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.
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 and F. Ll. Griffith charter a boat for two months which will take them from Minya to Aswan enabling them to visit many sites along the way. At the end of the two months, they return to Luxor where Petrie commences with his main task of collecting material for his “Racial Types” project which involves the photographing and making squeezes of scenes in the temples at Karnak before he moves across to the West Bank to continue this work in the temples and tombs there. Later in the season, Petrie moves on to Dahshur to survey the pyramids.
Main sites: Aswan, Karnak, Dahshur.
Other sites: Ramesseum, Valley of the Kings.
Pages 34 and 34A are copies of letters by Petrie's mother Anne.
Petrie resumes work at Hawara where he continues clearing the pyramid interior, assisted later on by G. W. Fraser. Petrie’s other assistant, M. Amos, is assigned to excavate at Petrie’s concession at Gurob. In January 1888, Petrie and Fraser move on to excavate at el-Lahun and the town of Kahun, Fraser remaining at the site throughout the summer after Petrie returns to England.
Main sites: Hawara, Gurob (Kom Medinet Gurob) and Kahun (El-Lahun).
Other sites: Birket Qarun (Birket Karun), Dimai (Soknopaiou Nesos).
Pages 64-6 are copies of letters by Professor Griffith.
Pages 82-3 and 149 are copies of letters by Petrie's mother Anne.
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."
