FLINDERS PETRIE THROUGH WORD AND DEED: RE-EVALUATING PETRIE'S FIELD TECHNIQUES AND THEIR IMPACT ON OBJECT RECOVERY IN BRITISH MANDATE PALESTINE

Abstract

Flinders Petrie was one of the earliest excavators to recognise that all archaeological material had research potential, and pursued a whole range of artefact types as the key to understanding past cultures. But what impact did the way in which he excavated have on the rate at which objects were discovered, and the condition in which they were found? And how important was it to him that the objects he acquired were closely linked to the physical and chronological landscape of his sites? This article looks at Petrie's field practices to try and answer some of these questions, with particular attention being paid to the relationship between Petrie and his workforce, his object collection policies, and some of the failings experienced in recording object provenance. These issues are critical to those who wish to make use of these objects to answer current questions about the ancient Near East—because it is only by understanding the way in which this material was recovered that we can begin to judge how it should be used in the present day.

Keywords:

• Flinders Petrie
• history of archaeology
• archaeology
• Palestine
• field methods

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank Alegre Savariego of the Israel Antiquities Authority for providing access to the archives of the British Mandate Department of Antiquities, and Felicity Cobbing of the Palestine Exploration Fund for her assistance with Petrie's Tell el-Hesi correspondence and the Olga Tufnell archive.