Louis Vico Žabkar (1914–1994) was an Egyptologist who published a number of academic works and who participated in the 1960s the UNESCO campaign to salvage the monuments threatened by the building of the Aswan Dam. Born on the island of Lagosta, Italy, he received his Ph.D. in 1958 from the University of Chicago. After teaching in the history department of Loyola University Chicago he became Professor of Egyptology at Brandeis University where he worked until his retirement in 1984. He was field Director of the Oriental Institute Expedition to Semna South which excavated a Middle Kingdom Fortress and a large Meroitic cemetery. His interests covered Egyptian religion, Ptolemaic hieroglyphs and Nubiology.His 1968 book on the concept of the ba in Ancient Egypt was the first in depth study of