Petrie Museum of
Egyptian Archaeology
London UK
2024
view the full length episode here:
Background
In 2024, our team was granted permission to examine approximately 30 objects in the Petrie Museum collection. These objects were obtained by Petrie primarily from his excavations, though Petrie was known to opportunistically purchase artifacts from local inhabitants when he believed them to be genuine.
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The Artifact Foundation was the first team to apply modern metrology to any objects in this prestigious collection and we would like to thank the curators and custodians for their generosity and support.
Artifacts were selected based on their condition - undamaged objects were prioritized over reconstituted ones.
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The material composition of the study included Andesite Porphyry, Basalt, Diorite, Granite, Limestone, and Porphyry.
Petrie excavated these objects himself.
Vessel attribution ranges from Predynastic (Naqada) through Early Dynastic time periods. The lone exception was a calcite (Egyptian alabaster) vessel discovered in a Middle Kingdom burial at Qau.
Note: "Black and white porphyry vase" was described by Petrie as a possible heirloom as it was found in a 1st Dynasty tomb at Abydos, but its form was similar to earlier Naqada II vessels.​​
Scanning was accomplished using Shining 3D's FreeScan Combo+ by Karoly Poka and Adam Young (above, left). Thickness deviation and interior inspection by Christopher King (left)
Endoscopic Photogrammetry courtesy of Kyle Allen (right, below)
Results
Circularity vs Concentricity of Petrie Museum Vessels
click to enlarge
Median Circularity of the Exterior and Interior (when available) for each vessel is shown in the chart below. Object descriptions (Name, Material, Provenience & Acquisition, and Attribution) courtesy of Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology.
Scroll down through the embedded pdf to view the full list of artifacts
Surface deviation heat maps generated using Zeiss Inspect software. The object shown below is Ref Number UC15731.
Scroll down through the imbedded pdf to view the entire chart
Circularity statistics shown across the vertical (z-axis) of the vessel. The object shown below is Ref Number UC15731.
click to enlarge
Concentricity statistics shown across the vertical (z-axis) of the vessel. The object shown below is Ref Number UC15731.
click to enlarge
A full length video of our work at the Petrie Museum was created by Karoly Poka of the Ancient Technology Podcast channel.