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Among the leading Egyptologists of his day, Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (1853-1942) excavated over fifty sites and trained a generation of archaeologists. He is credited with bringing his subject to a much wider audience, and his talent for exposition is reflected in this accessible autobiography, first published in 1931 and illustrated throughout. It describes life on digs in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, providing rich insights into developing archaeological methods. Petrie's most important discoveries are recounted, including his unearthing of the Merneptah Stele, some of the earliest evidence of mummification, and elements of Greek and Roman cultural influence in Egypt. Furthermore, he reflects here on his innovative practice of recording and preserving every artefact, not just obvious museum pieces. Petrie wrote prolifically throughout his long career, and a great many of his other publications are also reissued in this series.

This biography of the Champollion brothers was published in Grenoble in 1887. Jean-Francois (1790-1832) was a child prodigy who had taught himself numerous ancient languages in his teenage years, despite not having received any formal education. Having become an assistant professor of history at Grenoble in his nineteenth year, Jean-Francois published a decipherment of the trilingual Rosetta Stone in 1824, thus offering the key to an understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphics and consequently of the civilisation of ancient Egypt. His older brother, Jacques-Joseph (1778-1867), although a less gifted scholar, supported Jean-Francois and kept his name and achievement before the public after his early death. Jacques-Joseph's son Aime-Louis (1813-94), the author of this biographical account, followed in his father's footsteps, becoming the librarian of the Bibliotheque Royale and publishing works on palaeography. Based on original letters, this is the only near-contemporary biography of the pioneering Egyptologist.

Appointed Britain's consul-general in Egypt in 1815, Henry Salt (1780-1827) involved himself deeply in the excavation of several historic sites and the collection of numerous antiquities. The most notable of these, found at Thebes, was the colossal bust of Rameses II which was acquired by the British Museum and is believed to have inspired Shelley's 'Ozymandias'. This 1825 publication, featuring Salt's careful reproductions and explanations of various inscriptions, made a valuable contribution to the understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphics. Following the innovative work on the Rosetta Stone carried out by Thomas Young, and the celebrated decipherment presented in 1822 by Jean-Francois Champollion, Salt helped to further elucidate the hieroglyphic alphabet, although later research has disproved some of his conclusions. A postscript notes how Champollion's 1824 Precis du systeme hieroglyphique des anciens Egyptiens (also reissued in this series) confirms several names of Egyptian gods and pharaohs which Salt had independently deciphered.

The preface to this work describes how its authors, Charles Irby (1789-1845) and James Mangles (1786-1867), both officers in the Royal Navy, left England in 1816 for a tour of the continent. 'Curiosity at first, and an increasing admiration of antiquities as they advanced, carried them at length through several parts of the Levant.' On their return to England, interest in Egypt being at its height, they were persuaded to compile this book from their letters to friends and family at home, and had it privately printed in 1823. Their account begins in Cairo, whence they made a journey down the Nile, meeting with Giovanni Belzoni at Abu Simbel. They then travelled from Cairo across the desert and along the coast of the Holy Land, reaching Aleppo and exploring Syria. This detailed account of their two-year travels provides much information of continuing interest to archaeologists and historians.

His independent means as the son of a wealthy banker enabled Alexander Henry Rhind (1833-63) to devote his short life to antiquarianism. While reading for the Scottish bar, he studied and investigated Pictish remains, and pressed for the inclusion of archaeological sites in Ordnance Survey maps. On developing tubercular symptoms, he gave up his legal studies and passed the winters from 1855 to 1857 in Egypt, where he made the important studies and excavations recorded in this 1862 book. He focuses on the necropolis of Thebes, and in particular on the unplundered tomb of an eighteenth-dynasty official. Putting his work into the wider context of the history of ancient Egypt and the importance of the city of Thebes, he also describes the reuse of the necropolis ruins as homes for modern Egyptian peasants and as the centre of a thriving trade in antiquities, both genuine and forged.

An army officer and politician, Richard William Howard Vyse (1784-53) also made his mark as an Egyptologist. This three-volume work, published in 1840-2, has remained an instructive resource in Egyptology up to the present day. Adopting the style of a journal, with illustrations and diagrams throughout, it narrates in detail his excavations at Giza, surveying and measuring the pyramids. Following Vyse's return to England, the work was continued by the engineer and surveyor John Shae Perring (1813-69). Vyse gives observations of his travels, and of the landscape, people and architecture he encountered, as well as details of the important work he carried out. Most notable was his discovery, using gunpowder, of four new chambers in the Great Pyramid containing 'quarry marks' - graffiti by the pyramid builders. Volume 1 (1840) covers the start of his travels in Egypt and the early excavations on the Great Pyramid.

