DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.50021#0014
VIII
Preface.
2. It is necessary to excavate whole sites and whole cemeteries. The excavation of
individual tombs, while interesting and at times valuable, does not provide that suf-
ficiency of continuous material which is necessary to justify conclusions on the deve-
lopment of a civilization such as we have in Egypt. The discovery of beautiful objects
is, of course, greatly to be desired; but the search for Museum specimens is an offence
against historical and archaeological research which is utterly unworthy of any institution
which pretends to be devoted to the advancement of knowledge.
3. Every cemetery and every building represents a series of deposits which ought, so far
as practicable, to be taken off layer by layer in the inverse chronological order and
recorded layer by layer.
4. It is necessary to make a complete record by drawings, notes and photographs, of
every stage of the work. We have found it possible to record every tomb in a
cemetery, plundered and unplundered, by photography, and, moreover, every important
stage in the excavation of each tomb.
5. It is necessary to publish these records so far as practicable, tomb by tomb, and at the
same time to give a careful systematized consideration of the material they contain. The
hasty and incomplete publication, year by year, of the season’s work, with the temporary
working hypothesis of the hour, satisfies the curiosity of those who have a less direct
interest in the work, but tends to deprive the systematic archaeologist of a large mass
of useful material.
I wish gratefully to acknowledge the obligations of the Expedition to the Service des
Antiquites of the Egyptian Government, and especially to Prof. Maspero for the granting of
concessions to the expedition, and for the justice and generosity which has been manifested
in dividing the proceeds of our excavations.
I wish also to thank Mr. Quibell and Prof. Borchardt for their assistance in the first year
of the expedition, and subsequently for their continual advice and sympathy.
George A. Reisner.
Preface.
2. It is necessary to excavate whole sites and whole cemeteries. The excavation of
individual tombs, while interesting and at times valuable, does not provide that suf-
ficiency of continuous material which is necessary to justify conclusions on the deve-
lopment of a civilization such as we have in Egypt. The discovery of beautiful objects
is, of course, greatly to be desired; but the search for Museum specimens is an offence
against historical and archaeological research which is utterly unworthy of any institution
which pretends to be devoted to the advancement of knowledge.
3. Every cemetery and every building represents a series of deposits which ought, so far
as practicable, to be taken off layer by layer in the inverse chronological order and
recorded layer by layer.
4. It is necessary to make a complete record by drawings, notes and photographs, of
every stage of the work. We have found it possible to record every tomb in a
cemetery, plundered and unplundered, by photography, and, moreover, every important
stage in the excavation of each tomb.
5. It is necessary to publish these records so far as practicable, tomb by tomb, and at the
same time to give a careful systematized consideration of the material they contain. The
hasty and incomplete publication, year by year, of the season’s work, with the temporary
working hypothesis of the hour, satisfies the curiosity of those who have a less direct
interest in the work, but tends to deprive the systematic archaeologist of a large mass
of useful material.
I wish gratefully to acknowledge the obligations of the Expedition to the Service des
Antiquites of the Egyptian Government, and especially to Prof. Maspero for the granting of
concessions to the expedition, and for the justice and generosity which has been manifested
in dividing the proceeds of our excavations.
I wish also to thank Mr. Quibell and Prof. Borchardt for their assistance in the first year
of the expedition, and subsequently for their continual advice and sympathy.
George A. Reisner.