EGYPTIAN
Stephen Quirke, Hidden Hands. Egyptian workforces in Petrie excavation archives, 1880-1924. Duckworth Egyptology, 2010 (ISBN 978 0 7156 3904 7). Price: £18. Hidden Hands, by Stephen Quirke, Professor of Egyptian Archaeology and Curator of the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, University College London, has an overtly political message which its author states in the preface: the Petrie-led excavations in Egypt in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries practised a ‘rigid exclusion’ in relation to Egyptians that was the result of colonial rule, and each subsequent generation of archaeologists has recreated this exclusion. The book is structured as a survey and excavation of the archival and published material left by Petrie, most held in the Petrie Museum archives, beginning with the widely available publications, then the ‘Journals’ (circulars sent to his supporters) and private correspondence, and finally the site notebooks. Throughout this paper excavation, Quirke gathers the instances of Egyptian names and the context for the naming, be it archaeological (the record of a find ) or social (an event in a worker’s personal life). The final chapter consists of biographies of some of the more prominent Egyptian individuals involved in Petrie’s excavations. These, together with the publication of the names and the archive photographs in chapter 9, act as a correction to the exclusion the author observes. Quirke suggests that such study of the archival material allows an assessment of the development of the discipline and how it ‘might move dialectically out of exclusion and into inclusion’ (p.304). Quirke makes his stance clear from the start: ‘Even during the phase of manual digging, field directors ensure that unskilled labour leaves no autobiographical signature in documentation. In publication, archaeological writers strategically excise the individual identities, in their very names, and the collective presence of workers’ (p.1). As an example of the excision Quirke discusses the individuals who made finds regarded by Egyptologists today as significant – although this carries the unavoidable and contradictory implication that these finds are therefore significant for everyone, not just in Western narratives of the past – noting that their names have not been recorded in the modern history of the objects (p.189). It is rare that team members on any excavation, in any country, will be publicly acknowledged for specific finds; in a broader assessment, this expectation of a democratisation of knowledge creation is essentially idealistic. While the colonial nature of early archaeology in Egypt, as well as the limited and thus limiting demographic of Egyptology graduates today cannot be denied, there are instances in the book where a socio-political reading may seem overly judgemental. Petrie was an archaeologist, not a social historian or ethnographer, and he did not set out to record and publish the lives of all the Egyptians he met and worked with; it is unrealistic to
ARCHAEOLOGY
Bookshelf
expect this of him, or of any archaeologist working at home or abroad – though it is such narrow methodologies that the author is challenging. Quirke makes the point that the workers who were worth mentioning in the notebooks were excluded from the official publications, creating an ‘economy of absence’: the Egyptian workforce had no part, other than as local colour, in the official European narrative of pharaonic Egypt. Quirke describes Henry Wallis’ 1895 painting of Petrie at the Ramesseum surrounded by Egyptians, reproduced on his p.24, as a representation of the ‘abstracted power of European knowledge, triumphant in a land that is unable, according to imperialism, to rule itself’ (p.25). Quirke sees the exclusion as a structural problem, not particular to Petrie, acknowledging Petrie’s humanity on several occasions. Indeed, the detailed records of aspects of the lives of individuals noted by Petrie (see, for example, p.77 on the family affairs of Ali Suefi), and the notes made by his wife, Hilda, on local customs, indicate that the Petries were indeed accidental ethnographers, embedded in the social lives of many of the Egyptians who worked for them. The book provides a nuanced history of the colonial beginnings and neo-colonial development of Egyptology through the lens of Petrie’s work and writings; it also acts as a first step towards the inclusive approach the author advocates, and a necessary contribution to a reflexive approach to the discipline of Egyptology. From any point of view, this book is a detailed and fascinating insight into the Petrie Museum archives, and the social context of Petrie’s excavations. KAREN EXELL Jason Thompson, Edward William Lane, 18011876. The Life of the Pioneering Egyptologist and Orientalist. Haus Publishing, 2010 (ISBN 978 1 906598 72 3). Price £25. Jason Thompson’s latest book appears daunting at 35
747 pages and comprising 30 chapters. Yet the work, an exhaustive source of information on Lane, his life, and his scholarship, proves to be very readable. Thompson accomplishes this by embedding his biography within a much larger, social context, which includes the activities of Lane’s family, friends, colleagues, and contemporaries. While a reader may begin the work hoping for more information on the pioneering Edward William Lane, he or she will quickly find themselves immersed in a vividly fleshed-out world of scholars, politics, adventurers, and discoveries. Thompson used a similar format in his important Gardner Wilkinson and His Circle (University of Texas Press, 1992), but it is brought to even greater fruition in Edward William Lane. The book not only capitalizes on Thompson’s now extensive knowledge of nineteenth-century Egyptologists, Orientalists, and explorers, it readily employs contemporaneous sources and makes extensive use of archives in both London and Oxford. From the archives, Thompson masterfully weaves together such varied materials as notebooks, manuscripts, sketches, and personal correspondence. As a result, the book engagingly captures both the flavour and facts of Lane’s rich life. Thompson begins by reconstructing the story of Lane’s parents before progressing to his and his siblings’ childhood and adolescence. Lane’s life as a young adult, his avoidance of university, his artistic training, his failing health (something that would plague him for the rest of his life) and his self-education on Egypt are all discussed. From there the book moves to Lane’s first trip to Egypt, offering, in vivid detail, his initial impressions of the country that would consume his life. While Alexandria ranked fairly low in Lane’s opinion, Cairo captured his imagination. Here Thompson richly fleshes out the city, its sites, sounds, and smells, using his own knowledge of modern Cairo, and comparing Lane’s words with those of contemporary writers. Lane’s rapid assimilation into Cairene life dominates the narrative at this point, touching upon a variety of topics that can’t help but interest the reader, including prostitution, smoking, shopping, slavery, Egyptian superstition, and Islam. While most famous for his Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, Lane’s original intention was to produce a work on ancient Egypt. As such, amidst an account of his extensive explorations, Thompson easily demonstrates how Lane’s work was at the forefront of early nineteenth century Egyptological knowledge and how integrated Lane was into that period’s fraternity of scholars and explorers. The account of Lane’s life continues against the backdrop of the Greek War of Independence and Mohammed Ali’s military reversals. After acquiring an eight year-old slave by the name of Nefeeseh, whom he would later marry, Lane returned to London after an absence of nearly three years. Lane’s return saw him navigating culture