Janet Gourlay

For the British physiologist Janet Vaughan (1899–1993), sometimes known by her married name of Gourlay, see Janet Vaughan.

Janet Gourlay
Gourlay (left) pictured with partner, Margaret Benson (right)
Born
Janetta Agnes Gourlay

30 January 1863
Dundee, Scotland
Died3 March 1912(1912-03-03) (aged 49)
Kempshott Park, Hampshire, England
Alma materUniversity College London
PartnerMargaret Benson

Janetta Agnes Gourlay (1863–1912) was a Scottish Egyptologist,[1] known for her excavation of and publication on the Precinct of Mut, a temple compound on the east bank of the Nile in Egypt.

Personal life

Janet Gourlay was born on 30 January 1863 in Dundee, Scotland, the eldest daughter of engineer Henry G. Gourlay and Agnes Christie Burrell who had married in 1861.[2][3]

Gourlay met her lifelong partner Margaret Benson in 1896 during the second excavation of the Mut Complex[2] by their mutual friend Lady Jane Lindsay.[4] In conjunction with their social relationship, they formed a scientific partnership that benefited the pair and allowed them to continue their work in Egypt.[5] This partnership allowed the highly educated women to be able to travel and work without needing to rely on a man.[5] Upon completion of their excavations, Benson’s health began deteriorating, so the two women returned to their respective homes.[1] They kept in close contact via letters.[6] In these, they expressed their devotion, emotions, and happenings to one another.[7] Benson’s health never made a recovery so plans made by the pair to return to Egypt for more excavations were not continued.[1]

On 3 March 1912, Gourlay died in Kempshott Park near Basingstoke.[2][8] She never married.[2]

Career and research

She studied at University College, London in 1893, supervised by Flinders Petrie and Margaret Murray,[9] gaining excavation experience to add to her theoretical knowledge. Gourlay joined Benson in 1896 in the second season of excavation at the Precinct of Mut in Karnak, Thebes, in Egypt.[10] The pair stayed at the Luxor Hotel for the duration of these digging seasons.[11] Gourlay and Benson are credited with this excavation of the Temple of Mut, which they would later publish an account of in 1899.[12] It was published as an incomplete work, so that the information could be available to others and it would not be forgotten as it previously had been, which they explained in the preface.[13] Gourlay and Benson were the first women to undertake an excavation of this nature and is acknowledged in their preface, which reads "we have to thank M. de Morgan’s liberality for the first permission to excavate given to women in Egypt".[14]

Benson's excavation of the Mut Complex originally began on 1 January 1895.[15] Gourlay joined Benson later in 1896.[10] Their excavation would go on to span two digging seasons, resulting in three digging seasons total for the Mut Complex.[10] The two women restored and uncovered various pieces of sculptures, heads, figures, and architecture.[14] Notable statuary includes the head of Amun (or Amun-re), the head of Ramesses III, a statue of Ramesses II, the figure of priest Sur, Senenmut, and Bak-en-Khonsu, and various other figures.[16] One of the most well known figures recovered by Gourlay and Benson was the head of a figure, commonly referred to as the Benson Head.[12] During the excavation, the women focused mainly on finding artefacts and did not focus on mapping the site as much as other Egyptologists.[15] After identifying the items, the pair made an effort to account for religious representations associated with the pieces.[14] Gourlay and Percy Newberry would later go on to publish a journal article describing the excavation of Mentu-Em-Hat.[17]

Gourlay later worked with Newberry in 1900 and 1901.[18]

