Artefacts of Excavation

Artefacts which came to the Pontificio Istituto Biblico in Rome were likely sent due to a connection with Leopold Fonck, a professor of the exegesis of the New Testament at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, and appointed rector by Pope Pius X of the Pontifical Biblical Institute. From 1893 onwards Fronk had travelled in England, Palestine, and Egypt on biblically orientated trips and was an admirer of Petrie’s excavations in the Sinai. The establishment by the Jesuits of a new institution was headed by a selection of objects in 1912–13 from all the sites excavated by the BSAE that year: Tarkhan, Memphis and el-Riqqa. Perhaps most notable are the votive steles, but statuettes of a variety of deities within the Egyptian pantheon and altars, two Coptic crosses and, inescapably, several strings of beads were also sent.