The
‘father of scientific archaeology’ is how William Matthew Flinders Petrie (1853
– 1942) is known – more commonly as Flinders Petrie – and as a pioneer of the systematic
methodology in archaeology and preservation of artefacts.
 |
| potsherds, faience, beads ... |
Petrie’s
immediate forebears endowed him with much talent, while encouraging him too as
he studied at home ... his father was an electrical engineer, who developed the
precursor to the electric light bulb ...
His
mother was the daughter of Matthew Flinders, surveyor of the Australian
coastline, who spoke six languages and was an Egyptologist ... you can see
their son’s life’s work laid out before him ...
 |
Wooden Astrolobe - Ottoman period
(probably made for teaching rather than actual use) |
His
father taught him how to survey accurately, laying the foundation for his
archaeological career. He learnt French,
Latin and Greek in those early formative years ... and was opinionated!
When
friends visiting the Petrie family were describing the unearthing of Brading
Roman Villa in the Isle of Wight ... which they described as the rough shovelling out of the contents- young
Flinders, aged 8, (that’s what I want to call him!) was horrified and protested that the earth should be pared
away, inch by inch, to see all that was in it and how it lay.
 |
Case 31! There were more - let alone
the ones on display in the cabinets |
When
Flinders Petrie, in his late seventies, noted that “All I have done since, was there to begin with, so true it is that we
can only develop what is born in the mind.
I was already in archaeology by nature.”
I
expect many of us would love to be so decided in life ...
This
“Digger” had great encouragement from Amelia Edwards (1831-92), a successful
writer, novelist and Egypt enthusiast who became Petrie’s self-appointed
patron.
She
provided Petrie with contacts in the press and helped finance his excavations. She eventually launched Petrie’s university
career by using her fortune to endow the professorship at University College
London that he took up in 1892.
 |
A name tag attached to a mummy - probably used
at the time 30BC - 37AD to identify mummies at the
time of mummification |
Edwards
donated her collection of several hundred Egyptian antiquities, many of
historical importance ... however the collection grew to international stature
in scope and scale thanks mainly to the extraordinary excavating career of the
first Edwards’ Professor, William Flinders Petrie.
In his
teenage years, Petrie surveyed British prehistoric monuments in attempts to
understand their geometry and at 19 produced the most accurate survey of Stonehenge.
 |
| A child's shoe |
He
travelled to Egypt in early 1880 to make an accurate survey of Giza, making him
the first person to properly investigate how they were constructed ...
... his
triangulation survey report, and his analysis of the architecture of Giza was
exemplary in its methodology and accuracy and still provides much of the basic
data regarding the pyramid plateau to this day.
So why
do we find Ancient Egypt so fascinating?
Mummies, pharaohs, gold, hieroglyphs, pyramids, strange gods ... these
are what people often think of when ancient Egyptian civilisation is mentioned.
 |
| An Armana glazed floral necklace (reconstructed) |
The forms, shapes, colours and decoration of Egyptian objects are immediately
recognisable and seem to summon up the culture of ancient Egypt in an instant.
Yet to
talk of the ‘culture of ancient Egypt’ is a little misleading – ancient
Egyptian civilisation was made up of many different periods and changed
enormously over a huge era of time.
Egyptians
in the reign of Tutankhamun were as far away in time from the pyramid builders
as we are today from the Vikings ... all of 1,200 years ...
 |
| Carnelian and Garnet beads from a royal tomb |
Ancient
Egypt is continually in dialogue with the modern world – yet, Petrie’s work and
Victorian legacy has left us with the marvellous Petrie Museum ... letting us follow
that journey back with the 80,000 pieces in the Collection ...
...
giving researchers an exceptionally well-documented ‘objective archive’ – an unsurpassed
resource for scholars the world over.
 |
A Head cover was put over the mummy not only to
emphasise that this was a real person, but to show in
the afterlife the person was transformed into a
perfect god-like form |
The
Museum tells the story of the Nile Valley from prehistory to the rise of the Pharaohs
to the emergence of Islam.
What
makes the Collection unique is its extensive collection of everyday objects,
such as hair combs, clay bowls and textiles, which provide insight into their
daily life ...
...
there are spectacular art works, sculptures of Kings, mud toys, fine ceramics
alongside rat traps, jewellery alongside everyday garments, socks and sandals
...
 |
Modelled foot coverings were on occasions
also added to mummies |
... there
are coffin faces and masks, three full-length coffins, and the best-preserved
example of a pot burial (3,000-2,000 BC), a large, highly prized, group of
Roman Period mummy portraits ...
We can
also see ancient Egyptian garments as worn, notably three dresses, five
thousand years old, (including a rare bead-net dress of a dancer and a linen
tunic), life-size statues, the stone lions from Koptos (c 3,000 BC) ...
 |
An early lute made from materials
readily available - from SimSim, Gaza |
Those
rich colours of garnet, cornelian, kohl, Egyptian Faience ... the potsherds and
limestone shards, the sintered-quartz ceramics displaying surface vitrification
which creates the bright lustre of various blue-green colours ...
Egyptian
Faience was perceived as a substitute for the blue-green materials such as
turquoise, found in the Sinai peninsula, and lapis lazuli from Afghanistan.
Today
it has proved impossible, much like the Blaschka’s glass models, to find the
techniques that the Egyptians used in their workshops ... but with copper, gold
and other minerals available, clay widely used, ‘workshops’ were found in close
proximity – allowing much experimentation to occur.
 |
.. yet another case or cabinet full of curiosities
from the Egyptian era .. the faience blue object ...
also the pair of human inlay eyes in limestone
with glass pupils |
This Digger
thankfully brought us so much knowledge from the Nile dynasties ... and
faithfully recorded it for posterity – it is still being used today ... the
guide taking us round Durham Castle, and the Museum Education Officer for the
Lindisfarne Gospels Exhibition ... both had undertaken study work at the Petrie
Museum ...
His
other claim to fame was to be a populariser ... through his early writings he
brought Egypt to life, which he then supported through his research work and
diggings in the field, letting the public have insight into Egyptian history
with his vivid anecdotes and stories.
The
Petrie Museum is a researcher’s paradise ... and with the techniques we have
available to us today ... once again opens new doors into ancient Egyptian
civilisation through its collections and Museum displays.
Note - I'm off again to the Welsh borders ... back later in the week!
Hilary
Melton-Butcher
Positive
Letters Inspirational Stories
