Saleh Abd El Nebi

Saleh Abd El Nebi was an Egyptian who worked with Garstang on a number of excavations as head of works (or ra’is). Garstang recorded that he came from a place in Egypt called Awidat. In 1899–1900, he was one of the workers on Flinders Petrie’s first season at Abydos, which may have been where he first met Garstang.[1] He was the chief foreman during Garstang’s excavations at Beni Hasan from 1902–04, where his portrait was painted by Harold Jones. A sketch of this portrait was also published in the Illustrated London News.

In his report on the excavations at Beni Hasan, Garstang wrote the following (implying El Nebi also worked at Reqaqnah):

Many of these men had worked for us at Reqaqnah, and have subsequently joined our expeditions to other places up the Nile as far as Dakke in Nubia. Several of them took an intelligent interest in the excavation, the results of which astonished them not a little. Some of them have proved reliable and helpful; in particular Saleh Abd El Nebi, of Awidat, chief foreman, a man of tact in dealing with his comrades and resourceful in emergency, has been the loyal and constant helper in many seasons’ arduous work.[2]

El Nebi also worked on the excavations at Meroë in Sudan between November 1910 and February 1911. He “occupied his usual position as head foreman” and took charge of 40 trained Egyptians, each of whom oversaw a group of native labourers.[3] His story has been researched by Amara Thornton, who was able to identify his seal and signature in the GMAA.[4]

Sketch by A. Hugh Fisher, 1904.[5]

[1] S Quirke 2010 Hidden Hands: Egyptian workforces in Petrie excavation archives, 1880–1924. London: Duckworth, 250

[2] J Garstang 1907 The Burial Customs of Ancient Egypt: As Illustrated by Tombs of the Middle Kingdom. London: Archibald Constable & Co, 25

[3] J Garstang 1908 Second Interim Report on the Excavations at Meroe in Ethiopia. Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology 4, 46

[4] A Thornton 2020 Saleh Abd El Nebi: A Portrait. https://research.reading.ac.uk/curiosi/saleh-abd-el-nebi-a-portrait/ Accessed 13 January 2022

[5] The Illustrated London News, 16 July 1904, p13