Margaret Murray

About the Author

Margaret Murray (1863-1963) was a pioneering British Egyptologist, archaeologist, and folklorist whose groundbreaking scholarship reshaped understandings of ancient and medieval cultures. Educated at University College London, she excavated sites in Egypt and collaborated with luminaries like Flinders Petrie, contributing to the field of Egyptology through meticulous fieldwork and publications on mummification and temple architecture. Later in her career, Murray turned to European folklore, most notably with her seminal work 'The Witch Cult in Western Europe: the original text, with Notes, Bibliography and five Appendices,' where she proposed the controversial 'witch-cult hypothesis' suggesting witchcraft as a surviving pre-Christian fertility religion. Despite later scholarly critique, her ideas profoundly influenced modern paganism, Wicca, and popular culture, cementing her legacy as a bold, interdisciplinary thinker who bridged archaeology and anthropology.