Publications

  • Benson, Margaret and Gourlay, Janet. The Temple of Mut in Asher: An account of the excavation of the temple and of the religious representations and objects found therein, as illustrating the history of Egypt and the main religious ideas of the Egyptians, London, John Murray, 1899[13]
  • Gourlay, J. A. with Percy Newberry, "Mentu-em-hat," Recueil de travaux relatifs à la philologie et à l'archéologie égyptiennes et assyriennes: pour servir de bulletin à la Mission Française du Caire, 20:3-4 (1898), 188-192.[17]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c "Women in Old World Archaeology". www.brown.edu. Retrieved 15 April 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d Bierbrier, M.L. (2012). Who Was Who in Egyptology. The Egypt Exploration Society. p. 219. ISBN 978-0-85698-207-1.
  3. ^ "Dundee Courier". 12 December 1861. p. 2 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  4. ^ SHEPPARD, KATHLEEN (2022). TEA ON THE TERRACE : hotels and egyptologists' social networks, 1885-1925. [S.l.]: MANCHESTER UNIV PRESS. p. 150. ISBN 978-1-5261-6620-3. OCLC 1287920922.
  5. ^ a b SHEPPARD, KATHLEEN (2022). TEA ON THE TERRACE : hotels and egyptologists' social networks, 1885-1925. [S.l.]: MANCHESTER UNIV PRESS. p. 153. ISBN 978-1-5261-6620-3. OCLC 1287920922.
  6. ^ Benson, Arthur Christopher (1917). Life and letters of Maggie Benson. University of California Libraries. London : J. Murray.
  7. ^ SHEPPARD, KATHLEEN (2022). TEA ON THE TERRACE : hotels and egyptologists' social networks, 1885-1925. [S.l.]: MANCHESTER UNIV PRESS. pp. 152, 153. ISBN 978-1-5261-6620-3. OCLC 1287920922.
  8. ^ "Hampshire Chronicle". 9 March 1912. p. 7 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  9. ^ Sheppard, Kathleen (6 July 2021). "British Egyptology (1882-1914)". UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology. 1 (1).
  10. ^ a b c Peck, William H. "Janet A. Gourlay". Breaking Ground: Women in Old World Archaeology. Brown University. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
  11. ^ SHEPPARD, KATHLEEN (2022). TEA ON THE TERRACE : hotels and egyptologists' social networks, 1885-1925. [S.l.]: MANCHESTER UNIV PRESS. p. 148. ISBN 978-1-5261-6620-3. OCLC 1287920922.
  12. ^ a b "sculpture | British Museum". The British Museum. Retrieved 11 March 2022.
  13. ^ a b Benson, Margaret; Gourlay, Janet A.; Newberry, Percy Edward (1899). Temple of Mut in Asher; an account of the excavation of the temple and of the religious representations and objects found therein, as illustrating the. Princeton Theological Seminary Library. London, J. Murray.
  14. ^ a b c Benson, Margaret; Gourlay, Janet A.; Newberry, Percy Edward (1899). Temple of Mut in Asher; an account of the excavation of the temple and of the religious representations and objects found therein, as illustrating the. Princeton Theological Seminary Library. London, J. Murray.
  15. ^ a b Hillier, Bevis (6 November 1972). "Egyptian sculpture for auction". The Times. Retrieved 6 March 2026.
  16. ^ SHEPPARD, KATHLEEN (2022). TEA ON THE TERRACE : hotels and egyptologists' social networks, 1885-1925. [S.l.]: MANCHESTER UNIV PRESS. p. 151. ISBN 978-1-5261-6620-3. OCLC 1287920922.
  17. ^ a b Gourlay, J. A.; Newberry, Percy (1898). "Mentu-em-hat". Recueil de travaux relatifs à la philologie et à l'archéologie égyptiennes et assyriennes: Pour servir de bulletin à la Mission Française du Caire. 20 (3–4): 188–192. doi:10.11588/diglit.12427.20 – via Heidelberg Historical Literature, Digitized.
  18. ^ SHEPPARD, KATHLEEN (2022). TEA ON THE TERRACE : hotels and egyptologists' social networks, 1885-1925. [S.l.]: MANCHESTER UNIV PRESS. p. 198. ISBN 978-1-5261-6620-3. OCLC 1287920922.
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