An army officer and politician, Richard William Howard Vyse (1784-53) also made his mark as an Egyptologist. This three-volume work, published in 1840-2, has remained an instructive resource in Egyptology up to the present day. Adopting the style of a journal, with illustrations and diagrams throughout, it narrates in detail his excavations at Giza, surveying and measuring the pyramids. Following Vyse's return to England, the work was continued by the engineer and surveyor John Shae Perring (1813-69). Vyse gives observations of his travels, and of the landscape, people and architecture he encountered, as well as details of the important work he carried out. Most notable was his discovery, using gunpowder, of four new chambers in the Great Pyramid containing 'quarry marks' - graffiti by the pyramid builders. Volume 2 (1840) contains detailed descriptions of the excavation of several pyramids and their contents, and appendices with extensive measurements.

An army officer and politician, Richard William Howard Vyse (1784-53) also made his mark as an Egyptologist. This three-volume work, published in 1840-2, has remained an instructive resource in Egyptology up to the present day. Adopting the style of a journal, with illustrations and diagrams throughout, it narrates in detail his excavations at Giza, surveying and measuring the pyramids. Following Vyse's return to England, the work was continued by the engineer and surveyor John Shae Perring (1813-69). Vyse gives observations of his travels, and of the landscape, people and architecture he encountered, as well as details of the important work he carried out. Most notable was his discovery, using gunpowder, of four new chambers in the Great Pyramid containing 'quarry marks' - graffiti by the pyramid builders. Volume 3 (1842) describes the work continued by Perring on various pyramids, and on the mummy pits at Saqqara.

Admired long after his death by the likes of Lord Rayleigh and Einstein, Thomas Young (1773-1829) was the definition of a polymath. By the age of fourteen he was proficient in thirteen languages, including Greek, Hebrew and Persian. After studies in Edinburgh, London, Gottingen and Cambridge he established himself as a physician in London, and over the course of his life made contributions to science, linguistics and music. He was the first to prove that light is a wave rather than molecular, his three-colour theory of vision was confirmed in the twentieth century, and his work in deciphering the Rosetta Stone laid the foundations for its eventual translation. Published in 1855, this engaging biography drew on letters, journals and private papers, taking the mathematician George Peacock (1791-1858) twenty years to complete. It stands as a valuable and affectionate portrait of 'the last man who knew everything'.

A pioneering Egyptologist, Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (1853-1942) excavated over fifty sites and trained a generation of archaeologists. He also played a notable part in the preservation of a number of cuneiform tablets that became known collectively as the Tell el-Amarna letters. Petrie's Syria and Egypt (1898), containing summaries, is also reissued in this series, along with many of his other publications. The present work, first published in 1894 and richly illustrated, gives an account of the work that Petrie carried out in 1891-2. It contains detailed information about both the technical aspects of the dig and the array of artefacts found, including the tablet fragments of diplomatic correspondence from the fourteenth century BCE. The chapter on the tablets is provided by Archibald Sayce, Francis Llewellyn Griffth discusses ceramic inscriptions, and the flint tools are examined by F. C. J. Spurrell.

Amelia Edwards' English translation of the Manual of Egyptian Archaeology by the renowned French Egyptologist Gaston Camille Charles Maspero (1846-1916) was originally published in 1887. The fifth edition reissued here appeared in 1902, ten years after Edwards' death, under the auspices of Maspero. Edwards' translation was important for generating public interest in Egyptology in Britain. It is a classic work of popular Egyptology that has served for years as an indispensable guide for students, amateur enthusiasts and professionals, and was long relied upon by British tourists visiting Egypt's ancient sites. The book contains chapters on civil and military architecture, religious architecture, ancient tombs, Egyptian painting and sculpture, and industrial art. There are detailed sections on the various materials used including stone, clay, glass, wood, ivory, leather, textile fabrics, iron, lead, and bronze. The volume is beautifully illustrated with over 300 engravings.

The Italian adventurer Giovanni Belzoni (1778-1823) is one of the most colourful and notorious figures in Egyptology. After the Napoleonic invasion of Egypt, European interest in the country, and especially in its antiquities, led to a demand for artifacts, the larger the better. Belzoni happened to be pursuing his two careers, as circus strong-man and hydraulic engineer, in Egypt in 1815, when he was asked to organise the transport of a 7-ton statue of Ramesses II from Thebes to the British Museum. After the success of this enterprise, he turned his attention to the discovery of other antiquities, though using destructive techniques which were deplored by serious contemporary scholars. His narrative of his adventures was enormously popular at the time, and remains readable and entertaining today. This reissue omits the plates from the original edition, which are too large to be reproduced satisfactorily in this format.

Dr Carl Richard Lepsius (1810-1884) was a pioneering Prussian Egyptologist considered the founder of modern Egyptology. In 1842 he was commissioned by King Frederick Wilhelm IV to lead an expedition to Egypt and Sudan to explore and record ancient Egyptian remains. The expedition included artists, surveyors and other specialists and spent three years recording monuments in Egypt, modern Sudan and the Sinai. The expedition conducted the first scientific studies of the pyramids of Giza, Abusir, Saqqara and Dashur. First published in 1852, this volume is a translation of 40 reports in the form of letters written by Lepsius to King Frederick Wilhem IV during the expedition, and translated by Kenneth R. H Mackenzie. They provide descriptions of many ancient Egyptian monuments which have since been lost or destroyed, and provide an engaging and frank account of the difficulties of supervising an archaeological expedition in Egypt at that time.

