Eugen Strouhal (24 January 1931 – 20 October 2016)

Abstract

Eugen Strouhal was born on 24 January 1931, into the family of medical doctor Eugen Strouhal and his wife Antonie Strouhalová. His paternal grand-father was Vincent Strouhal, who served as a dean of the Faculty of Arts, and later as the Rector of the Czech Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague, and is considered the founder of experimental physics in the Czech Lands. After graduating from high school, Eugen Strouhal started studying at the Faculty of General Medicine at Charles University, where he completed his studies of medicine in 1956. During the following three years he studied prehistoric archaeology at the Faculty of Arts and History of the same university. He started his professional career as a physician working for the State Spa Resort of Františkovy Lázně. Between the years of 1957–1960, he taught at the Faculty of Medicine at Charles University in Pilsen. In 1961, he became a member of the Czechoslovak Institute of Egyptology at the Charles University in Prague, where he worked for the following eight years. As an archaeologist and expedition doctor, he took part on three field seasons of the Czechoslovak expeditions to Lower Nubia, within the framework of the UNESCO rescue campaign. He also co-organised the joint Czechoslovak-Egyptian anthropological expedition to Nubia in 1965 to 1966 and in 1967. The task of these expeditions was to document the physical state of the populace to be resettled from the territory submerged by the rising water of the Aswan High Dam. Besides the rescue exploration in Lower Nubia, he also participated on the archaeological works at Abusir, Egypt, namely within the Old Kingdom mastaba of the vizier Ptahshepses. In 1968 Strouhal decided to leave the Faculty of Arts and accepted an offer from Erich Herold (1928–1988), the then director of the Náprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures. In 1969, Strouhal became the first head of the newly created Ancient Near East and African Department – a post that he occupied until 1992. During his time in office, Strouhal organized the only comprehensive collection of Egyptian (as well as Nubian) antiquities in Czechoslovakia. At the very beginning, all Egyptian items then kept in various departments of the National Museum were concentrated in the new department. Later on, sets of Egyptian and Near Eastern antiquities as well as DOI. 10.1515/anpm–2017–0016