LEPSIUS. lep'4.-us, KARL RICHARD (1310 84.) A German archceologist and Egyptologist, born at Naumburg. December 23, 1810. He stud ied at Leipzig, G6tti3gen, Berlin, and Paris. His first work, Die Paliiographie als Mittel der Sprachforschung (1834), received the Volney Prize of the French Institute. For some years after this he wrote chiefly on paleography, on the Etruscan, Oscan, and Umbrian inscriptions (In. seriptiones Umbricee ct Oscce, 1841), and on com parative philology (.7Acei sprachve•gleichende Abhandlunyen, 1836, etc.). With his Lettre M. le professeur H. Rosellini sae ralphabet hiero glyphigue (18371, written while he was living at Rome (where he became intimately acquainted with Bunsen), he entered the field of hieroglyphic research. In 1842 he was placed at the head of an expedition sent to Egypt by the King of Prussia and spent three years (1842-45) in exploring the ruins of Egypt and Nubia as far as Khartum.
The results of this expedition were given to the world in the magnificent work, Denkmiiler ens Aegypten and Aethiopien (1850-59), published at the expense of the King, and in his Briefs ails Aegypten. (1852). He became professor of Egyp tology at Berlin in 1846, director of the Berlin Egyptian Museum in 1865, and director of the Royal Library in 1873. Of his numerous works the following are the most important: Chronol ogie der Aegypter( 1840) ; Todtenbuch der Acgyp tcr (1842) ; Des bilinguc Deeret von Kanopus (1866). He also wrote on metrology, Dic Langenmassc der Allen (18S4), and on phonetics, Standard Alphabet for Reducing Unwritten Lan guages, etc. (1S63). His Nubische Grammatik (1880) touched on comparative African phi lology. He died July 10, 1884. Consult Ehers, Richard Lepsias, Pin Lcbensbild (Leipzig, 1885).