Hedvig Győry: Mélanges offerts a Edith Varga „Le lotus qui sort de terre” (Bulletin du Musée Hongrois des Beaux-Arts Supplément 1. Budapest, 2001)

ANGELA P. THOMAS: The Rediscovery of some Dynasty III Stone Vessels from Reqaqnah

later on presented them to the museum. A local man named Councillor Allsop had purchased material from the MacGregor collection and had certainly given some items to the museum. However, details were very sparse and it seemed best to concentrate on possible connections with William MacGregor. The collection transferred to Bolton was very varied and was mainly small items with very little if any data of date or provenance. However, immediately striking were various bags of sherds of alabaster (calcite) stone vessels, which might well be somewhat mixed, but which were apparently from bowls of some size and quality and early in date from the great period of stone vessel manufacture of Dynasties I-III. Apparently broken in ancient times which was not infrequent and perhaps intentionally as part of the ritual,

2 if they had been reconstructed at some point, they were now again in pieces. There were no excavator's marks but the sherds gave every impression of being from an early excavation. William MacGregor was an avid collector but he also had contacts with Egyptologists and excavators, subscribed to excavations and was on the Committee of the Egypt Exploration Fund from 1888-1930 and served as a Vice-President of the Liverpool Institute of Archaeology Committee from 1904 until 1936-1937.

3 This latter committee brought him into contact with John Garstang (1876-1956),

4 but he had known Garstang before 1904. Garstang had excavated for Petrie's Egyptian Research Account at El Arabarf near Abydos in 1899-1900 and at Mahasna and Bêt Khallâf in 1900-1901 /' However, Garstang was to be appointed as Honorary Reader in Egyptian Archaeology at the University of Liverpool in 1902 and therefore could not excavate for the Egyptian Research Account in 1901-1902. He made arrangements to finance his own work intending to return to Bêt Khallâf and investigate Reqaqnah to the north. The patrons of the excavation at Reqaqnah in 1901-1902 were William MacGregor, Ralph Brocklebank, Martyn Kennard, Hilton Price and Arthur Evans. MacGregor with Ralph Brocklebank contributed the sum of £300, which was five-eighths of the total.

7 MacGregor could therefore expect to receive a reasonable distribution from the excavation • W. C Hayes, The Scepter of Egypt I, Cambridge/Mass. 1953, p. 41. 3 Institute of Archaeology Annual Reports, University of Liverpool, 1904-1938. 4 S. E. Orel, John Garstang at Beni Hasan, KMTM (1997), pp. 56-57, 62-63. ! .1. Garstang, El Arabah, E.R.A. 1900, London 1901. ' J. Garstang, Mahasna and Bêt Khallâf, E.R.A. 1901, London 1903. University of Liverpool, School of Archaeology, Classics & Oriental Studies Archive - typed statement 1901-1902.