Acknowledgements

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.     

Acknowledgements

Abstract

In 1858, the Italian Ermete Pierotti, a former Captain in the Corps of Royal Piedmontese Army Engineers, was appointed architect and engineer of Jerusalem by the Ottoman governor. This gave him the opportunity to explore various places in the city, including the Haram al-Sharif (Temple Mount), something which hardly any non-Muslims had done at the time. In 1864, Pierotti published in London a book entitled Jerusalem Explored. His theories, admittedly not presented in a scholarly way, differed widely from those of eminent representatives of the current Victorian establishment, who launched a violent attack against him, first for an alleged breach of copyright, and then by making public a document revealing some embarrassing aspects of his years in the Piedmontese army. Pierotti was thereby compromised and lost all credibility in the eyes of the British public. Morally broken and nearly destitute, Pierotti never recovered from this blow. The article attempts to identify some of the motivations that guided Pierotti through his adventurous life.