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Name: Petrie Museum Unofficial Page
Address: University College London, Malet Place, London, WC1E6BT, GB
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WEBSITE: http://friendsofpetrie.org.uk
This page celebrates the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology
(178)

25/11/2024

Crocodiles often instil fear, but its hard to be frightened is this incredibly cute, and extremely small example in clay from Lahun, which features in our November Petrie Friends lecture.

The hybrid November Friends of the Petrie Museum lecture will take place on Friday 29th November, at 18:30 on zoom and in Room 612, Sixth Floor, Institute of Archaeology (NOTE A CHANGE FROM THE USUAL VENUE). Our speaker, Gianluca Miniaci, will present, 'One Figurine to Rule Them All’: Identity, Health, and Ritual from the Clay Figurines from Lahun (c. 1800-1700 BC).'

You can learn more from the PIPE project; https://prinproject.wixsite.com/pipe-project/post/study-of-clay-figurines-in-the-petrie-museum-london

A recent publication is also available: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/news/2024/oct/clay-figurines-context-crucibles-egyptian-nubian-and-levantine-societies

Image: Petrie Museum object UC7196, a mud crocodile figure from Lahun. (Image courtesy of Gianluca Miniaci).

21/11/2024

The EES AGM and Spotlight Lecture takes place on zoom on 30th November 6-7pm. The spotlight lecture, 'Once upon a thing: stories, storytelling, and encounters with objects in ancient Egypt' by Leire Olabarria reflects on how objects play an important role in ancient Egyptian literature, and how storytelling facilitates our engagement with ancient Egypt today.

For more information and to book see https://www.ees.ac.uk/whats-on/events/once-upon-a-thing-stories-storytelling-and-encounters-with-objects-in-ancient-egypt.html?utm_campaign=24%2B11%2BNewsletter&utm_medium=email

Image: Papyrus Westcar (Berlin P 3033) from the EES web advert.

20/11/2024

In the Petrie Alphabet of Objects, ‘N’ can only be for Nefertiti – ‘The beautiful one has come’. The Petrie Museum is fortunate in having some fascinating images of Nefertiti representing the distinctive Amarna artistic style at different points in the reign of Akhenaten; from the angular style of the early years to the softer, fuller figured, Nefertiti of the later years.
For a full discussion of these representations, and the history of Nefertiti, I refer you to Dorothea Arnold’s wonderful book (with contributions from James Allen and Lyn Green) ‘The Royal Women of Amarna: Images of Beauty from Ancient Egypt’ which can be downloaded free from the Metropolitan Museum’s website:
http://www.metmuseum.org/.../The_Royal_Women_of_Amarna...

All images from the Petrie Museum under CCBY-NA-SA license, in no particular date order
UC401 cropped
Cropped image of Nefertiti (part of a relief with Akhenaten and Meritaten). Column of hieroglyphs in front of Nefertiti: 'Nefer-neferu-aten Nefertiti, may she live forever and ever'
Place: Amarna
UC010
Small, unfinished head of a composite statue; red quartzite; probably Nefertiti; top of head cut to receive crown of another material, base of neck similarly rounded to fit into body of different material
Place: Amarna
UC038
Fragment of relief: siliceous limestone; relief en creux of Nefertiti wearing disk, horns and feathers, and uraeus; extreme style of portrait probably indicates a date early in the Amarna Period
Place: Amarna
UC040
Fragment of stela: red quartzite; head and arms of queen Nefertiti making libation; arms of the Aten blessing the figure
Place: Amarna
UC073
Fragment of deep sunk relief: painted limestone (traces of red paint); upper part of figure of a queen (Nefertiti?) wearing wig and uraeus; early cartouches of the Aten on arm and breast
Place: Memphis
UC011
Trial piece: limestone block with outline depiction of head of queen Nefertiti, wearing a tall crown, with rearing cobra at forehead; head faces right, chiefly in ink, but lips already cut out
Place: Amarna

19/11/2024

"Is its a bird, is it a plane, is it a . . . .triceratops? Probably not. But it is a small mud figure from Lahun, one of a group, that Petrie identified as 'toys'. Come to our November Petrie Friends lecture to find out what it is, and if they truly are 'toys'.

