Ten years' digging in Egypt, 1881-1891

Portraits Painted in Wax, from Roman Mummies, Hawara.
BY W. M. FLINDERS PETRIE AUTHOR OF ‘PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH,’ ‘HAWARA,’ ‘MEDUM,’ ETC. WITH A MAP AND ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS SECOND EDITION, REVISED THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY 56 PATERNOSTER ROW, 65 ST. PAUL’S CHURCHYARD AND 164 PICCADILLY 1893
‘In studying history, it must be borne in mind that a knowledge is necessary of the state of manners, customs, wealth, arts, and science at the different periods treated of. The text of civil history requires a context of this knowledge in the mind of the reader.’
Sir Arthur Helps on History.

Although the discoveries which are related in this volume have been already published, yet there is to be considered the large number of readers who feed in the intermediate regions between the arid highlands and mountain ascents of scientific memoirs, and the lush—not to say rank—marsh-meadows of the novel and literature of amusement.
Those, then, who wish to grasp the substance of the results, without the precision of the details, are the public for whom this is written; and I trust that, out of consideration for their feelings, hardly a single measurement or rigid statement can be found here from cover to cover. Any one who wants detail can find it in the various annual volumes which have already appeared. Several of the finest objects found appear here, however, for the first time in illustration; for having been kept in Egypt I only had photographs to work from, which were, as yet, unused.
The work described here is not by any means all that has occupied my time in these years; much exploring has also been done, and dozens of ancient towns have been visited, and their remains examined; but such work is rather a basis for further results than a source of interest in itself to the public. Besides this I have been occupied in Palestine.
I may as well remark that the first two years’ work were done entirely as a private matter; though the Royal Society afterwards made a grant to cover the greater part of the cost of its publication. The three following years’ work was carried on for the Egypt Exploration Fund; but as the management of that society was not what I had expected, I preferred to withdraw, without personal unpleasantness; in fact, some promoters of it have been more my friends since then than they were before. For a year I rather explored than excavated, having indeed no prospect of funds at my disposal for the purpose. But to my surprise, two supporters of the subject appeared independently, Mr. Jesse Haworth, and then Mr. Martyn Kennard; all expenses of excavation and transport in the last four years’ work, have been at their charge; and the objects found, and not kept for the Egyptian Museum, or retained for private friends, have been presented by them to various public collections. Thus three years have been private work, three years with the Fund, and four years with other friends.