Margaret Murray
Diminutive Dynamo

When Margaret Murray, a lecturer in Egyptology at University College London, was excavating at Abydos in 1902, she took charge of a group of workmen. After trooping down to the dig, the all male team saw no reason they should follow the instructions of a 4'10" Englishwoman. Margaret obligingly led them back to the camp and had the site director, William (later Sir) Flinders Petrie, dock them all a day's pay. After that, they obeyed her orders.

Margaret was born in India in 1863 to James Murray and the former Margaret Carr. Her dad was a manager of a steam driven paper mill that was located in Calcutta and owned by Kettlewell, Bullen & Co. of Manchester. Naturally Margaret's mom was a proper Victorian lady who was able to manage her busy household with less than a dozen Indian servants.

One of the goals of the proper English men and English women who lived in the Indian subcontinent in the 19th century was to - quote - "civilize" the natives - unquote. That is, get them acting, speaking, and thinking like the English. To their credit this effort included raising the status of the Indian women who by native custom and law were largely excluded from public life and even the most basic educational opportunities. Of course, it didn't take much for the young English ladies to see similarities between the low status of women in Indian society and their own lot in Victorian Britain. So the British women who lived in India tended to have somewhat liberal views about issues like giving women the right to vote.

It was common for English kids born abroad to get educated in Europe, and Margaret spent a good part of her childhood away from India. This meant separations from parents and living with friends and relatives. But Margaret managed such a life with aplomb.

But her dad was worried. Margaret was more interested in getting a job as a nurse and social worker than finding a husband and starting her own home as a proper lady should. So her dad decided it would be better to finance her traveling around. Although Margaret's education was exclusively by private tutors and her own efforts, she developed wide interests which covered the fad that has been dubbed Egyptomania.

Some articles on the enthusiasm for Ancient Egyptian culture and history might give the impression that Egyptomania is a fairly modern and Western - even American - phenomenon of the rich, famous, and bored. Actually Egyptomania extended back even to antiquity with both the Greeks and Romans being fascinated by what was even then a millennium-plus old society. Napoleon's recommendation to fight the English in Egypt was in part motivated by the Europeans' awe of the country where "from the summit of these pyramids forty centuries look down upon you!"

But it can't be denied that modern Egyptomania began with Napoleon's invasion of Egypt in 1799 which ended up in a humiliating defeat of the French and the Little Corsican abandoning his soldiers as he high tailed it back to France. But Le Petit Général had brought with him a group of highly educated scholars, engineers, and students who studied the language, customs, and history of the country. Their findings were published in the massive multivolume tomes titled Description de l'Égypte, ou Recueil des observations et des recherches qui ont été faites en Égypte pendant l'expédition de l'armée française which in English can be rendered as the Description of Egypt, or the collection of observations and researches which were made in Egypt during the expedition of the French Army. Most people just call the book the Description of Egypt.

Egyptomania got a massive shot in the arm with Jean-François Champollion's first decipherment of the hieroglyphics¹. Jean-François had managed to figure out the basic system of the writing and many of the sounds. Gradually he and other scholars were able to figure out the actual meaning of the words and by the mid-1800's, many of the ancient inscriptions could be read and understood.

In 1882 and for reasons we won't belabor, England invaded Egypt and occupied the land until 1956. But starting in the 1870's, England and France were co-owners of the Suez Canal and so exerted "influence" over the country which was nominally part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire.

Egypt had, in fact, been a favorite tourist spot for Europeans from the mid-19th century with tours up and down the Nile being quite the in-thing to do - at least if you could afford the £10 a day boat rental for the three months cruise².

In 1892 Margaret was visiting her sister in England when Mary pointed out an advertisement from University College London. It seems that William Flinders Petrie, already a famous and revolutionary archeologist, would be giving classes at University College London on Egyptology. She suggested Margaret sign up.

University College was an upstart school which not only admitted women (Oxford and Cambridge didn't) but even granted them degrees. The entrance requirements were also flexible and Margaret was admitted although she had no real formal schooling.

Flinders Petrie was one of the first real academic professors of Egyptology. The "chair" had been endowed by Amelia Edwards, the well-to-do founder of the Egyptian Exploration Society. For what it's worth Flinders had no formal schooling either.

