Collections
In the 1890's, as today, excavations were a costly business and required funding. Petrie's benefactor was a Manchester textile merchant by the name of Jesse Haworth. Finds bought back to England were divided between Petrie and his sponsors. It was Haworth's keen interest in Egyptology that led to the establishment of a public collection of Egyptian antiquities in Manchester. Half the finds taken from Egypt were given to Haworth and Martyn Kennard. The other majority share remained in London and now forms part of The Petrie Museum collection.
The Manchester Museum houses a fine collection of Egyptian antiquities. These range from the Predynastic up to the Roman period. One of the many highlights of these collections is the material excavated from the site of Kahun in the 1890's. This material is unique as it gives us a valuable insight into the everyday lives of the Ancient Egyptians. These 800 objects from Kahun are listed in the first 500 or so entries into the museum register.
The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology today houses an estimated 80,000 objects, making it one of the greatest collections of Egyptian and Sudanese archaeology in the world. The collection grew in scale thanks mainly to the extraordinary excavating career of the first Edwards Professor, William Flinders Petrie. Petrie excavated literally dozens of major sites in the course of his career, including the Roman Period cemeteries at Hawara, Amarna and the first true pyramid, at Meydum.
Many other museums have received Petrie material from Kahun, mainly due to the subscriiption method used to raise funds for the excavations. In "Lahun II" Petrie lists the following museums as receiving material:
Brooklyn Museum, New York, Cambridge, Chicago, Glasgow, Nottingham, Oxford, Rochdale, Reading, Sherbourne, South Kensington (now the V&A), Sunderland.
Although not listed in the publication The British Museum also has a small number of Kahun artefacts from Petrie.