The hybrid November Friends of the Petrie Museum lecture will take place on Friday 29th November, at 18:30 on zoom and in Room 612, Sixth Floor, Institute of Archaeology (NOTE A CHANGE FROM THE USUAL VENUE). Our speaker, Gianluca Miniaci, will present, 'One Figurine to Rule Them All’: Identity, Health, and Ritual from the Clay Figurines from Lahun (c. 1800-1700 BC).'

You can learn more from the PIPE project; https://prinproject.wixsite.com/pipe-project/post/study-of-clay-figurines-in-the-petrie-museum-london

A recent publication is also available: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/news/2024/oct/clay-figurines-context-crucibles-egyptian-nubian-and-levantine-societies

Image: Petrie Museum object UC7027 a mud figure from Lahun. (Image courtesy of Gianluca Miniaci).

18/11/2024

Fancy working with the fantastic objects of the Petrie Museum collection? The UCL Research Institute for Collections is inviting applications for the 2025 RIC Fellowships and we are delighted to announce the new Museum Collections Fellowship:

1) Museum Collections Visiting Fellowship
New for 2025 is the RIC Museum Collections Visiting Fellowship which offers an opportunity to visit UCL to conduct research on a topic centred on the collections of UCL Art Museum, Grant Museum of Zoology, Pathology Museum, Petrie Museum of Egyptian and Sudanese Archaeology and UCL Science Collections.

2) The Liberating the Collections Fellowship is open to everyone including UCL staff and students.
The Liberating the Collections Fellowship is intended to unearth underrepresented voices and find new ways of engaging with collection stories and presenting them to wider society. As a Fellow, you will help us gain perspectives on our collections beyond the structural narratives that currently prevail.

3) Special Collections Visiting Fellowship
The Special Collections Visiting Fellowship offers an opportunity to visit UCL to conduct research on a topic centred on the UCL holdings of archives, rare books, and records. The aims of the Fellowship are to facilitate new research into UCL Special Collections and to raise awareness of the collections amongst the research community and the general public.

The successful candidates will spend up to six weeks, or the part-time equivalent, at UCL researching the collections. Projects can start from July 2025 onwards. Fellows should aim to finish their project by the end of 2025.
The closing date for applications is Monday 6th January 2025. *NB we can't support new visa applications in this instance.*

For more information click here for an overview and further details about each fellowship: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/research-institute-collections/activities/fellowships

Images: All images from the Petrie Museum Collections online: UC10706 - a Khartoum Neolithic pot; UC401 - a carving of Nefertiti; UC40663 - a shabti and mould; UC14677 - an ichneumon on a seal. (All CC BY-NC-SA license).

15/11/2024

Is that someone lying on a Late Bronze Age sofa? No! It's a mud figurine of a mummiform body lying in a sarcophagus, and will feature in our November Petrie Friends lecture.

The hybrid November Friends of the Petrie Museum lecture will take place on Friday 29th November, at 18:30 on zoom and in Room 612, Sixth Floor, Institute of Archaeology (NOTE A CHANGE FROM THE USUAL VENUE). Our speaker, Gianluca Miniaci, will present, 'One Figurine to Rule Them All’: Identity, Health, and Ritual from the Clay Figurines from Lahun (c. 1800-1700 BC).'

You can learn more from the PIPE project; https://prinproject.wixsite.com/pipe-project/post/study-of-clay-figurines-in-the-petrie-museum-london

A recent publication is also available: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/news/2024/oct/clay-figurines-context-crucibles-egyptian-nubian-and-levantine-societies

Image: Petrie Museum object UC7185, a mud mummiform figure in a sarcophagus, from Lahun. (Image courtesy of Gianluca Miniaci).

14/11/2024

EXTERNAL EVENT: LONDON LECTURE The London Centre for the Ancient Near East (LCANE) is pleased to announce its autumn lecture series on the theme of Unusual Aspects of Animals.

18 Nov. IN PERSON ONLY. Prof. Paul Nicholson, and Dr Henry Bishop-Wright (Department of Archaeology and Conservation, School of History, Archaeology and Religion, Cardiff University).