Flinders took note of the enthusiastic and diminutive student who was able to accurately copy the hieroglyphic texts. In four years she had done so well in her classes and in her work for Flinders that she was appointed to a junior lectureship. This was all the more remarkable since at the time she was also caring for her mother who had suffered a stroke.

Margaret excavated only the one dig in Egypt in 1902 to 1903, although she did work at other sites in the Mediterranean. She also excavated in Palestine in what became the modern state of Israel as well as Petra in modern Jordan. But virtually all of her professional time was teaching at UCL. She still managed to write over a hundred research articles, an output that rivals modern standards and was amazing in a day before the publish-or-perish doctrine rose its tenure granting head. Compare her output to that of J. R. R. Tolkien who was professor of English at Oxford who published original research articles about once every two or three years. Then there was Hugo Dyson, who although was also an English professor at Oxford, published virtually nothing during his long academic career.

Because much of her time was spent teaching, many of Margaret's research publications were about artifacts in museum collections that could be examined without extensive travel. Such publications are common today since museums have thousands of goodies sitting on their shelves or in storage.

Margaret was particularly interested in helping the self-learner. There were a lot of people in England who although they had finished secondary school would be unlikely to attend college. So her books - like her volume on Egyptian grammar and writing - were intended for self-instruction. She also traveled throughout England and Europe giving public lectures on Egyptian history and culture.

In 1924 Margaret was appointed assistant professor, a year after Flinders had received a knighthood. Three years later she was awarded an honorary doctorate.

Unfortunately, Margaret's largely male colleagues often saw her as Flinders's assistant rather than an independent researcher. Because she had never had an actual tenured position (to use an American and not quite accurate term for English universities), her appointments were year by year. She was also subject to retirement at the mandatory age of 65 although there were ways around this inconvenience.

Margaret had other interests than her academic studies. She was a supporter of the vote for women and was a member of Emmeline Pankhurst's WSPU (Women’s Social and Political Union). She was with the group in 1907 when they marched on Parliament but she didn't participate in the more confrontational tactics that ended up getting some of the ladies thrown in the slammer, force-fed, and sometimes injured or even accidentally killed.

She did make some waves at UCL, though. Margaret had begun inviting men to have coffee in the ladies common room and some accepted the invitation. Finally one of the men asked her to come to the men's common room. When she walked in she was met with a shocked silence. But Margaret said he had a fine time. Eventually there was a compromise where a room - named the Margaret Murray Room - was set aside for both genders to meet.

The irony is that many who read about Margaret learn more about her studies on witch cults in Europe than her scholarship in Egyptology. World War I had shrunk down the college classes and research opportunities in foreign countries had dried up. So Margaret turned her interest toward folklore studies of Europe.

In picking a topic where there was considerable and accessible source material, Margaret began looking into the history of the witch trials from 700 AD to the 1700's. The results were a series of articles and books about the nature of European witchcraft.

Margaret concluded that the witches charged and convicted in the trials were not "in league with the Devil". Instead they were simply believers of a widespread and unified pre-Christian pagan religion which worshipped a horned - or rather antlered - supreme being. From the testimony of the trials and depositions Margaret was able to reconstruct the organization structure and practices in such a straightforward academic tone - all with proper footnotes and documentation - that her writings were most convincing.

There is, though, a bit of a problem in accepting testimony that was obtained under duress, by threats, and even from torture. Her reasoning could also be way off. In one book she claimed that some of the early kings of England starting with William the Conqueror had practiced the pagan religion and had been killed by ritualized murder. Today historians unanimously reject her theories (as most did in her own time).

And yet ...

If today you read a novel or see a television show or motion picture about "witches" - whether it's Rosemary's Baby, Warlock, or "The Devil You Say" episode of McMillan & Wife - we see the witches assembling in "covens", worshiping some kind of scary something-or-other, and stuff like that. All of these images came from Margaret's (as we said) totally discredited theories.

But hold on, you say. If historians didn't accept her conclusions then or now, how did Margaret's views completely fashion the popular image of witchcraft for decades even to dictating the products spewing our of Hollywood?

Well, therein lies a most interesting tale.

