Henri “Hans” Frankfort (24 February 1897 – 16 July 1954) was a Dutch Egyptologist, archaeologist, and Assyriology.  He studied history in Amsterdam before moving to London and attaining his advanced degrees.

He led major archaeological expeditions in Egypt (1925-1929) and Iraq (1929-1937). He is widely credited with being among the first to reconstruct a coherent vision of the ancient Sumerian civilization and to draw the connections between it and the ancient Egyptian civilization. He is considered the discoverer of much information about both cultures.

He served as a professor at the University of Chicago and the Warburg Institute at the University of London from 1938-1954. During this time he helped to popularize a comparative study of Mesopotamian and Egyptian cultures.

His work and commentary were quoted extensively in Joseph Campbell’s work Oriental Mythology from the Masks of God series.

Frankfort also wrote prolifically about subjects related to his field work. These included the books:

• Cylinder Seals: A Documentary Essay on the Art and Religion of the Ancient Near East (1939)
• Kingship and the Gods: A Study of Ancient Near Eastern Religion as the Integration of Society and Nature (1948)
• Ancient Egyptian Religion: An Interpretation (1948)
• The Art and Architecture of the Ancient Orient (1954).

While some of this ideas have been updated by other scholars, advocates for an African basis for Egyptian culture have lauded him as one of the early advocates of this premise. He noted parallels between Mesopotamian and Egyptian culture, while showing that many concepts around Egyptian kingship were more closely aligned with those of sub-Sarharan Africa.

Never stop seeking your truth!

Ray

Ray Davis is an author, thinker, and advocate for human potential. He is the author of the Anunnaki Awakening series. Signed copies of Book 1, Revelation, are now available within the U.S. from his website, AATrilogy.com or outside the US from Amazon or by order from your local bookstore.