LETTERS FROM THE DESERT

the Correspondence of Flinders and Hilda Petrie

Edited by Margaret Drower

Flinders Petrie began his long association with ancient Egypt and the Near East when he went to Giza to survey the pyramids in 1880. Until his death in Jerusalem in 1942 he continued to dig almost until the end. During his long career he revolutionised Egyptian archaeology and indeed can be said to have founded modern scientific archaeology. But this book is not concerned with his scientific work, except tangentally, as Petrie had an admirable practice of publishing his excavations soon after they were completed. These letters and journals have been selected for their vivid account of living in Egypt and Palestine for sixty years. Even more they describe Petrie's austere approach to a dig where the archaeology was everything and creature comforts near non-existent. Many anecdotes survive of life on one of Petrie's digs and the reality as revealed in these accounts is just as eccentric. Astonishingly when Flinders married Hilda she took to the Petrie system like a duck to water (usually lacking). Her accounts of life in the camp and of the workmen and villagers are just as alive and vibrant as his. In this book anyone interested in archaeology and Ancient Egypt can experience the unique atmosphere of life on a Petrie dig.

MARGARET DROWER is uniquely qualified to edit this book. She is the author of the definitive biography of Petrie. As a young student of Egyptology in the 1930s she is also one of the last people alive to have been taught by Petrie himself at University College London.

c.224pp., A5; colour reproductions of Hilda & Flinders Petrie's watercolours

pb 0 85668 748 0 c. £20 (publication late 2002/early 2003)

CONTENTS Preface Introduction 1880­1884 From surveyor to excavator 1886­1892 In the field 1892­1896 Edwards Professor of Egyptology 1897­1921 With Hilda in Egypt 1926­1935 Excavating in Palestine Bibliography Index