In 1929 the editors of the Encyclopedia Britannica were looking for someone to write an article on witchcraft. Margaret was well known to the public, had perfectly legitimate academic credentials, and had published a book on the topic in 1921. So who else would you ask?

Margaret wrote the Britannica article using her theories and conclusions. And why not? She was the one person who had done research in the field and she felt other ideas were simply wrong. So naturally she didn't bother mentioning the criticisms of her ideas or conflicting opinions. Her article and subsequent editings remained in the Encyclopedia Britannica until they were finally replaced in 1969.

And the result?

For a span of 40 years during the 20th century if anyone - students, novelists, scriptwriters, and even other university professors - wanted to read about witchcraft, they first dipped into the most accessible source - the Encyclopedia Britannica. So they read about Margaret's ideas as if they were accepted facts and not unacepted theories. From then on in novels, movies, and television came the image of witches in their covens with mysterious symbols and secret and at times terrible rituals although none of it had ever happened.

There is some indication that Margaret adopted her theories into her own worldview. One article mentioned how she cast a spell on a colleague she didn't like. But others are dubious that she was really serious. Her articles took a scholarly, rational, and non-superstitions view of the subject, and certainly she never mentioned any such beliefs in her personal writings.

Margaret retired in 1935 and moved to Cambridge. During the Second World War she gave lectures on history that were attended by soldiers billeted in the colleges and around town. Afterwards she moved back to London virtually next door to UCL's Institute of Archeology. She continued her research, kept giving lectures, and taught classes, only ceasing the latter when she was 93.

You'll sometimes read that Margaret's The Splendor That Was Egypt was published in 1963, the year she died at age 100. That's not really true. The first edition was issued in 1949 and revised editions came later. The book was a general but detailed history of the country stretching from prehistoric times to the Ptolemaic (Greek) Dynasties. Like any history book from decades ago you have to read Splendor with caution as professors of history have come up with new findings and archeologists have made new discoveries.

But in 1963 Margaret did publish her autobiography, My First Hundred Years. Oddly enough, she didn't mention her involvement in the suffrage movement. Probably she didn't think it was necessary. After all, a lady who worked all her life at a major university clearly felt - and considered herself an example - that women should have the same opportunities as men.

Ironically, her successful example may have been what resulted in the drop off of her fame (at least before the recent publication of an academic biography). The separation of men and women in gender specific common rooms and at other functions were eventually abolished. So the old common room for both genders - the Margaret Murray Room - was no longer needed and in 1989 it was converted to an office. In histories of UCL you read a lot about Flinders but not a whole lot about Margaret. And although there is a bronze statue of her in the UCL Petrie Museum, a watercolor painting of her in her younger years that was hanging in the galleries was finally put in storage.

References and Further Reading

The Life of Margaret Alice Murray: A Woman’s Work in Archaeology, Kathleen Sheppard, Lexington Books, 2013.

"Forced into the Fringe: Margaret Murray’s Witch-Cult Hypothesis", Kathleen Sheppard, The New Inquiry.

"Margaret Murray (1863-1963): Pioneer Egyptologist, Feminist and First Female Archaeology Lecturer", Ruth Whitehouse, Archeology International, 16, pp.120-127, 2013.

Breaking Ground: Pioneering Women Archaeologists, Getzel M. Cohen and Martha Sharp Joukowsky (Editors), University of Michigan Press, 2006.

"What is Egyptomania?", Manon Schutz, National Trust, University of Oxford.

One Thousand Miles Up the Niles, Amelia Edwards, Longmans, Green, and Co., London, 1877, 2nd Edition: 1891.

The Splendor That Was Egypt, Margaret Murray, Hawthorn, 1963.

"Margaret Murray", FemBio.

"Margaret Murray: Who Believed Her, and Why?", Jacqueline Simpson, Folklore, Vol. 105, pp. 89-96 (1994).

The Christians as the Romans Saw Them, Robert Wilken, Yale University Press, 1984.

"The Devil You Say", McMillan & Wife, Rock Hudson (Actor), Susan Saint James (Actor), Keenan Wynn (Actor), Alex March (Director), Internet Movie Data Base, October 31, 1973.