Egypt

Exhibition: Excavating Egypt

Santa Fe New Mexican (Paul Weideman)

All regular visitors to the blog will know that I take up any opportunity that offers to plug the Petrie Museum of Archaeology in London (U.K.). However, today I actually have a good excuse - the Excavating Egypt exhibition is covered in this article which accompanies the exhibition's opening this weekend at the New Mexico Museum of Art. Excavating Egypt has been mentioned many times before, but this is one of the better articles on the subject.

Petrie grew up in England, the son of a surveyor. As his father taught him how to use the surveying equipment of his time, Petrie learned to esteem precise measurement and accurate record keeping. A fascination with ancient monuments was first indulged with a survey Petrie began at Stonehenge when he was 19. In 1880, when he was 24, Petrie began a survey of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
While he was in Egypt, Petrie was aghast at the local disregard for historic monuments and mummies. When the Egyptians of the time found a tomb, they would hoard valuable artifacts, but mummies were discarded or used as fuel in trains and steamships. According to an online biography, Petrie was familiar with the cry, “We need more steam; throw a pharaoh on the fire!”
As members of the world scientific community learned of Petrie’s eye for detail and predilection for precise records, they began to hold him in high regard. In 1892, Petrie was named the first Edwards Professor of Egyptian Archaeology and Philology at University College in London. That position was named for Amelia Edwards, a traveler, writer, and founder of the Egypt Exploration Fund (today’s Egyptian Exploration Society), who left her fortune to University College. During his subsequent career Petrie and his students expanded the Edwards collection of Egyptian artifacts to about 80,000 objects. These are the heart of the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology.

See the above page for the full story. The article is accompanied by five photographs of objects from the exhibition.

Details about the exhibition's opening times and how to purchase tickets can be found on the New Mexico Museum of Art website.

- Petrie Museum Celebrating Amelia Edwards
Thanks to Jan Picton of the Friends of the Petrie Museum for the following information. On March 8th, International Woman's Day is celebrating its centenary, and the Petrie Museum is joining in by honouring Victorian writer Amelia Edwards, for without...

- Exhibition: Excavating Egypt Moves To Miami
Suite 101 (Stan Parchin) It is nice to see that Excavating Egypt is on its travels again. As usual Stan Parchin has produced a reliably clear and informative account, describing the background to the exhibition, an overview of the exhibits and the main...

- Book Review: Excavating Egypt
About.com I am fairly sure that I've featured this review previously, but new visitors may be interested (an anyway, its Petrie!). There are some lovely photographs accompanying the article: A Special Exhibition Catalogue Review by Stan Parchin Excavating...

- Exhibitions: Great Discoveries From The Petrie Museum
http://tinyurl.com/2kh9z6 (masslive.com) It is nice to see that the labouriously named exhibition Excavating Egypt: Great Discoveries from the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology is still getting good publicity as it continues on its travels around...

- Petrie Collection Exhibition At Mount Holyoke College Art Museum
http://www.artdaily.com/section/news/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=18741"The Mount Holyoke College Art Museum will open the exhibit Excavating Egypt: Great Discoveries from the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, University College, London on February...

Egypt