Petrie Head of “Narmer”

In the late 19th century, when Cairo’s streets were a swirl of dust, donkeys, perfumed coffee, and antiquities hawkers. It was among these souqs (markets) which Sir Flinders Petrie, the legendary British Egyptologist, acquired a small, rough-hewn limestone head, scarcely 10–12 cm high. These markets were, at the time, half curiosity-shop and half archaeological gamble,...