Online catalogue underway of 29,000 of Petrie's archaeological finds in Egypt

Ahram Online (Nevine El-Aref)

When British Egyptologist Flinders Petrie came to Egypt in 1883 he explored several archaeological sites and revealed some of the country’s ancient history.

According to Egyptian law at the time, archaeological dig sponsors had full rights to half of finds, while Egypt retained the other half.

Half a century after Petrie’s death, the British Museum in London started cataloguing some of the artefacts he unearthed in Egypt, especially those in possession of the 60 museums involved in sponsoring Petrie’s excavation missions. The exciting news is that early this month they began preparing to catalogue them in an online searchable database format.

The Liverpool National Museum, which was among the sponsors of Petrie’s excavations joined the British Museum in its project and hosts two British curators that help catalogue its ancient Egyptian collection uncovered at the Greek trading post city of Naukratis.