“…half a loaf is better than no bread” On the Fragmentary Nature of Early Archaeological Publications and their Utilisation in the 21st Century.

W. M. F. Petrie is without doubt one of the most influential figures in late 19th/early 20th century Egyptology. This impact, lasting until today, is based not just on his advancement of methodology and excavation techniques, but also on the great number of publications he produced during his long career. Due to the destructive nature of archaeological research, these publications remain an important and irreplaceable source for modern Egyptologists. Based on a reassessment of the New Kingdom remains of the cemeteries of Sedment in Middle Egypt, unearthed during the 1920/21 excavations, this article analyses the 1924 publication of the site. The main focus is the major questions of how much of the archaeological finds and features are included in the publication, and whether certain criteria can be identified that determined the inclusion or exclusion of information in the publications. As can be shown, only a minor part of the findings was published, and while some groups of finds, such as Myceanean pottery, were published virtually complete, plain domestic pottery or finds from the Ramesside period in general are underrepresented in the publication. As not all on-site documentation has been preserved, this limits the possibilities of any reassessment of a given site. Nonetheless, the value of the publications still remains, as long as a sound source criticism is carried out.