Methods & Aims in Archaeology

by W. M. Flinders Petrie

Result. Aegean pottery possibly older than Tahutmes III; probably of XVIIIth–XIXth Dynasty or possibly older; Greek tombs of XVIIIth Dynasty, or possibly later.

Evidence of style. Gold collar. Idaean vases and carving.

Result. Importations to Greece of XVIIIth Dynasty, and perhaps XIXth; copy of XVIIIth Dynasty design, possibly later.

The possible deviations from the probable results are thus seen to balance one another, some leaving the limit only open to earlier times and some only to later times, so that change cannot be accepted in either direction.

XIIth Dynasty, Kahun.

We now go back to an earlier stage in the history, that of the XIIth Dynasty. Some ten years ago the stage which we have already discussed was the “fighting frontier” of the subject; five years ago the XIIth Dynasty was the fighting frontier; now this is almost pacified, and the struggle against prepossessions is carried back to the still earlier periods.

The view back to the XIIth Dynasty was first opened out in excavating the rubbish mounds of the town of Kahun. This town was entirely built at one time for the workmen employed on the pyramid of Usertesen II, this then is the starting date. While the houses were fully occupied a large rubbish mound was accumulated outside of the walls. When the official work of building ceased at the finishing of the pyramid, we may conclude that the town began to dwindle, as I found many of the houses and streets had been used as rubbish holes for waste of the XIIth Dynasty. Therefore the less convenient and accessible rubbish heap outside of the walls is probably entirely of the reign of Usertesen II. As it does not contain any Egyptian material that could be dated later than that, the evidence of the shrinkage of the town should be accepted as giving a probable limit to the age of the outer heaps.

In these heaps the great bulk was of regular Egyptian pottery of the XIIth Dynasty, filling up a depth of 6 or 8 feet in parts, and therefore very unlikely to become mixed with later objects dropped by accident. Now with this pottery thus certified as to its age, were found pieces of several kinds hitherto entirely unknown. Black ware decorated with white spiral lines, and with yellow and red lines and circles of dots, red pottery with white returning spirals, and with painting in red, white, and green. The style was obviously of the Aegean family, so much so that even the best authorities asserted that these were pieces of Naukratite pottery of the XXVIth Dynasty and shut their eyes to the great difference of fabric and material. For some years I protested that the evidence of finding was absolute for the XIIth Dynasty date, and that no such pottery was known at a later date to which this could be compared. But some general resemblance to the style of the XXVIth Dynasty was allowed to calm the archaeological conscience of my friends into ignoring all the positive evidence. No such pottery was known on Greek soil at an early date; therefore none existed; therefore this could not be of that date. This argument is still in full favour for other and earlier periods. But a shock of surprise came when delicate black pottery with white painting and red was found at Kamares in Crete, and published by Mr. Myres in 1895; and later the same style of pottery was so largely found that Messrs. Hogarth and Welch write in 1901 that “so far from that ware being a rarity, it is to be looked for in Crete wherever any strata of remains underlie the Mykenaean. It occurred in our digging at Knossos at all points at which the early town was probed to the rock” (J.H.S. xxi. 78). The pre-Mykenaean period is now before us and is found to agree entirely with the dating already reached on unimpeachable grounds at Kahun. That we may recognise connections between Greece and Egypt in the XIIth Dynasty is now orthodox, and we may proceed to see what further evidence appears for this dating.

XIIth Dynasty, Crete.

At Knossos was found a portion of an Egyptian seated figure in diorite bearing an inscription of Ab-nub-mes-uazet-user, which from the style is probably of the XIIth Dynasty.