#flinders petrie

[kamaytah]

Who Is Responsible for the Destruction of the Funerary Bed Inscriptions of Osiris?

The funerary bed of Osiris within the Osirion Temple at Abydos remains one of the greatest archaeological mysteries of ancient Egyptian civilization. The bed and its enigmatic inscriptions have been deliberately defaced, raising questions about who was responsible and why. Was this destruction due to natural causes, or were there hidden hands behind it?

Flinders Petrie and the British Archaeological Organizations

The renowned British archaeologist Flinders Petrie, one of the foremost researchers in Egyptology, was among the first to conduct extensive studies on the Osirion. But could he or the institutions backing him have played a role in distorting or erasing some inscriptions?

It is well known that British archaeological institutions in the 19th and early 20th centuries operated under the influence of obscure funding sources, some of which were linked to colonial and political agendas. Some have speculated that certain British expeditions were not merely focused on discovery but also on concealing or reinterpreting Egyptian monuments to fit specific narratives.

Is There a Connection Between the Osiris Funerary Bed and Judaism?

One of the more intriguing aspects of this discussion is the potential link between the funerary bed of Osiris and certain Jewish beliefs. Some historical theories suggest that there are similarities between the story of Osiris and Jewish myths regarding descent into the underworld, which could make some entities interested in obscuring this evidence or reinterpreting it.

Additionally, it is well documented that Flinders Petrie chose to be buried in Jerusalem, rather than in his homeland, Britain. This raises questions about his ideological and intellectual affiliations. Could his burial in Jerusalem—a city of immense religious and political significance—hint at some involvement of religious or political entities in altering Egyptian historical records?

Opening the Discussion

The questions remain open:

Did an organization influence Flinders Petrie to alter or hide certain archaeological facts?

Was the destruction of the Osiris funerary bed inscriptions an accident, or was there deliberate intent behind it?

How valid are the theories regarding the connection between the bed and religious or political interests?

We invite readers to share their thoughts and opinions, especially those passionate about Egyptology and ancient history, to enrich the discussion and uncover new perspectives on this perplexing archaeological mystery!

[aboutanancientenquiry]

The Egyptologist Bill Manley on Cecil Torr, Flinders Petrie, and “the great historian” Herodotus

The excerpt which follows is from Bill Manley’s article “Cecil Torr, Flinders Petrie and the Chronology Question”, available on https://repositorio.uam.es/bitstream/handle/10486/13604/63755_17.pdf?sequence=1 .

Manley is a distinguished British Egyptologist of the University of Glasgow. For more information on the very interesting subject of the quarrel between Torr and Petrie I refer to Manley’s article in the link that I give above. 

I remind here only that Petrie was the most eminent British Egyptologist of his time, but he is at the same time infamous for his racialist and White supremacist views on ancient Egypt and not only.

And now the excerpt from Manley’s article (the bold letters are mine):

“Torr is far from alone in rejecting the assumption that a chronology corresponding to reality is a prerequisite for writing about the past. Heavyweight support for his position comes from Herodotus, for example in the following remark about Greek settlement in Egypt in the 26 Dynasty:

 Because of our regular contact with these settlers in Egypt, the first foreigners to settle there, we Greeks have an accurate knowledge of Egyptian history beginning with king Psammetichus and ever since...

According to Herodotus, we can understand Egypt in historical terms from the 26  Dynasty onwards because from that time there are European sources to rely on. Before then we must rely on non-European sources, and so history, as we understand it, becomes more problematic. Of course, this was no impediment to Herodotus' writing, and he is frequently criticised by modem scholars precisely because his account of Egyptian history before the time of Psammetichus (Psamtek 1, 664-610 B.C) does not seem to embody a chronology that corresponds to reality,,. If we are to be fair to the great historian, we must recognise that for hirn absolute chronology per se was not a necessary prerequisite to writing about the past. Many cultures indeed have been, or still are, able to understand the past without recourse to an absolute chronology. In our own culture, palaeontologists accept that new data de sui generis may distort the chronology within which they work, whilst astronomers do not even agree about the concept of time let alone chronology.”

It is clear from the excerpt above that Manley sees Herodotus as “heavyweight” and “great historian”. 

My only critical remark is that Manley over-emphasizes the distinction between European and non-European in Herodotus’work in a way which seems anachronistic. Herodotus may use occasionally the Europe/Asia distinction, but Europe does not represent for him some kind of cultural unity and of shared identity, understood in contrast with and opposition to Asia. These are later categories of thought. On the contrary, Herodotus thinks in terms of the distinction between Greeks and “barbarians” (I remind here that the term barbarian is not used by Herodotus in a pejorative way).

