The Petrie Museum
For those who like Egyptology collections, but severely dislike the idea of the chaos that is the packed rooms of the British Museum (seriously tourists, how many photos of the Rosetta Stone do you need?), a visit to the Petrie Museum may be in order.
The museum began life in 1892 as a teaching resource of its namesake, William Flinders Petrie, the first professor of Egyptian Archaeology and Philology. The earliest part of the collection came from the bequest of the writer Amelia Edwards, though it was soon expanded with finds from Petrie’s excavations. Today it is regarded as one of the leading collections of Ancient Egyptian and Sudanese artefacts.
Unlike the British Museum’s colossal statues and numerous mummies, the Petrie Museum focusses more on domestic items, such as jewellery, pottery, combs, makeup palettes, and clothing, spanning from pre-dynastic Egypt to the Roman period. Amongst these are some real treasures, such as the oldest surviving dress, a coffin for a scarab beetle, and a winged phallus. Speaking of which, one of the larger pieces in the museum is a relief of the fertility god Min, who is always portrayed with a huge, erect penis. In the early days of the museum, a label was apparently used to cover that certain part of Min’s depiction so as not to offend the visitors.