“Dating the dead: chronology and context at Saqqara’s sacred animal necropolis”.

In-person seminars are at 6.15pm, at UCL, Roberts Building, G8, Sir David Davies Lecture Theatre. Abstracts via the LCANE website https://lcane.org.uk/events/. All seminars are free.

Image credit: A Ptolemaic cat coffin from Saqqara, ManchesterMuseum_Inv -b (Hannah Pethen).

13/11/2024

This week in the Petrie Alphabet of Objects, M is for Mould
Moulds are often overlooked, but nonetheless fascinating objects. They do not only give us information on the manufacture of certain items but they can also bring us closer to the ancient craftsmen – marks from the palm of the hand or finger marks can often be seen on the surface of the moulds.
The Petrie Museum has thousands of moulds in its collection and browsing through them can be quite fun. You will be surprised by the range of types available. There are some to make shabtis, beads, rings, all kind of amulets such as wadjet eyes, ankhs, gods, trussed heifer and obviously many forelegs!
Most moulds were made of red-brown fired Nile clay to work with glass, faience and clay. Others are made of stone, typically for casting metal. By the New Kingdom moulding had replaced modelling as the major method of shaping objects.
A project was undertaken by UCL and the link below will take you to a fantastic film - Making Many: The mass production of funerary figures - where the use of moulds to make shabtis can be seen. Not to be missed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_KWXznxovQ
Images:

UC40663
Mould to make shabtis.
Shabti one-piece mould in pottery with typical Late Period, bearded mummiform figure holding hoe and pick. Feet at lower ledge of matrix with trace of plinth.
UC1926
Mould to make rings.
Fired clay mould with the throne name of Tutankhamun in hieroglyphs; for production of faience ring bezel. From Amarna.
UC24149
Mould for ring shank. From Amarna.
UC69216
Limestone mould inscribed on one side with figure of bearded man on donkey, on the other with piriform vase outline (?). From Memphis, Late Period.
UC24266
Stone mould (for metal); rectangular; granite (?): disc and wjat eye.
UC33303
Has been shared here before but it is too cute not to re-post.
Plaster mould for a sculptor's plaster model of a camel in relief. Design picked out on body. Line of seven holes at base of neck. (Similar mould of giraffe in Hildesheim). From Ehnasya / Heracleopolis Magna. Graeco-Roman Period

12/11/2024

The UCL Research in Focus seminars present current research into UCL's museums and collections via monthly lunchtime seminars. On 15 November 1.15-2pm, Dr Martin Odler, of the University of Newcastle will be presenting on 'Copper alloy metalwork in the Petrie Museum'. Dr Odler presented a fascinating lecture on this subject to the Friends of the Petrie Museum last year, and members will shortly receive the write-up of his lecture in their 2023-2024 magazine.

Image credit: 1st Dynasty Copper adze inscribed with name of King ZER in a serekh (detail lost after cleaning at BM c. 1938) and name of owner BEKH (cp.16182). From tomb 461, one of the graves surrounding the enclosure of king Djer at Abydos, referred to by Petrie as 'tombs of the courtiers'.

11/11/2024

New Discoveries: A new Middle Kingdom tomb has been found in the Asasif in the Theban Necropolis of Luxor. The tomb is located on the south side of Karabasken (TT391) and included many intact burials.

For more information see https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/534510.aspx

Image credit: Handleless Middle Kingdom copper mirror from Naqada tomb'RI' from Tomb 1 cut in south side of ravine south of Nubt. This mirror is similar to the objects newly discovered at the Asasif.

08/11/2024

New BOOKS via EEF: For those interested in Festchriften, the six volumes of “Studies presented to Marilina Betrò” have now been published as part of the series "Egittologia" published by Pisa University Press.

Vol. 1 - The Sacred and the Secular in the Theban
Necropolis

Vol. 2 - A Matter of Religions: Gods and People in
Ancient Egypt

Vol. 3 - Digging for Ancient Egypt and Egyptology in
the Archives

Vol. 4 - The Materiality of Ancient Egypt: Objects and
Museums

Vol. 5 - Egypt in Ancient and Modern Tales, Travels and
Explorations

Vol. 6 - Ancient Egypt and the Surrounding World: Contact,
Trade, and Influence

For more information please see https://egittologia.cfs.unipi.it/en/publications/series/egittologia/

Image credit: A practise writing tablet in the Cairo Museum (Hannah Pethen). It would take a lot of these to hold the over 100 contributions in this six volume set.

