Barbara Adams examining pottery sherds in the Fort Cemetary at Hierakonpolis in 1996. Courtesy R. Friedman

Barbara Adams, age 35, when she started work at Hierakonpolis in 1980. Courtesy R. Friedman

Barbara Adams

English born Barbara Adams became a major figure in Egyptian archaeology, but began her career as an entomologist. She joined the staff of University College London's Petrie Museum in 1965 to work with Egyptology Professor Harry S. Smith and got her first archaeological field experience in Britain. In 1967 she married Robert F. Adams, who encouraged her new career, and in 1969 she studied archaeological field method at Cambridge University.

Her first book (1974) Ancient Hierakonpolis published the results of the early excavators Quibell and Green at the predynastic town site. By 1975, Adams was made an Assistant Curator at the Petrie Museum and produced its first guidebook two yars later. In 1978 she excavated in Israel at a late Bronze/early Iron Age site. In 1980 she joined the American expedition headed by Michael A. Hoffman at Hierakonpolis, excavating an elite predynastic cemetery, to which she returned in 1982 and 86. She also worked on the ancient town site there with Walter Fairservis in 1981 and 84. After Hoffman's early death, the publication of the expedition fell to Barbara Adams. By 1980 she was a full curator, involved in fund raising for a new Petrie Museum. She also founded the Shire Egyptology series of little books, now numbering 25. The 1990's saw Adams doing comparative studies of material found in European collections and in 1997 resuming excavations at Hierakonpolis as Director before succumbing to a terminal illness in 2002.

Author of biography: Reneé Friedman and Barbara Lesko
Includes bibliography? Yes

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Keywords: Predynastic Egypt, Hierakonpolis, entomology, British Museum of Natural History, R.B. Benson, K.P. Oakley, Petrie Museum, Harry S. Smith Edwards Chair, Egyptian archaeology, Petrie, University of Leeds, Don Brothwell, Winchester, University of Nottingham, Lincolnshire, ivories, University of Cambridge, Institute of Archaeology, Quibell, Green, University of the Negev, Tell esh-Sharia, Michael A. Hoffman, elite cemetery, Nekhen, Walter Fairservis, Renee Friedman, Coptos lions, Wellcome Museum, Liverpool, Bolton Museum, University Museum Swansea, Fort Cemetery, Shire Egyptology, Early Dynastic, Followers of Horus, greywacke vases, Umm el-Qa'ab, Melbourne.