Once the political centre of Lower Egypt, the city of Tanis was in ruins by the time pioneering archaeologist W. M. Flinders Petrie (1853–1942) arrived in the late nineteenth century. He recruited more than a hundred workers from nearby settlements to help with his excavations there. Now reissued together, these two reports of Petrie's discoveries were originally published separately in 1885 and 1888. His colleague Francis Llewellyn Griffith (1862–1934) contributes epigraphic analysis and translations. Each report contains much illustrative content, such as maps and photographs of the sites as well as drawings of the finds and hieroglyphic inscriptions. The 1888 publication also covers work carried out at Nebesheh and Defenneh, neither of which had been previously studied by archaeologists. Alexander Stuart Murray (1841–1904) discusses the important discoveries of painted vases at the latter site. Many of Petrie's other Egyptological publications are also reissued in this series.