum of Cairo in 1891.

In 1891, Archibald Sayce returned to Oxford to become the university's first Professor of Assyriology.

Archibald Sayce was a founding member of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, which he presided from 1898 until it was absorbed into the Royal Asiatic Society in 1919.

Archibald Sayce was an active member of the Royal Asiatic Society from 1874 and a founding member of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies.

In 1874, Archibald Sayce published his paper, The Astronomy and Astrology of the Babylonians, one of the first articles to translate astronomical cuneiform texts.

Archibald Sayce is seen by some as one of founding fathers of the 'Reform Movement' in linguistic research at the end of the 19th century.

The books challenged the current thinking in comparative philology and the importance of what Archibald Sayce termed the principle of analogy.

Archibald Sayce theorized that the pseudo-sesostris rock carvings in Asia Minor, such as the Karabel relief which had been historically attributed to the Egyptians, were actually created by another pre-Greek culture.

In 1879, Archibald Sayce further theorized that reliefs and inscriptions at Karabel, Ivriz, Bulgarmaden, Carchemish, Alaca Hoyuk, and Yazilikaya were created by the Hittites.

Archibald Sayce's hypothesis was confirmed when he visited some of the sites on a tour of the Near East in the same year.

On his return to England, Archibald Sayce presented a lecture to the Society of Biblical Archaeology in London, where he announced that the Hittites where a much more influential culture than previously thought with their own art and language.

Archibald Sayce concluded that the Hittite hieroglyphic system was predominantly a syllabary, that is, its symbols stood for a phonetic syllable.

Archibald Sayce dreamed of finding a Hittite Rosetta Stone to help with his research.

Archibald Sayce attempted to translate a short Hittite hieroglyphic inscription found with a cuneiform text on a silver disk featuring a representation of the Hittite king, Tarkondemos.

Archibald Sayce published his research on the Hittites in The Hittites: The Story of a Forgotten Empire in 1888.

Archibald Sayce produced many studies on the Hittites and their language, but they were criticised by fellow scholars as his work did not apply Historical criticism, and his attempts to decipher the Hittite hieroglyphics were unsuccessful.

Archibald Sayce was friends with Flinders Petrie and worked on cuneiform inscriptions discovered by Petrie at Tel el Amarna.

Archibald Sayce worked at El Kab in Egypt with Somers Clarke in the 1900s.