David George Hogarth at Asyut, Egypt, 1906-1907. The History of a "lost" Excavation

Abstract

While engaged in a study of ancient Egyptian cordage in the British Museum during 1984, I came across a fragment of rope recovered from Asyut, Egypt, by the British archaeologist, D.G. Hogarth. In investigating this artifact, I learned that this excava­tion by Hogarth was known to very few scholars and had never been published. Intrigued by the data I encountered in Hogarth's notes, I initiated a project to organize, clarify, and make available the information found therein. A reconstructed excavation report based on Hogarth's field notes, correspondence and British Museum records is currently in press (Ryan, in press).

Apart from the archaeological data itself which is of significant Egyptological interest, Hogarth's material provides an intriguing personal glimpse at the goings-on of an Egyptian excavation in the early part of the 20th century. Various documents provide much of the story from the conception of the idea for an expedition to the ultimate disposition of many of the artifacts derived therefrom.