07/11/2024

New ONLINE Resource via EEF: New addition to the UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology:
-- "Copper-based Metallurgy (up to 332 BCE)", by
Rademakers, Frederik; Odler, Martin; Auenmüller, Johannes

Image credit: Bronze statue of Osiris from the Wellcome Collection (L0058405) CCBY40

06/11/2024

EXTERNAL EVENT: LONDON LECTURE The London Centre for the Ancient Near East (LCANE) is pleased to announce its autumn lecture series on the theme of Unusual Aspects of Animals.

O11 Nov, (Virtual only). Dr Elizabeth Bettles (NINO, Leiden University).
“The giraffe and the hare: atypical hieroglyphs in Deir el-Medina tombs as indicators of a painter’s handwriting”.

Abstracts and sign-up for Zoom seminars via the LCANE website https://lcane.org.uk/events/. All seminars are free.

Image credit: A reconstructed tomb at Deir el-Medina (Hannah Pethen)

05/11/2024

EXTERNAL EVENT via EEF: MODEL BEHAVIOUR STUDY AFTERNOON AND ONLINE COLLECTION LAUNCH.

A FREE event focused on ancient Egyptian wooden funerary models will take place on Saturday 9th November 2024 1pm-5:30pm (UK time). It will comprise a series of talks exploring ancient Egyptian wooden funerary models, their significance, function, display, and production through. It will also include the launch of 'Ancient Egyptian Wooden Funerary Figures' - an online collection which aims to identify all examples of these fascinating figures known in UK institutions.

For more details and how to book see https://woodenfuneraryfigures.abasetcollections.com/Info/Details/55?f=Model_Behaviour_Study_Afternoon

Image credit: Funerary model from the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation (Hannah Pethen).

04/11/2024

EXTERNAL EVENT: The Egypt Exploration Society will be holding an online lunchtime lecture on zoom 1pm – 2pm GMT, 5 November 2024. In 'Consuls, Travellers, Spies' Dr Philip Mansel will trace the involvement of the French in Egypt, including activities prior to Napoleon Bonaparte's expedition in 1798. For more details see https://www.ees.ac.uk/whats-on/events/consuls-travellers-spies.html

Image credit: Baron Antoine-Jean Gros's The Battle of the Pyramids, 1810 via Wikimedia Commons.

01/11/2024

EXTERNA EVENT: Essex Egyptology in-person meeting on 3rd October 3pm, at Community Centre, Powers End, Witham, Essex CM8 2HE will feature Dr Carl Graves on 'Lost Cities'. Meetings are free for members and £6 for non-members. Please pay via Eventbrite on the individual meeting pages. See https://www.essexegyptology.co.uk for more details and how to join.

31/10/2024

NEW BOOK via EEF: Kara Cooney, Recycling for Death: Coffin Reuse in Ancient
Egypt and the Theban Royal Caches. AUC Press, 2024.
Hb, 476 pp., 900 col. and b&w ills. ISBN 9781649031280.
$125.00. TOC at

"(..) This culmination of fifteen years of coffin study
analyzes coffins and other funerary equipment of elites
from the Nineteenth to the Twenty-second Dynasties to
provide essential windows into social strategies and
adaptations employed during the Bronze Age collapse and
subsequent Iron Age reconsolidation. Many Twentieth to
Twenty-second Dynasty coffins show evidence of reuse
from other, older coffins, as well as obvious marks
where gilding or inlay have been removed. (..) The
first part of this book focuses on the theory and
evidence of coffin reuse, contextualized within the
social collapse that characterized the Twentieth and
Twenty-first Dynasties. The second part presents
photo essays of annotated visual data for over sixty
Egyptian coffins from the so-called Royal Caches, most
of them from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. (..)"

Image credit: The coffin of Ramses II from the Deir el-Bahri Cache. (Hannah Pethen)

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