Lawrence of Arabia and Petrie

Ancient Egypt and Pop Culture

Not news, but this description of Petrie by Lawrence of Arabia did make me smile.

In another of my history classes, we’ve been reading about the legendary Lawrence of Arabia, and it goes into thorough detail about his early career as an archaeologist. In the winter of 1911-12, Flinders Petrie taught him the basic methods of archaeology, before beginning his archaeological career in Syria. Though he was initially stationed at Karkamis (Carcamish), Lawrence would later go on to further studies with Petrie in Egypt who was, at the time, excavating a large cemetery at Takhan, south of Cairo, when his dig at Karkamis was called to a halt by the British Museum. Lawrence would describe Petrie as “querulous, brusque, and opinionated”, and detested his time at the site. “A Petrie dig,” he said, “is a thing with a flavor of its own: tinned kidneys mingle with mummy corpses and amulets in the soup”. Though they would get along, Lawrence detested the tedious methods used by Petrie in cataloging the many pots used to create his time index. He was very glad therefore, when the British Museum reopened the site at Karkamis the following February.