Julie Hankey, A Passion for Egypt: Arthur Weigall, Tutankhamun and the "Curse of the Pharaohs", pp.28-9. Hankey adds that the majority of the finds were scattered as "pretty presents" to friends in Paris, and the majority of the finds sold at auction. The reference is given to Petrie, Seventy Years in Archaeology, pp.172-3. There are further very critical remarks in Petrie, The royal tombs of the first dynasty, 1901, part II, page 2: "Again a rich harvest of history has come from the site which was said to be exhausted; and in place of the disordered confusion of names without any historical connection, which was all that was known from the Mission Amelineau, we now have the complete sequence of kings from the middle of the dynasty before Mena to probably the close of the IInd Dynasty, and we can trace in detail the fluctuations of art throughout these reigns. The 166 plates of results from our work will need some twenty or thirty to be yet added to record the whole of the information, which no one could hope to have recovered two years ago. And this recovery is not only after the removal of everything that was thought of value, both by the Mission, and also by the thieves of Abydos who did the work, but it is in spite of the determined destruction of the remains on the spot. The pottery jars were smashed, avowedly to prevent any one else obtaining them. The stone vases, broken anciently by fanatics, are referred to thus, "ceux qui etaient brises et que j'ai reduits en miettes" (Amelineau, Fouilles, 1897, p. 33), and we indeed found them stamped to chips; the stacks of great jars which are recorded as having been found in the tomb of Zer (Fouilles, 1898, p. 42) were entirely destroyed; the jars of ointment were burnt, as we read, "les matieres grasses brulent pendant des journeys entieres, comme j'en ai fait l'experience " (Fouilles, 1896, p. 18); the most interesting remains of the wooden tomb chamber of Zer, a carbonized mass 28 feet by 3 feet, studded with copper fastenings, have entirely disappeared, and of another tomb we read "j'y rencontrai environ deux cents kilos de charbon de bois" (Fouilles, 1896, p. 15), which has been all removed. The ebony tablets of Narmer and Mena — the most priceless historical monuments — were all broken up in 1896 and tossed aside in the rubbish, whence we have rescued them and rejoined them so far as we can. In every direction we can but apply to the destroyer his own words concerning the Copts who left the remains, "tous brises de la maniere la plus sauvage" (Fouilles, 1896, p. 33).
bnf.fr
gallica.bnf.fr
Margaret S. Drower, Flinders Petrie: a life in archaeology, p.255-7. Amelineau's own description of events may be found in the preface to Les nouvelles fouilles d'Abydos, 1896-1897, compte-rendu in extenso des fouilles..., E. Leroux, Paris, 1902, in which he replies to Petrie's remarks in The royal tombs of the first dynasty, without denying the basic facts alleged.
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 1935, p.401: ... Amelineau published a volume on the Bruce papyrus in 'Notices et Extraits', Paris, 1891. Amelineau was a sick man writing in a hurry against death, but he was a great Coptic scholar, probably the greatest of his day; his quarrel with his Church destroyed him.
Stephen Emmel, Shenoute's literary corpus, 2004, p.25
Julie Hankey, A Passion for Egypt: Arthur Weigall, Tutankhamun and the "Curse of the Pharaohs", pp.28-9. Hankey adds that the majority of the finds were scattered as "pretty presents" to friends in Paris, and the majority of the finds sold at auction. The reference is given to Petrie, Seventy Years in Archaeology, pp.172-3. There are further very critical remarks in Petrie, The royal tombs of the first dynasty, 1901, part II, page 2: "Again a rich harvest of history has come from the site which was said to be exhausted; and in place of the disordered confusion of names without any historical connection, which was all that was known from the Mission Amelineau, we now have the complete sequence of kings from the middle of the dynasty before Mena to probably the close of the IInd Dynasty, and we can trace in detail the fluctuations of art throughout these reigns. The 166 plates of results from our work will need some twenty or thirty to be yet added to record the whole of the information, which no one could hope to have recovered two years ago. And this recovery is not only after the removal of everything that was thought of value, both by the Mission, and also by the thieves of Abydos who did the work, but it is in spite of the determined destruction of the remains on the spot. The pottery jars were smashed, avowedly to prevent any one else obtaining them. The stone vases, broken anciently by fanatics, are referred to thus, "ceux qui etaient brises et que j'ai reduits en miettes" (Amelineau, Fouilles, 1897, p. 33), and we indeed found them stamped to chips; the stacks of great jars which are recorded as having been found in the tomb of Zer (Fouilles, 1898, p. 42) were entirely destroyed; the jars of ointment were burnt, as we read, "les matieres grasses brulent pendant des journeys entieres, comme j'en ai fait l'experience " (Fouilles, 1896, p. 18); the most interesting remains of the wooden tomb chamber of Zer, a carbonized mass 28 feet by 3 feet, studded with copper fastenings, have entirely disappeared, and of another tomb we read "j'y rencontrai environ deux cents kilos de charbon de bois" (Fouilles, 1896, p. 15), which has been all removed. The ebony tablets of Narmer and Mena — the most priceless historical monuments — were all broken up in 1896 and tossed aside in the rubbish, whence we have rescued them and rejoined them so far as we can. In every direction we can but apply to the destroyer his own words concerning the Copts who left the remains, "tous brises de la maniere la plus sauvage" (Fouilles, 1896, p. 33).
Margaret S. Drower, Flinders Petrie: a life in archaeology, p.255-7. Amelineau's own description of events may be found in the preface to Les nouvelles fouilles d'Abydos, 1896-1897, compte-rendu in extenso des fouilles..., E. Leroux, Paris, 1902, in which he replies to Petrie's remarks in The royal tombs of the first dynasty, without denying the basic facts alleged.
inha.fr
Pascale Ballet, INHA article, accessed 23 December 2010.
