The Latest Archeology News Extracts From The World Of Research Via The Web
The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology originated as a teaching resource for the Professor of Egyptian Archaeology and Philology at University College London (UCL), created by the bequest of the Victorian enthusiast Amelia Edwards (1831-1892). Her bequest included several hundred artefacts, and the collection grew due to the excavating career of William Matthew Flinders Petrie (1853-1942). Petrie was born in Charlton and educated privately. He worked on many excavation sites, mostly in Egypt. He was the first Edwards Professor of Egyptology at UCL,1892-1933, and Emeritus Professor from 1933. He published many works on excavation, and was knighted in 1923. By 2001 the Petrie Museum housed c80,000 objects. 32
In 1930 the British anthropologist Sir Flinders Petrie and his team of archaeologists discovered all sorts of primitive bowling balls, bowling pins and other materials in the grave of an Egyptian boy from 3200 BC. It appears that the ancient Egyptians played a primitive form of bowling and that bowling is more than 5200 years old. 17
The ancient Egyptian collection is a small, but comprehensive collection incorporating artefacts from the Predynastic to Roman times. The main bulk of the artefacts dates from the early Dynastic period (3050 – 2686 BC) and was excavated at Kafr-Tarkhan by Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (d. on behalf of the British School of Archaeology during the 1911/12 and 1912/13 seasons. Tarkhan is 59 kilometres south of Cairo, but the pottery styles relate to the south, indicating the influence of the southern culture in the First Dynasty. 35
Petrie was educated privately. He studied ancient ruins in England, 1875?80. From 1880 to 1926 he excavated in Egypt and from 1892 to 1933 was a professor at the University of London. Among Petrie’s excavations in Egypt were those of Greek settlements at Naucratis and Daphnae; prehistoric Egyptian settlements at Koptos and Nagada; the temples at Thebes; and the ruins at Tell el Amarna. He worked at the site of ancient Gaza, in southern Palestine, 1926?38. In 1894 Petrie founded the Egyptian Research Account, which in 1905 became the British School of Archaeology in Egypt. He was knighted in 1923. 5
Kinnaman accepted a teaching position in Latin Literature at Benton Harbor College, Michigan in 1903 and later was made a dean of the college. At the same time he pursued graduate work in Classical Archaeology from the University of Rome, Italy. He was a witness to the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 1906, the first since the devastation of A.D. 79 Kinnaman received a Ph.D. In 1909, Dr. Kinnaman spent a year with the Chippewa Indians in the U.S. and was later to write the first recorded history of the tribe and their legends. 22
Thus nonliterate communities can be dated by their contact with literate ones. This technique is known as cross dating; it was first developed by Sir Flinders Petrie when he dated Palestinian and early Greek (Aegean) sites by reference to Egyptian ones. 4
Although Flinders was primarily self-taught and had no formal schooling, he was made Edwards Professor of Egyptian Archaeology and Philology at University College, London in 1892. This chair had been funded by Amelia Edwards who was a keen supporter and admirer of Petrie. He was also the founder of The Egyptian Research Account, in 1894, (which eventually became the British School of Archaeology in 1905). Duing his career he also wrote over 100 books and nearly 900 articles and reviews. A work of particular importance being his work entitled “Methods and Aims of Archaeology,” published in 1904. Flinders Petrie was popularly awarded the title of “The Father of Modern Archaeology.” 20
Readers must be asking why have there been no records of this find, which would have been one of the most spectacular in the history of archaeology? Dr. Kinnaman stated in response to this question that he and Sir Flinders Petrie agreed that the world was not ready for this information at that time. The pair then swore an oath to the highest government officials in Egypt and Great Britain never to divulge this knowledge during their lifetimes. There certainly has not been found any record of Petrie ever mentioning this discovery to anyone during his lifetime, but Dr. Kinnaman told a select few before he died on September 7, 1961. 22
Excavation of the site, carried out in 1890 by Sir Flinders Petrie and in 1892–94 by F.J. Bliss, revealed that the first occupation began about 2600 BC. More important, however, Petrie’s work there was the first stratigraphic excavation in Palestine. 3
It was because of his work with Sir Flinders Petrie that Dr. Kinnaman abandoned his interests in Classical Archaeology and devoted the last half of his life to the field of Biblical Archaeology. His great proficiency in Greek, Latin and Hebrew enabled Dr. Kinnaman to research and translate the earliest texts of both the Old and New Testaments and other documents which allowed him to regard later versions of the Bible to be historical corruptions. 22
Kinnaman always maintained that archaeology would establish the Bible as a historical as well as a literary document, but only in the pure original forms. Spending over 50 years in the field, Dr. Kinnaman circled the globe seven times in the pursuit of knowledge. As a true world explorer, he lived with a remote tribe of Eskimos in the Arctic for six months, was captured by Jivaro head hunters in South America and spent some time with African cannibal tribes. He was also one of the first archaeologists to explore the Catacombs of Rome following their rediscovery and was part of the archaeological team that discovered the tomb of the Queen of Sheba in Ethiopia. 22
The site of Naukratis was discovered in 1884 by W.M. Flinders Petrie and excavated by Petrie and Ernest Gardner (1884–86) and by D.G. They uncovered dedications to deities and Greek pottery that threw light on the early history of the Greek alphabet and the commercial activity of various Greek states, especially in the 6th century BC. 4
The reason behind this is that the atmospheric conditions such as high and low temperatures and the periodic appearance of day followed by night results in the breaking down of part of the new flint that resemble the old Ioletic pieces. Mr. Shfinfort collected many pieces of this kind from the ~stops of King doors. Yet traces of human hands are found in many of these pieces. In fact there is no ancient or new Egyptian ~stop in which there appeared human made tools and pieces produced by nature itself and then people used them skillfully. The principle of conserving human energy in production played a major role in the life of early humans in Egypt as was the case in other countries. 39
Although Flinders was primarily self-taught and had no formal schooling, he was made Edwards Professor of Egyptology at University College, London in 1892 and was also the founder of The Egyptian Research Account, in 1894 (which eventually became the British School of Archaeology in 1905). Flinders also wrote over 100 books and nearly 900 articles and reviews. A work of particular importance was entitled “Methods and Aims of Archaeology,” published in 1904. 2
Petrie began to analyze the grave goods methodically. Grave A might contain certain types of pot in common with Grave B; Grave B also contained a later style of pot, the only type to be found in Grave C. By writing cards for each grave and filing them in logical order, Petrie established a full sequence for the cemetery, concluding that the last graves were probably contemporary with the First Dynasty. The development of life along the Nile thus was revealed, from early settlers to farmers to political stratification. 7
- References
- en.wikipedia.org
- www.age-of-the-sage.org
- www.aim25.ac.uk
- www.ronaldbirdsall.com
- www.touregypt.net
- www.tenpinbowling.org
- history.howstuffworks.com
- users.iafrica.com
- www.atlantisrising.com
- www.britannica.com
- www.britannica.com
- www.mnsu.edu
- www.selimhassan.com
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