Richard Parkinson

Richard Parkinson joined the museum in 1991, having taught at Oxford University. He is the curator responsible for the care, research, publication and display of the collection’s papyri, and also hieratic and hieroglyphic texts, inscribed materials including the Rosetta Stone, and the Nebamun wall-paintings; he supervises the department’s archival material and epigraphy, and is responsible for university liaison and access to the department’s collections.

Parkinson’s research interests centre round the interpretation of ancient Egyptian literature, especially the poetry of the classic age (1940-1640 BC). As well the philological editing of manuscripts, he works on material contexts, actors’ perspectives, literary theory (‘new historicist’ and ‘material philology’ practices). He is interested in literary texts as a means for a ‘subaltern’ history, and in issues of performance practice, cultural power, and sexuality in Egyptian culture. He regularly teaches classes and supervises graduates on relevant topics.

Current projects

• Coordinator of ongoing international project on the Ramesseum Papyri
  (with the Oriental Faculty, Oxford University, and the Egyptian Museum Berlin)

Previous projects

• 1999-2000 Curator, Cracking Codes: The Rosetta Stone and Decipherment (Rosetta Stone bicentenary exhibition)
• 2001-2
  Lead curator and project leader for Gallery 61, Understanding Egyptian Culture (opened 2002)
• 2001-3
  Departmental curator for The Enlightenment Gallery project (opened 2003, showing Egyptian artefacts in eighteenth and nineteenth century contexts)
• 2003-4
  Lead curator and project leader for Rosetta Stone redisplay (opened 2004).
• 1999-2009
  Lead curator and project leader for Nebamun wall-painting project 
  The Tomb-chapel of Nebamun: Ancient Egyptian Life and Death
  (opened 2009) 

External fellowships/ honorary positions

• Visiting lecturer, University of Goettingen, University of Koln
• Honorary doctorate, New Bulgarian University, Sofia

Recent publications

R. B. Parkinson and L. Baylis: Four 12th Dynasty Literary Papyri (Pap. Berlin P. 3022-5): A Photographic Record (Berlin: Akademie Verlag 2012).

R. B. Parkinson, The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant: A Reader’s Commentary (Lingua Aegyptia Studia Monographica 10; Hamburg: Widmaier Verlag 2012).

R. B. Parkinson, The Ramesseum Papyri. (Online Research Catalogue 2012)

R. B. Parkinson, Reading Ancient Egyptian Poetry: Among Other Histories (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell 2009)

R. Parkinson, The Painted Tomb-chapel of Nebamun (London, and Cairo, British Musuem Press and American University Press in Cairo 2009)

R. B. Parkinson, The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant (Oxford, Griffith Institute 2006 [1st ed. 1991])

R. Parkinson, The Rosetta Stone (British Museum Objects in Focus series; British Museum Press 2005)

R. B. Parkinson, Poetry and Culture in Middle Kingdom Egypt: A Dark Side to Perfection (Athlone Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies; London and New York, Continuum Press 2002; paperback edition in press: Equinox publishing)

R. B. Parkinson, The Tale of Sinuhe and other Ancient Egyptian Poems 1940-1640 bc. (Oxford Worlds classics; Oxford, Oxford University Press 1999[1997]) [Awarded the British-Kuwait Friendship Society Literary Award by the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies: 1998]

R. B. Parkinson, Cracking Codes: The Rosetta Stone and Decipherment (London: British Museum Press, University of California Press 1999)