Bruce, James

(1730–1794)

   British traveler. He was born in Kinnaird, Scotland, on 14 December 1730. He traveled extensively in Africa, visiting Egypt in 1768, where he toured the Valley of the Kingsat Thebes. He entered the tombof Ramesses III(KV3), which was thereafter known as Bruce’s tomb, and made drawings. Bruce later spent several years in Ethiopia, returning to Europe in 1773. His publication of his travels in 1790 contained the first engraving of a scene from a royal tomb. He died in Kinnaird on 27 April 1794. BUBASTIS. Greek name for the Egyptian city of Per-Bastet, capital of the 18th nome of Lower Egypt, now Tell Basta. The principal deity worshipped in Bubastis was the cat-headed or lioness-headed goddess Bastet. Remains have been found from the Old Kingdom, but the town was most prominent in Dynasty 22, which is said to have originated there. It was excavated by a British expedition from the Egypt Exploration Fund from 1887–1889 and by Egyptian Egyptologists, notably Labib Habachi in 1939 and from 1943–1944, Shafik Farid from 1961–1967, Ahmad el-Sawi from 1967–1971, and more recently Muhammad Bakr since 1978 and a joint expedition of Zagazig University and Potsdam University since 1996.

Historical Dictionary Of Ancient Egypt by Morris L. Bierbrier