The Department is very sad to announce that Professor Geoffrey Martin, Senior Fellow of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, died on Monday 7th March 2022.

Following his BA in Ancient History from University College London in 1963, Geoffrey came to Cambridge where he took his MA in 1966, and joined the Fellowship at Christ’s as the Lady Wallis Budge Junior Research Fellow that year. He was awarded his PhD in 1969 during his Junior Research Fellowship.

Geoffrey left the Fellowship in 1970 to return to University College London as a lecturer in Egyptology, where he was ultimately Edwards Professor of Egyptian Archaeology and Philology.  

He participated in and directed fieldwork and epigraphic missions in The Sudan (Buhen), in Egypt (Saqqara, Amarna and The Valley of Kings, Luxor) and was Field Director on the Cambridge Expedition to the Valley of the Kings. He was most well known for his discoveries of the tomb of Maya, Tutankhamun’s treasurer, and the private tomb of Horemheb. Geoffrey was the author of numerous monographs, mostly concerning results of archaeological fieldwork, epigraphy and sigillography, and papers on Egyptological themes.

Following his retirement, Geoffrey returned to Cambridge and was elected a Fellow-Commoner of Christ's College in 1998. He was a much esteemed and valued member of the Egyptological community in Cambridge, taking a particular interest in the Lady Wallis Budge Junior Research Fellows and was an active participant in the Egyptian World Seminar series in the Department of Archaeology. 

He will be greatly missed.

This article originally appeared in part on Christ's College website.