Erman, Adolf

Born Oct. 31, 1854, in Berlin; died there June 26, 1937. German Egyptologist.

Erman became a professor at the University of Berlin in 1883 and director of the Egyptian Museum in Berlin in 1884. In 1894 he was elected a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences. Unlike his predecessors, the founders of Egyptology, who were interested in the Egyptian writing system, Erman turned to the study of the Egyptian language; he established its grammatical structure and determined distinct periods in its developed.

Erman founded the Berlin school of Egyptology, which was characterized by its emphasis on philology, and he directed the preparation of the most complete dictionary of the ancient Egyptian language (edited by A. Erman and H. Grapow, 1935–55).