In the 1880s, Flinders Petrie (1853-1942), father of modern archaeology, discovered a number of funerary paintings on wood during excavations in the Egyptian Fayum. Stored at the University
College London for 100-plus years, his findings have been recently restored and are now made available to the public through a catalogue produced by the University's Petrie Museum of Egyptian
Archaeology. In addition to the catalogue of the 53 panel portraits, the text includes a number of texts related to the archaeological context of the portraits, among them extracts from
Petrie's journals; essays on the technology and techniques used in the conservation of mummy portraits; a section on the late British archaeological scholar, Barbara Adams, who was instrumental
in the publication of the Petrie portraits; and an illustrated index of portraits excavated by Petrie at Hawara in 1888 and 1911. Illustrated throughout with full color and b&w photographs
and diagrams. Annotation 穢2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
