Archaeological monuments of Ancient Egypt in the collection of V. S. Golenishchev (based on the materials of card index)

Abstract

This paper continues study of the unpublished archival material kept in the Department of Ancient Orient at the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. The aim of this publication is to put into scientific use the provenance data written by Golenischeff’s hand on Egyptian objects from his own collection. In present paper we analyse the information from the so called ‘fichiers’ (cards) indicating the strict location, from which the object comes. The purchase of an object at some place did not mean, however, the same geographical provenience of an object. Sometimes Golenischeff indicates this provenance from dealers’s words. The cards also bear indirect references (Latin cf. and French à comparer — “to compare”) to many geographical locations, and to the publications of outstanding researchers of that time (W. M. Flinders Petrie, G. Quibell, E. Naville et al). Consequently, we may suppose the same provenance for these ‘compared’ (i. e. analogous) monuments. Occasionally the information about the purchases is combined with details about the dealers (legal antiquarians or illegal diggers). In this paper we also add the information from the Golenischeff’ notebooks kept in Paris and from the archaeological reports (one of them is a newly published material). A unique evidence gives us the inscriptions made by Golenischeff’ hand (in black ink or graphite pencil) on the surface of some ceramic. So far, we are aware of 8 such objects (in one case there is a paper sheet with an indication of geographical site).