Exhibition: Excavating Egypt now at Columbia Museum of Art

The State

The Columbia Museum of Art celebrates 10 years in its new home this year, but for the next five months, the museum will look more like it’s 4,000 years old.

The museum is turning the clock back — way back — to host “Excavating Egypt,” an exhibition of ancient artifacts from the University College of London.

The exhibition, organized by the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University in Atlanta, consists of materials excavated by W.M. Flinders Petrie, one of the fathers of modern archaeology.

Petrie made his first journey to Egypt in 1880, returning again and again until shortly before his death in 1942. He was admired for his meticulous surveying work and record-keeping, as well as his interest in not just the flashy treasures and palaces but in weights and measures, workplaces, settlement patterns and imported goods that revealed trade routes.

Petrie is more responsible than anyone for taking archaeology “from treasure hunt to real science,” said Peter Lacovara, senior curator of ancient art at the Carlos Museum.

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