Vivant Denon (1747-1825), a dilettante and diplomat under the Ancien Regime, survived the Revolution and accompanied Napoleon's army to Egypt. The publication in 1802 of this lively, illustrated three-volume account (translated a year later) is regarded as the chief stimulus for the so-called 'Egyptian Revival' style of architecture and interior design.

Originally published in 1902 for the Egypt Exploration Fund, this volume documents the archaeological excavations at one of ancient Egypt's most sacred sites. Pioneering Egyptologist W. M. Flinders Petrie (1853-1942) produced this copiously illustrated report, carefully detailing the tombs, temples and inscriptions of Abydos.

Published between 1891 and 1905, this three-volume collection contains transcriptions of, and commentary on, Greek papyri fragments discovered by the pioneering Egyptologist Flinders Petrie. The papyri cover a variety of topics, revealing much about Egyptian life in the third century BCE. Each volume contains reproductions of key examples.

Published between 1891 and 1905, this three-volume collection contains transcriptions of, and commentary on, Greek papyri fragments discovered by the pioneering Egyptologist Flinders Petrie. The papyri cover a variety of topics, revealing much about Egyptian life in the third century BCE. Each volume contains reproductions of key examples.

A pioneering Egyptologist, Sir John Gardner Wilkinson (1797-1875) expanded his Topography of Thebes and General View of Egypt (1835) into this two-volume guide of 1843. It not only gives advice for the contemporary traveller, but also provides modern readers with a vivid snapshot of Egypt in the mid-nineteenth century.

Howard Carter (1874-1939) was an English archaeologist, renowned for discovering the tomb of Tutankhamun. Originally published between 1923 and 1933, this three-volume study contains Carter's account of the sensational discovery, excavation and clearance of Tutankhamun's tomb. Volume 1 describes the original discovery and the opening of the Antechamber.

After developing an interest in Egyptology while a Congregational minister in England, Norman de Garis Davies (1865-1941) became an important archaeological surveyor and copyist of inscriptions and sculptures. This 1902 two-volume illustrated work covers the tombs of the most important Old Kingdom necropolis of the Upper Egyptian 12th nome.

This two-volume 1925 work by Arthur Weigall, who likens the writing of a history of Egypt to the piecing together of a jigsaw puzzle, presents a chronological narrative, at a level to satisfy both the scholar and the amateur. Volume 1 covers the first eleven dynasties.

This illustrated two-volume history of Egypt, 'derived entirely from the monuments', was first published in an English translation in 1879. Brugsch brings to bear his wide experience of the archaeological sites together with his linguistic expertise, and deliberately eschews later Greek and Roman accounts of Egypt.

In this 1859 work, John Taylor claimed to have discovered the 'pyramid inch', which he argued was one twenty-fifth of the so-called 'sacred cubit' and was derived from ancient astronomical observations. His work was very influential, but was later debunked by the more accurate surveys and measurements of Flinders Petrie.

Margaret Benson (1865-1916), a brilliant scholar, found an escape from her conventional life when she was granted permission to excavate in Egypt in 1895. She and her close friend Janet Gourlay (1863-1912) published this account of their discoveries at the temple of Mut at Karnak in 1899.

Giovanni D'Athanasi (1798-1854) became in 1815 the servant of Henry Salt (1780-1827), the antiquary who later became British Consul in Egypt and a pioneer Egyptologist. This 1836 book describes Salt's activities at Giza, Thebes and Abu Simbel, as well as providing a catalogue of his collection of antiquities.

This is a one-volume reissue of three excavation reports, first published for the Egypt Exploration Fund between 1913 and 1914, relating to the necropolis at Abydos. The finds range widely in date and nature, from pottery to mummified dogs. Each report contains a section of valuable illustrative photographs and drawings.

Originally published in 1904, this volume documents the continued archaeological excavations at one of ancient Egypt's most sacred sites. Following on from the volumes produced by pioneering Egyptologist W. M. Flinders Petrie (1853-1942), his colleagues compiled this copiously illustrated report, further examining the tombs, temples and inscriptions of Abydos.

This landmark 1834 work was an important early contribution to the field of Egyptology, uniting the twin passions of the surgeon and antiquarian Thomas Joseph Pettigrew (1791-1865). Here he delves into the history, technique and ritual of mummification in a depth that had never been attempted before.

Among the leading Egyptologists of his day, Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (1853-1942) excavated over fifty sites and trained a generation of archaeologists. This fully illustrated report of 1900 gives detailed descriptions of six first-dynasty tombs at Abydos examined by Petrie, and of the associated finds.

Among the leading Egyptologists of his day, Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (1853-1942) excavated over fifty sites and trained a generation of archaeologists. This fully illustrated follow-up report of 1901 gives descriptions of eight royal tombs at Abydos examined by Petrie, and of the associated finds.