Abydos

A pioneering Egyptologist, Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (1853-1942) excavated over fifty sites and trained a generation of archaeologists. Originally published between 1902 and 1904 for the Egypt Exploration Fund, this three-volume set of reports documents the excavations that Petrie initiated at one of ancient Egypt’s most sacred sites, the necropolis at Abydos. These reports follow on from the findings published in The Royal Tombs of the First Dynasty (1900) and The Royal Tombs of the Earliest Dynasties (1901), both of which are reissued in this series. Volume 1 presents a detailed account of the objects found in the Osiris temenos (enclosure) and the cemetery known as ‘G’ during the dig of 1902. Eighty pages of plates illustrate the discoveries, which range from painted pottery to early dynastic graves. A chapter by Arthur Weigall (1880-1934) sheds light on the inscriptions.