by Brian Fagan
2. Reeves, op. cit. (2000), 62.
3. Margaret Drower, “Gaston Maspero and the Birth of the Egypt Exploration Fund (1881–3),” Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 68 (1982): 300. See also James, op. cit. (1982).
4. Naville also set another Egypt Exploration Fund precedent, that of prompt publication. His Store-City of Pithom and the Route of the Exodus (London: Trübner and the Egypt Exploration Fund) appeared in 1888.
5. Petrie, op. cit. (1931), 14.
6. Charles Piazzi Smyth (1819–1900) was a distinguished astronomer who became astronomer royal of Scotland and professor of astronomy at Edinburgh University. Smyth surveyed the Great Pyramid at Giza in 1865 and proposed fantastic theories that became fashionable with fringe pyramidologists. He is the only scientist ever to have resigned from the Royal Society of London, which refused to publish one of his papers on Giza.
7. Ibid., 26–27.
8. General Augustus Henry (Lane-Fox) PittRivers (1827–1900) was an expert on firearms, ancient and modern, as well as the evolution of artifacts of all kinds. He inherited the huge Cranborne Chase estates in southern England in 1880, and spent the rest of his life excavating sites on his land. His excavation methods were rigorous, far more so than the Germans’ at Olympia, paying special attention to surveying, stratified layers, records, and even the smallest finds. An expert surveyor, Pitt-Rivers exercised a strong influence on Petrie. His archaeological methods form the foundation of modern digging techniques.
9. Ibid., 38.
10. Ibid., 47, 48.
11. Little is known of the reign of pharaoh Psusennes I (1039–991 BC). His undisturbed stone-built tomb was discovered by French Egyptologist Pierre Montet at nearby Tanis in 1939–1940.
12. Ibid., 87.
13. Ibid., 103.
14. The el-Lahun pyramid complex includes one erected by Senusret II (1897–1878 BC), the sides held in place by stone and faced with limestone. The tombs of the royal family of that period lie at the north end of the necropolis.
Kahun was one of Petrie’s classic excavations. A superb modern-day analysis of the community can be found in Kemp, op. cit. (1989), 149–157.
15. Schliemann had found the spectacular Shaft Graves at Mycenae in 1876, the first evidence of a widespread Bronze Age civilization in mainland Greece. Petrie himself called Gurab a “historical plum.”
16. Discussion in Petrie, op. cit. (1931), 112–113.
17. John Devitt Stringfellow Pendlebury (1904–1941) worked mainly in Crete after his Amarna work, and served as curator of the Palace of Minos at Knossos and British vice-consul. He was shot by the Germans in 1941 when he refused to disclose information about British military positions.
There is a huge literature on the Amarna tablets. One good source and starting point is William L. Moran, The Amarna Letters (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992).
18. Reeves and Taylor, op. cit. (1992), 33–43, describes Carter’s apprenticeship with extracts from his writings.
19. Petrie described sequence dating in a famous paper: W. M. F Petrie, “Sequences in Prehistoric Remains,” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 29 (1889): 295–301. The same basic principles of artifact ordering are still in use today, often called “seriation.”
20. Flinders Petrie, Methods and Aims in Archaeology (London: Macmillan, 1904), is, in many respects a startlingly modern essay on archaeology, with remarks on basic ethics that many modern scholars have forgotten. The book is worth a close perusal. Quote from pp. 129–130.
21. Petrie, op. cit. (1931), 180.
22. Ibid., 193.
23. Flinders Petrie married Hilda Urlin (1871–1956) in 1896. She proved an ideal companion, and the marriage was a very happy one. Hilda administered their field projects, raised money, and acted as secretary of the British School of Archaeology in Cairo.
24. Merneptah (1212–1202 BC) was Rameses II’s second son and well into his sixties when he ascended the throne. He provided grain to the drought-plagued Hittites and moved aggressively to preserve Egypt’s frontiers. The twenty-eight-line Victory Stela found by Petrie in 1896 refers to Merneptah’s military campaigns against Libyans and Syrians: “Libyans, slain, whose uncircumcised phalli were carried off 6359.” See Clayton, op. cit. (1994), 186–188.
