Flinders Petrie - Athribis

BRITISH SCHOOL OF ARCHAEOLOGY IN EGYPT
AND EGYPTIAN RESEARCH ACCOUNT
FOURTEENTH YEAR, 1908

BY

W. M. FLINDERS PETRIE

HON. D.C.L., LL.D., LITT.D., PH.D.
F.R.S., F.B.A., HON. F.S.A. (SCOT.)
MEMBER OF THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY
MEMBER OF THE IMPERIAL GERMAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE
CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY OF ANTHROPOLOGY, BERLIN
MEMBER OF THE ROMAN SOCIETY OF ANTHROPOLOGY
MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY OF NORTHERN ANTIQUARIES
MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY
EDWARDS PROFESSOR OF EGYPTOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON

WITH CHAPTERS BY

DR. J. H. WALKER AND E. B. KNOBEL

Copyright 2011 Read Books Ltd.
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

William Matthew Flinders Petrie was born on 3rd July 1853 in Kent, England, son of William Petrie and Ann Flinders. The young Flinders Petrie was educated at home in a devout Christian household due to his father being a member of the Plymouth Brethren.

He showed an early interest in the field of archaeology and by his teenage years was surveying local Roman monuments near his family home. This enthusiasm resulted in a visit to Egypt in 1880 to study the great Pyramid at Giza, where his analyses were the first to apply observation and logic to investigate how the pyramids were constructed. His meticulous accuracy in measurement still provides a considerable amount of the basic data still used today in the study of the pyramid plateau.

His impressive scientific approach to the field earned him the position of professor at University College London. This recognition secured Filnders Petrie the funds he needed for excavation projects, and in 1884 he returned to Egypt to continue his work.

He would often have over 150 workmen on his digs but would choose to be the foreman of the operation himself. He was popular with his workers, and by reducing the pressure on them to make quick finds, they were able to toil more carefully and unearth small but significant artefacts that would otherwise have been lost or damaged.

Flinders Petrie continued to have many successes in Egypt and Palestine throughout his career, most notably, his discovery of the Mernepte stele, a stone tablet depicting scenes from ancient times. He also developed new excavation methods which revolutionised large scale digging operations. He went on to produce a wealth of publications on his subject, including A Season in Egypt, 1887 (1888), Koptos (1896), Methods & Aims in Archaeology (1904), and many more. His excellent methodology and plethora of finds earned him a Knighthood for his services to archaeology in 1923.

In 1896, Flinders Petrie married Hilda Urlin, with whom he had two children, John and Ann. After his retirement, he and Hilda moved to Jerusalem where they lived at the British School of Archaeology. He remained there until his death in July 1942.

Patron:
THE EARL OF CROMER, G.C.B., G.C.M.G., K.C.S.I., Etc., Etc.

GENERAL COMMITTEE (Executive Members)

LORD AVEBURY

WALTER BAILY

HENRY BALFOUR

FREIHERR VON BISSING

Dr. T. G. BONNEY

Rt. Hon. JAMES BRYCE

Prof. J. B. BURY

SOMERS CLARKE

EDWARD CLODD

W. E. CRUM

Prof. BOYD DAWKINS

Prof. S. DILL

Miss ECKENSTEIN

Dr. GREGORY FOSTER

Dr. J. G. FRAZER

ALAN GARDINER

Prof. ERNEST GARDNER

Prof. PERCY GARDNER

Rt. Hon. Sir G. T. GOLDIE

Prof. GOWLAND

Mrs. J. R. GREEN

Dr. A. C. HADDON

JESSE HAWORTH

Dr. A. C. HEADLAM

Sir ROBERT HENSLEY (Chairman)

D. G. HOGARTH

Sir H. H. HOWORTH

Baron A. VON HGEL

Prof. MACALISTER

Dr. R. W. MACAN

Prof. MAHAFFY

J. G. MILNE

Sir C. SCOTT MONCRIEFF

ROBERT MOND

Prof. MONTAGUE

WALTER MORRISON

Prof. P. E. NEWBERRY

Dr. PAGE MAY

F. W. PERCIVAL

Dr. PINCHES

Dr. G. W. PROTHERO

Dr. G. REISNER

Sir W. RICHMOND

Prof. F. W. RIDGEWAY

Mrs. STRONG

Mrs. TIRARD

E. TOWRY WHYTE

TreasurerF. G. HILTON PRICE

Honorary DirectorProf. FLINDERS PETRIE

Honorary SecretariesMrs. HILDA PETRIE and Dr. J. H. WALKER.

The need of providing for the training of students is even greater in Egypt than it is in Greece and Italy; and the relation of England to Egypt at present makes it the more suitable that support should be given to a British School in that land. This body is the only such agency, and is also the basis of the excavations of Prof. Flinders Petrie, who has had many students associated with his work in past years. The great enterprise of the excavation of the temples and city of Memphis, which has now been undertaken, promises the most valuable results. But it will necessarily be far more costly than any other work in Egypt, and it cannot be suitably carried out without increasing the present income of the School. Active support is required to ensure the continuance of such work, which depends entirely on personal contributions, and each subscriber receives the annual volume. The antiquities not retained by the Egyptian Government are presented to Public Museums, after the Annual Exhibition, during July, at University College. The accounts are audited by a Chartered Accountant, and published in the Annual Report. Treasurer: F. G. HILTON PRICE, Childs Bank, 1, Fleet Street, E.C.

ADDRESS THE HON. SECRETARY,

BRITISH SCHOOL IN EGYPT, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE,

GOWER STREET, LONDON, W.C.

By DR. J. H. WALKER.

By E. B. KNOBEL

WITH REFERENCES TO THE PAGES WHERE NOTICED

HAGARSEH

1. BEFORE beginning work at Memphis, two or three months can only be spent on excavation in drier sites, for the inundation covers the area of the great temple of Ptah till the middle of February, and the surrounding mounds are so damp below, and so miry with continual rain, that work on them is not desirable in December and January. In view of this, the work of the British School was resumed in Upper Egypt, in the same region as last year, for the beginning of the season.

Seven years ago I had noticed, near Sohag, the site known as Athribis; here there appeared to be the ruins of a temple, covered by sand, on the desert edge. It is so seldom that temple ruins are on the desert, and not swallowed in the growth of Nile deposits in the plain, that it seemed desirable to examine this. We accordingly camped there, while some of the party were two miles further north, at the Deir Amba Shenudeh, or White Monastery, and our work extended to copying tombs two miles to the south, near Hagarseh. The periods thus covered are of the Old Kingdom (the IVthVIth dynasties) at Hagarseh; of Ptolemy IX, Physkon, the first temple at Athribis; of Ptolemy XIII, Auletes, the second temple, which was continued under Claudius and Hadrian; and of the early Christian age, IVth century, the Coenobium of Amba Shenudeh.