Before the 1ninth-century many excavated artefacts such as those shown here would not necessarily have been recorded or kept by archaeologists. But Stein was inspired by a new ethos expressed by Flinders Petrie in his 1904 book, Methods and Aims of Archaeology , in which he argued that every item, however small or insignificant on first appearance, was important.
grass stalks
The British Museum,
1907,1111.66 (D.II.011)