25. Petrie, op. cit. (1931), 140. Professor John Stuart Blackie (1809–1895) was the much beloved professor of Greek at Edinburgh University. A charismatic teacher, Blackie traveled widely in Mediterranean lands and fought hard to establish a chair of Celtic studies at Edinburgh. The day of his funeral was a national day of mourning in Scotland.
26. Petrie, op. cit. (1904), 193.
CHAPTER 16: “WONDERFUL THINGS”
Guide to Further Reading
Nicholas Reeves, op. cit. (2000), is the best source for discoveries after 1900. Timothy Champion, “Egypt and the Diffusion of Culture,” in Jeffreys, op. cit. (2003), 127–146, describes some of the extravagant theories surrounding the diffusion of civilization from Egypt that were popular in the early twentieth century. Reeves’s Tutankhamun volume, op. cit. (1992), is the comprehensive source on that remarkable discovery. For a general account of American Egyptology, see N. Thomas, The American Discovery of Ancient Egypt (Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1998). For recent history, see also Reid, op. cit. (2002), and, for tourism, O. El Daly, “What Do Tourists Learn of Egypt?” in Consuming Ancient Egypt, ed. S. MacDonald and M. Rice (London: UCL Press, 2003), 139–150.
1. Newberry later superintended excavations for several wealthy patrons and became professor of Egyptology at Liverpool University, 1906–1919.
William Amherst Tyssen-Amherst (1835–1909) was a celebrated patron of excavations in Egypt. An early supporter of the Egypt Exploration Fund, he supported excavations by Petrie, Carter, and others, and used Egyptologists such as Newberry to purchase choice items for his collection, which included notable papyri, including the so-called Amherst papyrus that describes tomb robbing in the Theban necropolis around 1100 BC.
2. Quoted in Reeves and Taylor, op. cit. (1992), 51, 54.
3. Maspero quoted in ibid., 56. Victor Loret had opened up several tombs in the Valley of the Kings in 1898, among them that of King Amenophis II. Thirteen royal mummies came to light, which Loret removed despite government opposition. In 1900, Carter placed Amenophis II’s mummy back in its sarcophagus, where it was robbed a year later. Carter opened the tomb to an enthusiastic public shortly afterward.
4. Quoted in ibid., 75.
5. Pharaoh Kamose (1573–1570 BC) reigned from Thebes for a short three years, but marched in a surprise attack against the Hyksos in victories recorded on what is known as the Carnarvon Tablet, now in the British Museum. His successor, Ahmose I (1570–1546 BC), resumed the attacks in about 1558, conquered the Hyksos, and pursued them into what are now Israel and Syria, ushering in the New Kingdom.
6. Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter, Five Years’ Explorations at Thebes: A Record of Work Done (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1912).
7. Arthur Weigall (1880–1934) served as Petrie’s assistant and was inspector of antiquities for Upper Egypt, 1905–1914. He was responsible for much conservation work and closely associated with wealthy excavators like Sir Robert Mond and Theodore Davis. Weigall could be arrogant toward his colleagues and was not always popular, especially with Howard Carter, whom he disliked. He moved out of Egyptology in later life, having written a series of popular books on ancient Egypt, and made a sporadic living as a writer about theater and a journalist, in which capacity he covered the Tutankhamun discovery. He was recently the subject of a biography by Julie Hankey, op. cit. (2001).
8. Quotes in this paragraph come from Reeves and Taylor, op. cit. (1992), 130. The Opet ceremony was held annually in the second month of the inundation. A procession of images of the Theban deities moved between Karnak and Luxor either on land or by boat, each god or goddess having his or her own conveyance. Dancers, musicians, priests, and soldiers accompanied the parade, a time wh
en the public could present pleas to the gods and before colossal statues of the pharaoh. The walls of the temples commemorate the procession.
9. Menhet, Merti, and Menwi were interred with rich grave furniture, including golden sandals, canopic jars, and much jewelry.
