Description

A pioneering Egyptologist, Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (1853-1942) excavated over fifty sites and trained a generation of archaeologists. This single-volume reissue brings together three well-illustrated reports of his excavations over three seasons at Memphis and Meidum on the west bank of the Nile, first published in 1909-10. Work at Memphis in 1908 and 1909 notably focused on the west hall of the temple of Ptah and the royal palace of Apries. Chapters on the inscriptions are provided by James Herbert Walker (d.1914). The excavations at Meidum continued those begun in 1891 and recorded in the 1892 report that is also reissued in this series. Petrie was assisted by Ernest Mackay (1880-1943) and Gerald Averay Wainwright (1879-1964) in working on the pyramid, built for the fourth-dynasty pharaoh Sneferu, and the mastaba of Nefermaat, one of the largest private tombs of the Old Kingdom.