In early December 1883, Petrie, accompanied by his friends Prof. and Mrs Sheldon Amos, charters a dahabiyeh from Cairo, travelling through the Wadi Tumilat to Ismailia, Petrie prospects sites along the way including the site for Petrie's next season which is later identified by him as Naucratis. In February 1884, Petrie begins his first large-scale excavations at Tanis which continue into June.
Petrie is at Koptos for the whole season where he was assisted by James Edward Quibell and Bernard Pyne Grenfell. Petrie discovered three temples and found evidence of constant occupation at the site, from the Predynastic period through to the Roman era. Petrie also discovered three Predynastic colossal statues of Min beneath a Ptolemaic pavement, one statue is now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and the other two are in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Petrie's excavations at this site initiated the formation of the highly-regarded Egyptian workforce specialising in archaeological excavation and referred to as "Quftis".
Part 1, W. M. Flinders Petrie journal, November 29, 1898, to March 20, 1899.
Part 2, Hilda Petrie journal, November 14, 1898, to March 1, 1899.
Part 3, Hilda Petrie diary “1898-9 / SEMAINEH & HOW.”, December 6, 1898, to January 25, 1899. Camping trip (El Ga’ara, El Ghabat and Nawahed), March 2-5, 1899. Pages 143-70 are loose pages and the order is uncertain.
Petrie at Maidum for the whole season excavating and recording the tombs, as well as surveying the pyramid. Petrie assisted by G. W. Fraser and F. J. Bliss. In April 1891, Petrie travels to Greece to visit Ernest Gardner, Director of the British School at Athens, where Petrie is able to confirm that the “Aegean” finds from Gurob were manufactured in Mycenae then exported to Egypt.
-Album titled 'Deshasheh 1897' containing photographs from Petrie's excavations at Deshasheh in 1897. -The introduction on the third page reads: 'Deshaheh is a village on the western edge of the Nile Valley, about twenty miles south of the entrance to the Fayum. At about two miles back in the desert is a low range of cliffs about 80 ft high. The southernmost end of these cliffs is an isolated hill which contains the inscribed tomb of Anta and many unnamed tomb pits; the cliffs for half a mile north of this are pierced with many more tombs, and contain another inscribed tomb, of Shedu. A serdab of a great mastaba, now destroyed, contained the series of statues of Nenkheftka. While in the hill above was the tomb and coffin inscribed of his son Nenkheftek. The excavations were made in Feb. and March 1897 for the Egypt Exploration Fund. / W.M. Flinders Petrie. / The whole cemetery is of about the Vth dynasty 3600 BC.' -The final 2 pages of photographs in the album (Petrie MSS 5.2.77-85) are of a statuette now in London, Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, 14210.
Notebook 9, recording details of excavation at Ballas, tomb groups Q51 to Q71, compiled by J. E. Quibell on behalf of Petrie. Photocopies of notebook cover and 27 notebook pages.
Petrie resumes working at El-Lahun, taking over from G. W. Fraser who had continued working at Kahun throughout the summer, Petrie continues to work at the site until the end of 1889. Petrie then begins excavating at Gurob, assisted by W. O. Hughes-Hughes. In March 1890, Petrie travels on to Palestine to excavate at Um Lakis (near Bureyr), and from April onwards, excavates at Tell el-Hesi.
Sites in Egypt sites: Kahun and Gurob (Kom Medinet Gurob)
Sites in Palestine: Bureyr (Um Lakis) and Tell el-Hesi (Lachish).
Between pages 87 and 88, a small watercolour of tools.
Photocopied extracts from W. M. F. Petrie journal entry for 21-06-1883, in which Petrie describes Egyptian objects on display in the Musée du Louvre, Paris.
Album with 30 photographs of excavations at El-Kab between December 1897 and April 1898, led by James Edward Quibell, assisted by his sister Kate Quibell and Annie A. Pirie (later Quibell).
Petrie's first visit to Egypt commencing with a measurement-survey of the Giza pyramids, which was continued and completed the following season (1881 to 1882).
At Naucratis, Petrie is assisted by F. Ll. Griffith, who is on his first visit to Egypt. In April 1885, Griffith is left to continue excavating at Naucratis while Petrie returns to Tanis to continue the previous season’s work. It was at Naucratis that Petrie earned the moniker “father of pots”, Griffith's being the “father of potsherds”, which is mentioned by Petrie in the journal.
Main sites: Naucratis (Naukratis) and Tanis (San el-Hagar).
Pages 15-68 and 92 are photocopies of the originals kept in the Egypt Exploration Society in London.
Pages 69, 179 and 196-199 do not exist.
Pages 21v, 40, 79v, 86v, 91v, 101v, 109v, 121v, 133v, 145v, 160v, 170v, 178v, 183v, 187v, 188v, 193v, 195v, 205v, 207v, 212v, 214v and 216v have not been scanned but are transcribed (secondary information).
Pages 188[G]-200[G] are by Professor Griffith and the originals are kept in the Egypt Exploration Society in London; no photocopies nor scans exist in the Griffith Institute.
Pages 217-223 are by R. W. P.; they are (not exact) copies of one of Petrie's letters.
Some pages are misnumbered (page numbers repeated or in wrong order).
The transcription follows the correct order of all the pages. Problems with the numbering system are indicated in the notes.
![Petrie Journal 1896 (Behnesa, Oxyrhynchus [Beni Mazar])](/uploads/r/null/d/c/5/dc5a42ca147f459f9326bfbc9c4588f064280279a66949dc9208d65f9ac7b86f/Petrie_MSS_1_142.jpg)
