Over on the Filming Antiquity blog I've been contemplating empty film canisters in the Harding collection through research and filming. Far from being objects denuded of their original purpose (containing film stock), these canisters are still meaningful, drawing out a narrative of supplies and shopping in 1930s Jerusalem and Cairo. Read the post and view the film here.
By Amara Thornton
Over on the Filming Antiquity blog I've been contemplating empty film canisters in the Harding collection through research and filming. Far from being objects denuded of their original purpose (containing film stock), these canisters are still meaningful, drawing out a narrative of supplies and shopping in 1930s Jerusalem and Cairo. Read the post and view the film here. By Amara Thornton Remember your ABCs? In my continuing (casual) investigation into archaeological shopping, I'm looking into brands associated with excavation dining. If you’re interested in the history of eating in London you’ll know that ABC stood for Aerated Bread Company, a chain of tea-room/cafés that provided modestly priced provisions for busy diners in assorted locations across the city. It’s perhaps appropriate, then, that Flinders and Hilda Petrie lunched regularly in an ABC – its pricing appealed to the frugal Petries. The ABC “depots” at No 120 Tottenham Court Road (now a Boots) and Nos. 47, 49, 51 Drummond Street (now part of Euston Station) would have been closest to the Department of Egyptology at University College London, where Petrie was Edwards Professor. With a palate cleansing strawberry ice to start and simple fare of eggs and Bath bun to follow, the Petries treated a young Arthur Weigall, who would join their excavations at Abydos in November 1901, to ABC meals. A glass of milk all round…Petrie wasn’t a drinker.* In 2009, Giles Coren & Sue Perkins’ Supersizers Eat... The Twenties (BBC Two) featured a spread of Fortnum & Mason’s beautifully packaged provisions for a “Tomb Raider’s picnic” at the British Museum. Their feast of stilton, curried fowl, lobster in aspic and wine was inspired by what the F & M Expedition department provided to Howard Carter & co. on site at the Valley of the Kings. Last autumn, the Ashmolean Museum got together with Fortnum & Mason to offer a Fortnum & Mason’s hamper coinciding with the Ashmolean’s Discovering Tutankhamun exhibition. Far from the busy booths of London’s ABCs, Petrie’s pantry on site contained tinned salmon, tinned peas, tinned sardines in oil, tinned plums and pineapple, cheese and plenty of ship's biscuits. Arthur Mace, another of Petrie’s students, recalled that jam (apricot) was used as a nice accompaniment for roast pigeon and tongue. There is visual evidence of food too - a fantastic image in the Petrie Museum’s archive features the dining room of the Petrie’s dighouse at Abydos, where he excavated for the Egypt Exploration Fund between 1900 and 1904. Look closely at it and you get quite a good view of the food tins. Minced Collops (a meat dish) and Moir’s Hotch Potch (a meat and vegetable stew) are two of the most visible. Another brand featured in the Egypt Exploration Fund’s excavations at Beni Hasan, Egypt. According to a book on Howard Carter’s early career in archaeology, Huntley & Palmers biscuit tins were used to pack small objects and prop up furniture during the 1894/1895 season. It’s a truth (perhaps not quite universally acknowledged) that the cases used for packing objects provide a useful details for a social history of excavations. The Palestine Exploration Fund has a collection of such archaeological ephemera – when I’m next at the Fund I fully intend to check it out!
