Petrie's main activity was the continuation of the measurement-survey of the pyramids at Giza, which was started the preceding season (1880 to 1881). This was the first season that Petrie took photographs using the pinhole camera he built himself. -Main site: Giza.
Other sites: Saqqara, Abusir, Maidum, el-Hiba, Kom el-Ahmar, Amarna, Dendera, Thebes, Medinet Habu, Ramesseum, Luxor, Medinet el-Faiyum, Dahshur, Hawara.
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 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".
Brief entries for dates between April 24 and October 1, 1892.
Handwritten.
Petrie is at Amarna for the whole season mainly excavating in the Great Palace where he uncovered a painted pavement decorated with scenes of animals, birds and vegetation. Subsequently, much of the season was devoted to recording the pavement, as well as sealing it with a tapioca-based solution in order to protect the surface. Petrie was assisted by Howard Carter who was in Egypt for the first time. Petrie's opinion of the 17-year-old fledgling archaeologist is recorded in this journal: "Mr. Carter is a good-natured lad, whose interest is entirely in painting & natural history; he only takes this digging as being on the spot & convenient to Mr Amherst [Carter's sponser], & it is of no use for me to work him up as an excavator."
![Petrie Journal 1896 (Behnesa, Oxyrhynchus [Beni Mazar])](/uploads/r/null/d/c/5/dc5a42ca147f459f9326bfbc9c4588f064280279a66949dc9208d65f9ac7b86f/Petrie_MSS_1_142.jpg)
