R Campbell Thompson

Reginald Campbell Thompson (1876-1941) was a British archaeologist, assyriologist, and cuneiformist who carried out excavations at Nineveh, Ur, Nebo and Carchemish and many other sites in Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq). In 1918, Mesopotamia was still part of the Ottoman Turkish Empire. The collapse of that Empire following the end of the First World War saw much of its Middle Eastern territorial possessions pass into the hands of the British. As a result, the Trustees of the British Museum in...See more

Reginald Campbell Thompson (1876-1941) was a British archaeologist, assyriologist, and cuneiformist who carried out excavations at Nineveh, Ur, Nebo and Carchemish and many other sites in Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq). In 1918, Mesopotamia was still part of the Ottoman Turkish Empire. The collapse of that Empire following the end of the First World War saw much of its Middle Eastern territorial possessions pass into the hands of the British. As a result, the Trustees of the British Museum in London succeeded in having Thompson-then a captain in Military Intelligence serving in the Middle East-assigned to protect the antiquities in Mesopotamia from harm. This, combined with his earlier qualification in Oriental languages from Cambridge, gave him an ideal opportunity to become intimately familiar with the language and culture of ancient Mesopotamia, and he became famous as an expert in the region. He wrote a number of works on topic, and translated many of the ancient texts, the most famous of which is the Epic of Gilgamesh. Thompson died in 1941 aged 64 while serving in the Home Guard River Patrol on the River Thames. See less