Garstang Collections

Garstang Collections

The Garstang collections consist of the professional papers of John Garstang (1876-1956), as well as items excavated by him.

 

Garstang founded the University's Institute of Archaeology in 1904, including a museum to house his finds from excavations in Egypt, Sudan, and the Near East. This was renamed the Garstang Museum of Archaeology for its centenary in 2004.

 

Our digitised collections consist mostly of photographic negatives taken during Garstang's excavations. John Garstang was a pioneer in the use of documentary photography in archaeology, and included prints in reports sent to his financial backers. Many images were taken by Horst Schliephack, excavation photographer, but some were taken by Garstang himself.

 

Many of the images show Black workers excavating the sites. These were paid labourers, and Garstang kept a list of their names, but did not annotate the photographs to identify them. We are currently undertaking work to contextualise the working conditions on Garstang's excavations, and to highlight the local workers' contribution to the discipline of archaeology. If you have any information about individuals in the photos, including oral histories about the excavation sites, please contact us.

 

Please note that the collection includes images of human remains in the process of being excavated.

 

Garstang's papers are uncatalogued and work is currently underway to produce a finding aid. For all enquiries about accessing this material, please email scastaff@liverpool.ac.uk.

 

Click the thumbnails below to browse by excavation site.

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View all digitised items from the Garstang collections, which are spread across the Garstang Museum of Archaeology and Special Collections and Archives.

Abydos

John Garstang's work as an archaeologist began at Abydos in Egypt, initially under Flinders Petrie in 1899. He returned several times over subsequent years and his work continued through 1908.

Anatolia (Hittite Empire)

Images from Garstang’s research trip across the region of Anatolia (located in what is now Turkey and Syria) in search of a suitable excavation site related to the Hittites, a Bronze Age people.

Bet Khallaf and Mahasna

Images from Garstang's 1900-1901 excavation season in Egypt, during which he examined sites north of Abydos for the Egyptian Research Account. The expedition camp was based near the walled village of Maslahet-Harun, south of El Mahasna.

Meroë

Meroë is an ancient city of the east of the Nile, located around 200km north-east of modern Khartoum in Sudan. Garstang's excavation, 1909-1914, uncovered a walled city, various outlying temples, the pyramids of the royal burial grounds, and necropolises containing the tombs of other inhabitants of the city. 

Nubia

Garstang conducted an experimental excavation of a number of sites in Nubia in 1906, during his longer excavation of Esna in Egypt (1904-1906). His base was the third-century BCE Greco-Roman Temple of Thoth at Dakka.

This selection contains many images of human remains in their burial locations.