New Kingdom Hieratic in the UCL Petrie Museum of Egyptian and Sudanese Archaeology: Collection-level Summary, and a Preliminary Report on the Gurob Papyri

The University College London Petrie Museum collections include hieratic material from excavation finds and, at an equal scale, from purchases by W.M. Flinders Petrie during his fieldwork seasons in Egypt over the years 1880–1924. There is limited documentation for either the provenanced or the purchased material, beyond the indications given in his excavation reports. Major groups of hieratic material from particular sites include the Ramesseum literary ostraca published by Wilhelm Spiegelberg, Amarna content inscriptions on pottery, and the important if fragmentary set of Gurob papyri, presented in more detail here as a case study. Among the unprovenanced material in the collection is the Petrie Hieratic Ostraca series, one of the larger groups in J. Černý & A.H. Gardiner, Hieratic Ostraca. Further items of note are a literary fragment from Rifa and two unprovenanced early 18th Dynasty writing boards. Future study of other items, particularly the two hundred unpublished ostraca and content inscription sherds, may reveal links to other collections.