The Inscriptions of Sinai. Part I: Introduction and Plates.

[3], 19 pp, +86 plates, cloth backed boards, rubbed and soiled with light damp-stains at lower edges, spine repaired, small stamp on front fly leaf, copy clean inside. “One of the most important archaeological studies publications issued in England during recent years is that of the inscriptions of Sinai published by Egypt Exploration Fund. The book is a corpus of all known hieroglyphic and hieratic inscriptions in the Peninsula, both still extant and now destroyed, based chiefly upon the copies made by the Fund’s expedition in 1904, under Professor Petrie, and on a collection of squeezes, made many years ago, now in the British Museum. The work then is a publication of the labours of the Fund’s archaeologist plus a great amount of older and hitherto unpublished material. Its importance for the study of Egyptian epigraphy can hardly be overestimated. Several years ago an unparalleled outrage was committed by some British engineers sent out to Sinai by a commercial company to prospect for metals. They destroyed one of the oldest and finest inscriptions with pick and hammer. The publication of the remainders becomes an urgent necessity in view of possible repetitions of such acts of ignorant barbarity.” The Journal of Hellenic Studies / Volume 40 / Issue 02 / January 1920, pp 229-230. #32936.…