Georg Moritz Ebers

Georg Moritz Ebers (1837-1898), German Egyptologist and novelist, born in Berlin, and educated at the universities of Göttingen, Berlin, and Jena. In 1865 he became a lecturer on Egyptology at the University of Jena, and in 1870 he moved to Leipzig, where he was professor at the university from 1870 to 1889. Between 1869 and 1873 he traveled twice to Egypt; on the second journey he found the famous hieratic medical papyrus that bears his name and that he edited in 1874. The papyrus is now in the library of the University of Leipzig. His first important scholarly work was Egypt and the Books of Moses (1867-1868). In addition to learned works on Egyptology, Ebers wrote historical novels with an Egyptian setting, in an attempt to popularize Egyptian studies. Ebers's most successful novel was An Egyptian Princess (3 volumes, 1864).