CAIRO: American-Egyptologist Dr David B. O Connor was honored, on Saturday by the Supreme Council of Antiquities in recognition of his continued dedication and contributions to the science of Egyptology.
A former student of O’Connor and Head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass highlighted to an audience of Egyptology specialists and enthusiasts how his research was influenced by O Connor, who has worked in Egypt since 1960.
Hawass spoke of the impact O Connor had on his first years in the field after having met O Connor in Luxor at age 21.
After I got to know O Connor and worked with him, I could not part company with the man who has taught me a lot not only in terms of archaeology, but also in terms of team work and running an archaeological organization, said Hawass.
In recognition of O Connor s dedication to Egyptology the Council published The Archaeology and the Art of Ancient Egypt, a two-volume collection of essays complied by prestigious Egyptologists on his behalf.
O Connor was the first to draw attention to the affinity between archaeology and the study of art when many scholars had entirely ruled it out, Hawass said to the audience.
He was right.Someone who studies art in all its forms will definitely become aware of the link between both, said Hawass. This was why I took his advice seriously when he asked me to study anthropology as one way of boosting my knowledge about archaeology,
O Connor has authored canonical works which specialists in the field use as references.
When I first arrived in Egypt to study, I was asked to comb the sites and select one where I could start my research, said O Connor. I was fascinated by the sites in Abydos and when I reported back to my college I told them: Either Abydos or nothing
Even now, more than forty years later, O Connor can often be seen back at Abydos, the location of several tombs of ancient Egypt s earliest kings.
I still excavate there with unabated zeal. I am currently carrying out excavations in Abydos that could lead to the predynastic rulers of Egypt, said O Connor.