10. Davis found the funerary cache in 1907 in a small tomb known as KV-54. He thought it was Tutankhamun’s sepulcher, but both Winlock and Carter disagreed. They believed that he was interred nearby. The cache may have been placed originally in the entrance of the young king’s tomb, then removed and reburied when ancient looters entered the newly sealed sepulcher.
Herbert Winlock (1884–1950) was a distinguished Egyptologist and an excellent field-worker who later became director of the Metropolitan Museum of Fine Art in New York.
11. There are numerous accounts of the “day of days.” See Reeves and Taylor, op. cit. (1992), 138ff; and Carter and Mace, op. cit. (1923–1933).
12. Pierre Lacau (1873–1963) was a protégé of Gaston Maspero and his successor as director of the Antiquities Service. He returned to France in 1936 and became professor of Egyptology at the Sorbonne.
13. Details of the agreement can be found in an admirable description and analysis by James, op. cit. (2001), chaps. 12–14. I drew on these chapters here. Winlock quote is from p. 403. Carter quote is from his diary; James, op. cit. (2001), 405.
14. Quoted in James, op. cit. (2001), 434–435. The modern dollar equivalent is about $60,000, but, of course, it was a relatively much larger sum in the early 1930s.
15. Quoted in Reeves and Taylor, op. cit. (1992), 161.
16. A lengthy extract from Reisner’s report on Kerma’s royal cemetery can be found in Brian Fagan, ed., Eyewitness to Discovery (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), 116ff.
Kerma was the kingdom of powerful African chiefs in Middle Kingdom times who became wealthy off a lucrative trade in gold, ivory, and other tropical products with the pharaohs to the north. Their capital, Kerma itself, was a small town with palaces and temples, fortified with elaborate defenses and four gates.
17. Comment by artist Lindon Smith, quoted in Reeves, op. cit. (2000), 171.
18. Letter quoted in Reeves and Taylor, op. cit. (1992), 162. More on Breasted and Reisner can be found in John A. Wilson, op. cit. (1964).
19. Quoted in Reeves, op. cit. (2000), 136, where a full discussion of the find appears. Anyone interested in archaeological discoveries during the twentieth century will find comprehensive coverage in this fine, lavishly illustrated book.
20. Herbert Winlock, The Slain Soldiers of Neb-hep-et-Re, Mentuhotpe (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1945).
21. This discussion is based on Reid, op. cit. (2002), 292ff, where a much more comprehensive analysis will be found.
22. Muhammad Zakaria Gonheim (1911–1959) had a distinguished career with the Antiquities Service, serving as chief inspector of Upper Egypt, then keeper of the Saqqara necropolis. He was appointed director of the Cairo Museum in 1958, but died before he could take up the appointment.
23. Zahi Hawass, Valley of the Golden Mummies (New York: H. Abrams, 2000), contains a general description of this remarkable find.
