From 2017-2019 I was employed as Asyut Project Curator on the British Museum’s Urban Development and Regional Identities in Middle Egypt: A Deep History of the Asyut Region, undertaking research on the artefacts and archives created by David George Hogarth during his excavations at Gebel Asyut el-Gharbi in 1906-1907 and assisting with the GIS for the excavations at Shutb. Since 2019, I have been working on the Hogarth artefacts and archives in the British Museum as an independent researcher. My research is currently focused on locating the tombs Hogarth excavated on the Gebel Asyut el-Gharbi, using Hogarth’s sketch map from the British Museum archives and high- resolution satellite imagery purchased as part of the project.
Asyut Project Curator
GIS, artefact, and archival research
As Asyut Project Curator I was responsible for identifying and accessing relevant archival and published records, researching artefacts, updating the artefact database, providing advice on high-resolution satellite imagery, and undertaking GIS tasks associated with the excavations at Shutb and other research.
Academic Institution
British Museum
Timeline
2017-2019 (including maternity leave)
Role
Project Curator
Funding
Institutional Links grant, ID 274662441, under the Newton-Mosharafa Fund partnership. The grant is funded by the UK Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and delivered by the British Council.
Outputs
- Updates to the British Museum database/online catalogue.
- Purchase of high-resolution satellite imagery of the Asyut region from Shutb to Gebel Asyut el-Gharbi.
- Transcription of Hogarth’s object list, and notebook.
- Paper presented at the Theoretical Archaeology Group Conference, University College London 16-18 December 2019, ‘Making it up as they went along: Reconstructing the methods used to generate an early 20th century field pottery corpus and their implications for modern research in historically excavated museum collections’.
- Two publications:
- Pethen, H. 2019 Researching the Hogarth collection of artefacts from Asyut. The British Museum Ancient Egypt and Sudan Newsletter 6: 22
- Pethen, H. 2021. A New Year Pottery Corpus: investigating early 20th century excavation methods through the Hogarth excavation archive at the British Museum. Bulletin de liaison de la Céramique Égyptienne 30: 231–248.
Independent Research
GIS, satellite remote-sensing, and archival research
As an independent scholar, I have continued research into the Hogarth archive, completing the transcription of Hogarth’s diary and working on the positioning and location of Hogarth’s tombs on the Gebel Asyut el-Gharbi using satellite imagery and GIS. I hope that in time and with the approval of the British Museum it will be possible to secure funding for the full analysis and publication of the Hogarth archive and digital dissemination of the data.
Academic Institution
Independent research
Timeline
2019-ongoing
Role
Researcher
Funding
Unfunded
Outputs
- Transcription of Hogarth’s diary.
- I have a publication in preparation on the positioning of Hogarth’s tombs on the Gebel Asyut el-Gharbi, based the georeferencing of his sketch map against a high-resolution satellite image, and evidence from his written documents.
Acknowledgements
All the images on this page are from the Hogarth collection and archives in the British Museum, courtesy of the trustees of the British Museum.
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