As an addendum, last June researchers in the University of Bristol’s Department of Archaeology and Anthropology found a box of pottery, seeds and bones from Leonard Woolley’s excavations at Ur in the 1920s and 1930s. Stamped on the side of the wooden crate containing the finds are the words: Return to Junior Army and Navy Stores Ltd 22a Belvedere Road Lambeth References/Further Reading Drower, M. 1985. Flinders Petrie: A Life in Archaeology. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd. Hankey, J. 2001. A Passion for Egypt: Arthur Weigall, Tutankhamun and the 'Curse of the Pharaohs'. London: I. B. Tauris. Lee, C. 1989. "...the grand piano came by camel": Arthur C. Mace, the neglected Egyptologist. Paisley: Renfrew District Council. Rawnsley, H. 1904. The Resurrection of Oldest Egypt: Being the Story of Abydos as told by the Discoveries of Dr Petrie... Staines: Beaver Press. Reeves, N. & Taylor, J. H. 1992. Howard Carter Before Tutankhamun. London: British Museum Press. *In her biography of Weigall, Julie Hankey makes special mention of Petrie's fondness for milk, and fully describes the ABC lunches. By Amara Thornton
Have you ever wondered where to acquire a pith helmet? In preparing my presentation for Ideas Slam at the Petrie Museum I started investigating where archaeologists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries bought their supplies. While there are surviving lists of equipment and supplies and prices paid, sourcing the stores where these goods were purchased was more challenging than I expected. A colleague pointed me to a quote from a visitor to Flinders Petrie’s excavations at Meydum, Egypt recording that Petrie’s food supplies came from the Civil Service Stores. A bit more research into an archaeological archive revealed that George and Agnes Horsfield, who excavated in Transjordan in the 1930s, got some basic equipment - including an officer’s valise with leather straps - from the Army & Navy Stores on Victoria Street, as well as a Jaeger sleeping bag from the travel agent Cook’s. George Horsfield had served in the British Army during the First World War, so he would have been familiar with the Army & Navy Stores as a place to obtain equipment. Both the Civil Service Stores and the Army & Navy Stores were co-operative societies, operating on a subscriptions system. For their annual subscription, members of the co-operative societies had slightly reduced prices on a wide range of items. It makes sense that archaeologists took advantage of the range of supplies offered at these co-operative stores; amongst their clients were colonial administrators and soldiers – people who spent significant time abroad. Similarly, archaeologists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries could remain in the field up to five months of the year or more. A reprint of the Army & Navy Stores 1907 Illustrated Catalogue was published in the 1960s. Alison Adburgham’s fascinating Forward gives a brief history of the Stores. She notes the value of the catalogues for social historians and the memories the catalogues evoked in ex-colonial households. A brief look through the catalogue showed me that it was a worthwhile investment - my recently acquired copy sits proudly on my bookshelf. The pith helmet, seen here in the centre of this image of Palestine Exploration Fund explorers in Arabah (Jordan) in the 1880s, is probably one of the most iconic pieces of equipment associated with British men and women travellers – regardless of occupation or purpose – in the Victorian and Edwardian eras. In 1907, the Army & Navy Stores priced a “Lady’s Pith” in white or drab felt at 14 shillings and sixpence, while a “Gentlemen’s Drab Felt” cost 17 shillings and sixpence. I’ve never seen a photograph of Flinders Petrie sporting a pith helmet – he favoured other styles, including the flatcap, instead – but Liverpool archaeologist John Garstang wore a pith on site. The tents of the excavation camp in this photograph of Garstang (in pith helmet) look similar to the Army & Navy Stores’ “Double-roof Ridge Tent”, advertised in the catalogue as “The best tent for Africa”. (Yours for £7 8 shillings and upwards.) Cornelius Holtorf has discussed influences in modern archaeologists’ clothing. A quick chat with some archaeologist chums highlighted to me the value that archaeologists still put on their basic equipment – I’m not talking about fancy GPS systems and ground penetrating radar tools, but rather the trowels and tents that make up the foundation of an excavator’s life. On a related note, I recently discovered a company making pith helmets covered not in white or drab cloth but African textiles. I wonder who wears them. As this is a (very casual) work in progress, for now I’ll let Flinders Petrie have the last word on archaeological equipment: "To attempt serious work in pretty suits, shiny leggings, or starched collars, would be like mountaineering in evening dress…” -Methods and Aims in Archaeology (1904) References/Further reading Adburgham, A. (Ed.). 1969. Yesterday’s Shopping: The Army & Navy Stores Catalogue 1907. David & Charles (Publishers) Ltd. Petrie, W. M. F. 1904. Methods and Aims in Archaeology. London: Macmillan & Co. Wilson, J. A. 1964. Signs and Wonders Upon Pharaoh. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. |
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