What Herodotus says in the excerpt quoted by Manley is simply that the presence of Ionian Greeks and Carians in Egypt during the reign of Psammetichus I gave to the Greeks a source of accurate knowledge for the Egyptian history of the Saite Period. And this because Herodotus, despite his deep respect for the antiquity of Egypt and the Egyptian knowledge of the past, was as it seems aware of the problematic character of what his Egyptian sources (mostly priests as intermediated by interpreters) had told him concerning the history of Egypt before the Saite Period. I add here the clarification that the Ionians were one of the major Greek “tribes” and most of them were established in Asia Minor, whereas the Carians were a non-Greek people of SW Asia Minor (moreover, a people with close contacts with Halicarnassus, Herodotus’ birthplace). 

I think, moreover, that the question of the organization of time in Herodotus’ “Histories” is a very important one and I will make soon a post specifically devoted to it.

But I repeat that the most important for me here is that it is beyond doubt that an eminent contemporary Egyptologist sees Herodotus as “great historian” and “heavyweight”, a thing which is another proof that the “f..k.Herodotus” campaign of some tumblr egyptologists and self-proclaimed authorities does not represent of course any scholarly consensus.

More on Manley and Herodotus in some days...

[itmocca]

The Man who Discovered Egypt

The Man who Discovered Egypt: Documentary about English Egyptologist Flinders Petrie, the pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology. #history #archaeology #Egypt

The Man who Discovered Egypt: Documentary about English Egyptologist Flinders Petrie, the pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology.     Ancient Egypt was vandalised by tomb raiders and treasure hunters until this Victorian adventurer took them on. Most people have never heard of him, but this maverick undertook a scientific survey of the pyramids, discovered the oldest portraits in the…

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[ancientegyptdaily]

Egyptologist Heba Abd El-Gawad discusses the Egyptian men who contributed to the discovery and excavation of tombs in the early 20th century [X]

[poniatowskaja]

After copying the scenes in the courtiers’ tomb chapels and securing a licence to excavate at Maidum, Petrie put his workforce to digging into the mounds of chip and dust that roll around the oddly devastated pyramid – a product of stone robbers and collapse – with the aim of discovering the identity of its owner, which was not then known. After several weeks of hard and largely fruitless labour, he then bit the bullet and dug directly into the huge mound at the centre of the pyramid’s east face where, experience told him, a royal temple might have stood. And there it was that, after further weeks of dust storms and rock falls, at the bottom of a loose and dangerous cutting which by this time ‘would have held two or three good-sized London houses’, he came down upon the rood of a small slope-sided building. Unfortunately, the little temple, though as sturdy as a pillbox, was entirely uninscribed. Even the pair of splendid fourteen-feet-high stelae that still stood beside it, and which resembled some of those put up in the Abydos cemeteries, were completely blank. This disappointment was part-redeemed, however, but the graffiti of some pharaonic tourists who had visited the temple twelve centuries after the pyramid’s construction and had affably recorded in inky hieroglyphs how very pleased they had been to visit the ‘very great pyramid of King Sneferu’.

John Romer, A History of Ancient Egypt. From the First Farmers to the Great Pyramid, 2012, pp. 351-2

[triste-le-roy]

Frontispiece and title page to W.M. Flinders Petrie’s The Arts & Crafts of Ancient Egypt (design by unknown, 1910).

(via Voyager Rare Books, Maps, and Prints)

[canaldelmisterio]

Descubren un gran sepulcro faraónico en una zona de construcción de viviendas en Egipto

Descubren un gran sepulcro faraónico en una zona de construcción de viviendas en Egipto

Descubren un gran sepulcro faraónico en una zona de construcción de viviendas en Egipto El Egipto moderno se asienta sobre los restos de arqueológicos de civilizaciones de miles de años, cubiertos de arena y tierra: fragmentos de un enorme coloso fueron descubiertos entre la basura y el barro de un suburbio cairota, mientras que en Luxor las casas rurales se construyeron sobre necrópolis. Esta…

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[jasterlingwriter]

  Book of the Dead of Ramose… today there was a live showing of the book that will be on display for one day only… the 22nd at the Fitzwilliam Museum …. “Dating from 1290 – 1275 BC, The Book of the Dead of Ramose is one of the finest examples of this type of funerary papyrus to have survived from ancient Egypt. It was discovered by Flinders Petrie in a tomb at a site called Sedment, south of…

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