‘But He Has Broken Every Jar in the Place,as He Said He Would …’: Letters of Petrie to von Bissing: A Short Contribution to the History of Egyptology

Abstract

The Archives of the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam contain a stack of letters from W. M. Flinders Petrie to the German Egyptologist von Bissing, dating from between 1899 to 1911. Among other subjects, the letters refer to Petrie’s conflict with the French excavator Amélineau, his rival for the concession at Abydos, asking von Bissing to keep an eye on him. Furthermore, Petrie gives short reports about his work in Abydos, Heracleopolis, the Fayum and Memphis, sometimes with otherwise unpublished details. Personal details, complaints on the bureaucracy of the Service des Antiquités are other important subjects occurring in the letters.

In the archives of the former Museum Scheurleer in The Hague, now in the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam, a number of letters from W. M. Flinders Petrie ¹ to F. W. Freiherr von Bissing are deposited, dating from between 1899 and 1911. They were apparently left there by von Bissing as he was stationed in The Hague in the 1920s, among more items from his personal archive. Belonging to very rich German nobility, he had assembled a huge collection before the First World War. This collection had been moved to the Museum Scheurleer, awaiting a final arrangement to transfer the ownership to this Museum. However, this was never completely accomplished due to the economic crisis of 1929. Most of the collection was widely dispersed afterwards. ²

It is not clear whether this archive of 23 letters is complete, as those from von Bissing to Petrie are missing. Nevertheless, what is left produces some interesting insights in the personal and institutional relations between both gentlemen in the pre-First World War period, after which British–German relations were understandably strained. Von Bissing resided at that time in Cairo, where he worked on the Catalogue Général and his own excavations at Abusir. He was also a member of the Service des Antiquités commission, which decided on the granting of excavation licences.

The earliest letter in the collection (figs 1–2) is one of the most interesting:

Arabah, Baliana.

15 Dec 1899

My dear Sir,

I write to ask if you / will do me the favour of / informing me of Amélineau’s ³ / movements if he comes to / Cairo. Any news of his / intentions will be most / useful to me, as we may / have to be prepared for / his appearance here. / From what M. Maspero / says it is not clear exactly / what status Amélineau / possesses at present. In any // case it will be a great / kindness to me if you / would let me know if he / comes to Cairo, + if he / intends to claim the rights / which I was told he had / formally abandoned./ I would ask Quibell ⁴ to help / me in this, but his absence / from Cairo inspecting will / prevent his knowing what / is done. / Pardon my thus troubling / you, + believe me, / Yours very truly, / W.M. Flinders Petrie.

Fig. 1.

Letter of 15 December 1899 from Petrie to von Bissing, recto (Allard Pierson Museum Archives).

Fig. 2.

Letter of 15 December 1899 from Petrie to von Bissing, verso (Allard Pierson Museum Archives).

The reply by von Bissing is missing, but quotations from Petrie’s answer, dated 24 January 1900, are revealing:

. . . Many thanks for your / kind reply about Amélineau. / His new book seems to exceed / his old one in follies … We have good historical results / from the remains which Amélineau / had not the knowledge to destroy or / to utilize. But he has broken / every jar in the place, as he / said he would …

Petrie had secured his work permit at Abydos in a somewhat underhanded way. ⁵ Much of the correspondence is taken up with discussions of the bureaucratic and administrative procedures of the Service des Antiquités (such as Petrie’s failed efforts to obtain a permission to work in Saqqara ⁶ ) and the Egypt Exploration Fund and short reports about finds and circumstances in Abydos, the Fayum, Heracleopolis and Memphis. When compared in detail with existing publications, this can produce additional information on the work at these sites. For example, see the sketch with an indication of previous work done at the main temple of Heracleopolis by Naville (of which Naville himself does not provide a plan in his publication) and Petrie’s additional findings (fig. 3). ⁷ Additional biographical details on the individuals involved (such as personal sympathies and antipathies) are also supplied in the letters.

Fig. 3.

Page 3 of a letter dated 17 February 1904 from Petrie to von Bissing (Allard Pierson Museum Archives).

Many letters also contain proposals about exchanges of publications and requests for photographs, and suggested selections of objects for von Bissing in exchange for his contributions to the Egyptian Research Account/British School of Archaeology in Egypt excavations. A letter dated 5 August 1909 mentions the following: ‘We wish to know if you would care to have the pieces of Sankhkara’s shrine with names + graffiti, + pottery of offerings. The whole would be about 1 metre square’.

This should refer to the fragments from the temple of Sankhkare Mentuhotep III at Thot Hill, excavated by Petrie in 1909. ⁸ Apparently von Bissing accepted the offer, because he donated what must have been the same group of objects in 1934 to the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden. ⁹

Petrie invited von Bissing frequently to come to London and stay with him, but it is uncertain whether von Bissing ever visited him there (although he did meet him in Egypt).