A. H. Sayce

Archibald Henry Sayce (1845–1933) was a British orientalist and linguist, one of the pioneers of Assyriology. A fellow of Queen's College, Oxford, he held the university's chair of Assyriology from 1891 to 1919 and spent many winters in Egypt, sailing the Nile and studying inscriptions. He wrote widely on the languages, history and religions of the ancient Near East, including grammars of Assyrian, The Higher Criticism and the Monuments, and lectures on Babylonian and Egyptian religion. Sayce was a gifted popularizer whose broad learning and quick conclusions made him both influential and controversial.