About E. A. Wallis Budge
Sir Ernest Alfred Thompson Wallis Budge was an English Egyptologist, Orientalist, and philologist who worked for the British Museum and published numerous works on the ancient Near East. He made numerous trips to Egypt and Anglo-Egyptian Sudan on behalf of the British Museum to buy antiquities, and helped it build its collection of cuneiform tablets, manuscripts, and papyri. He published many books on Egyptology, helping to bring the findings to larger audiences. In 1920, he was knighted for his service to Egyptology and the British Museum. Budge was one of the first authors to write about the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun, and also one of the first experts to give an analysis of artifacts found there. According to Egyptologist James Peter Allen, Budge's books "were not too reliable when they first appeared and are now woefully outdated." He is known for works on ancient Egyptian religion and his hieroglyphic primers. Budge became interested in languages before he was ten years old, but left school at the age of twelve in 1869, He worked as a clerk at the retail firm of W. Spending time in the British Museum, from 1872, Budge became interested in learning the ancient Assyrian language in 1872, and introduced himself to Samuel Birch, keeper of Oriental Antiquities there.
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