Brunner Collection
The Brunner Collection of Egyptological materials is a research collection based on a collection originally assembled by Professors Hellmut Brunner and Emma Brunner-Traut, consisting of books, journals, reprints, catalogues and pamphlets. Many of the volumes have been annotated by Professor Brunner.Macquarie University was fortunate to have been able to acquire this material in the early 1990s to support this important area of research at the University. See the section below for more information regarding Professors Hellmut Brunner and Emma Brunner-Traut.
The collection has been developed further through purchases from the Rundle Foundation for Egyptian Archaeology.
Access
The Brunner Collection is a restricted access research collection and materials located here are not normally available for loan. Authorised users, such as Macquarie University academic staff, visiting academics, and Macquarie University postgraduate students in Egyptology, have access during Library opening hours.
All enquiries for access should be directed to staff at the Information Desk (Level 2).
All photocopying of Brunner Collection items is done by Library staff by arrangement. Only Library staff may remove material from the Brunner Collection
Brunner Digital Collection
In 2005, funding from a Vice-Chancellor’s Development Fund was used to establish the Brunner Digitisation Project, and begin the work of digitising selected volumes from the Brunner Collection in collaboration with the Department of Ancient History and the Centre for Flexible Learning, thus creating the Brunner Digital Collection. Digitisation is continuing as funding permits.Digitised titles can be found in the Library’s Catalogue by performing an author search for Brunner Digitisation Project.
Due to copyright conditions, access to some titles is limited to Macquarie University authorised staff and students. Any restrictions will be indicated on each title.
Professors Hellmut Brunner (1913-1997) and Emma Brunner-Traut
The Egyptological library of Professors Hellmut Brunner (1913-1997) and Emma Brunner-Traut is a significant collection of materials in the field of Egyptology. It has been built up over a period of almost 60 years, and comprises some 2000 titles, including books, long runs of the major journals in the subject, as well as several thousand offprints, many of which are rare and valuable.
Prof. Hellmutt Brunner [1913-1997]
Professor Brunner began his studies in Berlin in 1931 where he attended the classes of the well-known Kurt Sethe, the successor of Adolf Erman, both leading Egyptologists in their times. In 1932 he moved to Munich, where Alexander Scharff was professor, and where he was to meet his future wife; a year later he spent two terms (in 1933/34) studying with Stephen Glanville in London. After completing his doctorate in 1936, he was awarded a German Archaeological Institute travelling scholarship which enabled the Brunners to spend a year traveling around the Mediterranean, in particular Egypt, where they spent nine months. During this period, they spent three months in 1938 participating in the German dig at El Ashmunein lead by Günther Roeder. In the course of the excavations, a large number of talatat, decorated limestone blocks from buildings at Amarna, were found and while recording these Professor Brunner discovered a "new" Amarna princess, AnkhesenatonTasherit, daughter of Ankhesenaton. On his return from Egypt, Brunner became Assistant in the Department of Egyptology in Munich in 1939.
The war years brought an end to his Egyptological activities, although he was able, during a longer period of leave in 1941, to complete his "Habilitation" (qualification as a University teacher). Frau Brunner worked in the Egyptian Museum, Berlin, during the war and was involved with the packing and securing of the smaller objects, which were stored in salt mines in the west and were to form the basis of the later Egyptian Museum in Charlottenberg (West Berlin). After the war it looked as if it would not be possible for Professor Brunner to resume an Egyptological career, and he spent several years teaching Hebrew and Greek in a Gymnasium for senior students who were intending to study theology. The oral Hebrew examinations were conducted by one of the professors of Old Testament at the University of Tübingen, and it was through this contact that Brunner was able to re-enter the university system in 1950, first teaching Hebrew and Aramaic in the Department of Theology. Soon he was able to introduce classes in Egyptology in the Department of Archaeology.
In 1959 he became the first professor of the subject at Tübingen. With the establishment of the Egyptological Institute in Tübingen in 1960 it was necessary to build up a Library in the subject and Brunner devoted much time and effort to achieve this. Mail used to be delivered very early and he would go through the antiquarian catalogues as soon as they arrived and immediately ring through any orders - books had priority over breakfast, but through such dedication it was possible to build up an institute library which equals those of the long-established German Egyptological institutes.
Over the years, Professor Brunner also collected a very comprehensive private library which Macquarie is now very fortunate to own, and which includes many rare works, some of which came from the library of Wilhelm Spiegelberg (1870-1930), another famous Egyptologist. Although he taught the whole range of the subject, Professor Brunner was particularly interested in ancient Egyptian religion and literature, and he has published many important works in this area, including his study of the temple inscriptions and reliefs that record the birth of the God-king, Die Geburt der Gottkönigs, and a study and translation of all the Egyptian wisdom teachings, Altägyptische Weisheiklehren. He was also concerned about the need to record the monuments of Egypt before they were lost to posterity and made his contribution by recording and publishing the reliefs and inscriptions in the southern rooms of the temple of Amun at Luxor (Die südlichen Räume).
The Brunners' ties with Macquarie University come via Dr Boyo Ockinga, who went to Tübingen in 1976 to study Egyptology and who wrote his PhD dissertation under Professor Brunner's supervision. When the Brunners decided to retire from active research they promised Dr Ockinga that they would give Macquarie the first option to buy their collection. Knowing from personal experience how difficult it is to build up a good library from almost nothing, Professor Brunner was very happy for his collection to go to a young institution like Macquarie University, in the knowledge that it would make a real contribution to the development of Egyptology there.
Biographical Sources:- OCKINGA, Boyo. "Hellmut Brunner 1913-1997." The Bulletin of the Australian Centre for Egyptology. Vol. 8 1997 pp.7-9.
- Who Was Who in Egyptology. (eds.) Warren R. Dawson, Eric P. Uphill and M.L. Bierbrier. London, Egypt Exploration Society, 1995 (3rd rev.ed.).