• What are the grave numbers? • How can I find objects from the same burial? • What are the Tomb Cards? • Summary of the inventories • Hints for Searching
| Go straight to a grave site - click on its name | |||||
|
|||||
|
|||||
 |
Abydos, Grave 329 |
When cemetery sites were first excavated, the practice was to give each burial a unique number to distinguish its contents from other burials. After the excavations, objects from these burials were distributed to various museums and often objects from the same burial were divided between two or more museums. In some instances, the publications provide distribution lists of the museums that received objects, but not every publication has a list and it is clear that there were many omissions. Fortunately, in some cases, the grave numbers were noted in the museum records or on the objects themselves and it is has now been possible to reunite 'virtually' these dispersed objects.
How can I find objects from the same burial?
 |
From Sedment, Grave 134 |
At this time, there is no direct way to search the on-line database for specific grave numbers within a site (though there is a way round this ). To provide easier access to this information, tables have been created for some of the major Petrie/BSAE sites: Sedment, Tarkhan, Harageh, Badari, Qau, Abydos (Tombs of the Courtiers) and Gurob. These list the grave numbers and the museum numbers for the objects in these burials. The tables are only for those objects found in the four COVES partner museums, although efforts have been made to integrate objects which are in the Petrie Museum where possible. The Petrie Museum holds many more objects from known burials, but due to the scale of this material, the grave numbers could not be inventoried, and it is also possible that more objects from the relevant graves will be identified subsequently.
 |
Tomb card: Tarkhan Grave 1739 |
When the burials were excavated, details about the grave and the objects found in it were recorded on small cards. These are the most direct record of what was found in the field. As not all of the graves were published, these tomb cards are especially important as they are sometimes the only documentation that survives today. For some burials, sketches were made on the back of the tomb card showing the exact position of the body and the grave goods. Not all of the tomb cards have survived, but those that do are part of the archive of the Petrie Museum. Where tomb cards still exist for a burial, links to these are provided in the site lists, giving researchers direct access to this valuable primary material. A complete copy of all extant tomb cards is available for purchase on CD-ROM by contacting the Petrie Museum.
From these tables, it is now known that the four partner museums contain objects from 113 burials just from the sites listed, hopefully providing much new information for research. Of these, 23 burials contain objects which were distributed not only to these museums, but also to the Petrie Museum. According to the original distribution lists, objects from some of these graves also went to other museums, which are also noted, but it has not been possible to verify whether they still have this material today. However, the recognized overlap in distribution between the COVES partners and the Petrie Museum will begin to allow objects from the same site, which are now in different museums, to be reunited virtually. Conversely, it is also of interest to note burials that do not have objects in the Petrie Museum or other museums, emphasizing the importance of the smaller collections for providing new information on these sites.
At this time, the only way to find objects from the same burial is to type the site name and the grave number in the Search the Descriptions field in the 'Search our Collections' link. However, as this is a free text search, it is important to bear in mind that, for example, searching for Sedment 31 will ultimately show any burial from Sedment with the number 31 in it, hence you might see Grave 131, 1311, 2231, etc. This might also bring up instances where objects have references to these burials rather than are actual objects from the graves. Therefore, it is advisable to check the results of a search quite carefully. Also, at this stage, this facility is only available for the four partner museums, Bexhill Museum, Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, Buckinghamshire County Museum, and Ipswich Museum Services. It has not been possible to include Petrie Museum material due to the size of the collection.To access the lists, click on a site name: