Bosse-Griffiths was born July 16th, 1910 in Germany. She went on to attend the University of Berlin, Bonn and Munich. As a student Bosse-Griffiths studied Classics and Egyptology. She wrote about Egyptian sculpture from the Late Dynastic Period for her thesis. Bosse-Griffiths was presented her PhD in 1935.
Bosse-Griffiths went on to write and teach. She was a professor at the Department of Egyptology at the University college of London. This only lasted a short time until she joined with the Department of Antiquities of the Ashmolean Museum Oxford in 1938. Her husband-to-be was a professor at Oxford, John Gwyn Griffiths. They married in 1939, and always had the love of Egyptology since he had a career in the same field as a teacher of Classics and Egyptology.
Bosse-Griffiths and her husband moved to Swansea to start work at the University College of Swansea. Here she became part of the Royal Institution of South Wales, where she was an honorary curator of archaeology. She helped bring the coming of Sir Henry Wellcome's collection of Egyptian antiquities to the Department of Classics at Swansea in 1971. Bosse-Griffiths devoted the rest of her life to studying this collection. She helped take part in adding the “Egypt Centre” to the University of Wales Swansea. This housed the Wellcome exhibit. Bosse-Griffiths examined and recorded thousands of objects from his enormous collection.
As stated before, Bosse-Griffiths loved to write. She went on to publish many books and articles on various topics. Her first novel, titled Uneasy Joy, was printed in Welsh in 1941. While at Swansea, she published articles in the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology about the exquisite Amarna beaded collars found in the Egypt Centre. Some of Bosse-Griffiths other writings are the 1970 book, Ears of Corn from Egypt, and the 1968 translation of Egyptian Art and the Cults of Osiris and Amon.
She worked voluntarily until her death on April 4th, 1998 at the age of 88. Her endurance and passion for her work is something to be mirrored. Kate Bosse-Griffiths work will continued to be remembered due to her determination and endless love for Egyptology.
REFERENCES
1) “Beaded Collars from the grave of and Armarna princess?” http://www.swan.ac. uk/egypt/infosheet/beadedcollar.htm 14 Sept. 2003
2) “Kate Bosse-Griffiths.” http://www.fak12.uni-muenchen.de/aegyp/iae/kate.html 14 Sept. 2003
Written by Tarah Bjorklund, 2003