ABSTRACT
The late 19th and early 20th century saw considerable archaeological activity in the Fayum, in particular that of British and German scholars, which led to the discovery of numerous mummy portraits and other artefacts. This chapter summarises the campaigns of Hogarth, Grenfell and Hunt at several sites in the Fayum, drawing primarily on the work by Bierbrier, concentrates on the best-documented discovery of mummy portraits anywhere in Egypt—namely the excavations by Petrie at Hawara in 1888–89 and 1910–11. A large collection of more than 200 smaller objects from the excavations, including jewellery, pottery, glass and figurines, may offer possibilities for some future reassembling of elements of the archaeological context, perhaps even some individual grave groups. As with all the portraits which Petrie found in 1887–88, 1888–89 and 1910–11, the exact identification of the portraits left at Bulak is rendered problematic by the vague nature of some of the published references.