24. Feddon, op. cit. (1977), 28.
Index
Ababde people
Abbas Pasha
Abeda, Sheik
Abu Simbel temples Belzoni’s first trip to
Belzoni’s second trip to
Burckhardt and
Champollion’s trip to
Drovetti and
Edwards trip to
exhibit of
moving of
painting of
Abydos and pillagers
Account of Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, An (Wilkinson)
Aelius Gallus
Africanus, Leo
Aga, Muhammad
Aga Ayat, Mustapha
Ahhotep, Queen jewelry of
new museum for
Ahmad Ibn-Talun
Ahmed Arabi
Akerblad, Johan
Akhenaten, mural
Akhenaten, Pharaoh
Akhetaten, abandoned city
Al-Askar
Al-Azhar mosque
Alexander the Great
Alexander VII, Pope
Alexandria (Roman Empire)
Al-Fustat
Ali, Muhammad antiquities collectors/collections and
Antiquities Law of 1835
attempts to modernize Egypt
Belzoni and
diplomatic collectors and
Drovetti and
national museum establishment by
Salt and
“the Young Memnon” and
Al-Ikhshid
'Al-Masudi
Amarna tablets
Amenemhet III
Amenhotep III, King
American Egyptologists
American philanthropists
American Revolution
Amherst, Lord and Lady
Ammonites of Siwa
Ampere, Jean-Jacques-Antoine
Amr Ibn el-As
Amun (sun god)
Amun’s temples description of
Karnak temple
Scientific and Artistic Commission and
Anastasi, Giovanni
Ancient Records of Egypt(Breasted)
Ani’s Book of the Dead
Antiquarians as knowledge seekers beginnings of
public attitudes and
Rhind as
See alsoEgypt Exploration Fund; specific individuals
Antiquities, collectors/collections biblical link and
bribes and
Description de I’Egypteand
end of amateur investigators
forgeries and
king of Prussia expedition
Muhammad Ali and
museums/universities as main investigators
scramble for antiquities
Victorian tourists and
See also individual collectors
Antiquities, collectors/collections beginnings of biblical associations with
competition over
demand/price for
diplomatic antiquarians
museum beginnings
overview
Antiquities, conservation of beginnings of
Champollion and
Edwards and
Gliddon’s Appeal
Lord Percy and
Mariette and
Maspero and
Mimaut and
Renan and
Antiquities, destruction and looting of by 1820
Ali and
for building stones
collectors/museums rationale for
D’Avennes and
dynamite and
graffiti/inscriptions
gunpowder and
lack of Egyptian national museum and
Mariette and
Maspero and
overview
Rasul family
by scientists
by tourists
vandalism
See also specific tomb robbers
Antiquities, Law of 1835
Antiquities, regulations of 1983 law
Antiquities, Law of 1835
Tutankhamun’s tomb and
Antiquities Service Budge and
Carter and
development of
Egyptian control of
Egyptians and
excavators of
French domination of
funding for
Mariette and
Maspero and
Rasul family and
Apis
Appeal to the Antiquaries of Europe on the Destruction of the Monuments of Egypt (Gliddon)
Archaeological Survey of Egypt
Archaeology “emotional archaeology,”
nationalist tensions over
See also specific archaeologists Arsinoe
Assyrians
Aswan High Dam
Athanas
i, Yanni
Atum (god)
Augustus, Emperor
Ay’s tomb
Baedeker, Karl
Bankes, William
Banks, Sir Joseph
Baring, Sir Evelyn as Egyptian “ruler,”
looters and
Bartholomew’s Fair
Battle of Kadesh frescoes
Beechey, Henry William expedition to Berenice
trip to Abu Simbel
as Upper Egypt consular agent
Valley of the Kings work
Bellefonds, Linant de
Belmore, Earl of
Belmore, Lord
Belon, Pierre
Belzoni, Francesco
Belzoni, Giovanni Battista background
Burckhardt and
death of
early trips to ancient monuments
education of
Gibraltar and
hydraulics knowledge of
illustration of
in London/British Isles
move to Egypt
as “Patagonian Sampson,”
as performer
prototype waterwheel
recruitment to Egypt
search for river Niger sources
in Spain
as “the Great
Belzoni,” Belzoni, Giovanni Batista/antiquities Amenhotep III statue
Berenice expedition
book by
bribes and
business agreement with Salt
confrontation with Drovetti/agents
Drovetti and
Drovetti/obelisk at Philae
first trip to Abu Simbel
first work at Valley of the Kings
Khafre’s mortuary temple
legal proceedings against Drovetti/agents
London exhibit
negotiations with British Museum/Salt
obelisk at Philae
papyri search
pyramid of Khufu and
reputation of
return to Europe
rivals’ national collections and
Salt and
search for temple of Jupiter Ammon
second trip to Abu Simbel
second trip to Valley of the Kings
Seti I tomb copying work
Seti I tomb discovery
summary of work
“the Young Memnon” statue and
work at Qurna
Belzoni, Sarah in British Isles
in Egypt
final return to Alexandria
journey to Palestine
return to Europe
Seti I sarcophagus exhibit and
