Petrie's Dishes

A section on ancient writing contains a scribe's wooden palette and a page from The Book of the Dead.

There are numerous examples of ceramic and glassware, including a stunning chalice from the Naqada Temple, New Kingdom, 1550-1292 B.C., that is deep blue in color and shaped like a lotus blossom. A necklace discovered at the necropolis of Abydos, holy city of the cult of Osiris, contains seven fly pendants made of gilded silver sheet and strung on a strand of glassy blue faience beads. The insect symbolized a military decoration; it was presented to soldiers who were as persistent in battle as flies in the enemy's face.

Another amazing piece is a bead-net dress dating back nearly 5,000 years and only one of two examples of Old Kingdom garments known to have survived.

Working since 1993 on his own excavation site at Abydos, Harvey says Petrie created a legacy for modern archaeologists. "I can trace my lineage, as can many of my colleagues, directly back to him. My professor studied under one of Petrie's students. We still work with the direct descendants of the same people who dug at his sites at our excavations."

Harvey, who considers himself as much an art historian as an archaeologist, says the ancient Egyptians did not have a name for art. "It was such a part of their everyday existence that they never considered it separate from life." This extraordinary exhibit beautifully delivers the point. It is complemented by a selection of photographs from the Lowe's permanent collection. The images, taken of the Nile Valley during a bygone era, include the Lost Egypt portfolios produced by The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.

Regarding Discovery Channel episodes that still portray Egypt as a source of new-age hokum, Harvey sighs and says, "We still find ourselves fighting the same old battles again and again."

Petrie himself coined a word to describe these fringe loons. He called them "pyramidiots."