One aim of this essay is to conduct a thorough investigation into the origins of the objects inthe Victoria Museum, Gustavianum, collection VM 346–362 (the sequence expanded, later inthe project, also to include VM 346) and how they got there. This will be achieved byfollowing the paper trail back to the excavation in Egypt. The other is to describe how objectsfrom digs were spread between museums and different countries by W.M. Flinders Petrie.Questions have been raised about the perceived origins of the objects in the Gustavianumcollection VM 346–362. The collection has until recently been believed to be the funeraryobjects of the First Intermediate Period man Wadjet-hetep. In 1921 this collection was mostlikely bought by the Victoria Museum through Pehr Lugn, from W.M. Flinders Petrie, somemonths after Petrie and Brunton ended their excavation season of 1920/21 in Sedment, Egypt.However, the collection as a whole cannot be the funerary objects of Wadjet-hetep, since themajority of those are owned by and exhibited at Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Denmark.The one confirmed belonging of Wadjet-hetep in the Gustavianum VM-collection is the innercoffin which has his name on it. The collective memory of the museum claims that fivewalking sticks, also currently in the VM-collection, were found with the mummy inside theinner coffin at the excavation site. Unfortunately, the museum archive is extensively damagedand contains nothing that can tell us about the collection's origins.By investigating external sources, Petrie and Brunton’s accounts of the excavation, as well asonline catalogues and archives, the VM collection can be backtracked to Sedment. The resultsconclude that the objects in the collection derive from different tombs and periods.

This study aims to determine whether current and past research on the Badarian culture of early Egypt accurately reflects the evidence uncovered in the past and the evaluation of the excavation reports by the early excavators. An archaeological re-evaluation of the Badarian culture and relevant sites is presented in the introduction. Inter-regional development of the Badarian is crucial to placing the Badarian in the temporal ladder of the predynastic cultures, leading up the formation of the dynastic era of Ancient Egypt. The following thesis is not meant to be a definitive answer on the origins and placement of the Badarian people in the Predynastic hierarchy of ancient Egypt, but one of its aims is to stimulate discussion and offer alternatives to the narrative of the Badarian culture. A set of outcomes is presented to test all hypotheses. Research questions are discussed to determine whether the Badarian culture is a regional phenomenon restricted to a small area around the Badari-Mostagedda-Matmar region, or as a wider inter-regional variable carrying on into the later Nagada cultures. To reach a hypothesis, the chronology of the Badarian is analysed, in-depth study of the original excavation reports and later research on the Badarian question. An important facet of this study is a literature review of the Badarian culture, past and present. The Badarian culture had always been a subject of speculation, especially in terms of its chronology and regional development. There is no consensus on the chronology of dispersion out of the desert to the Nile Valley, as well as areas north and south of the Nile Valley. It is important to establish the concept of an agronomic sedentary lifestyle by the Badarian, and to re-evaluate the evidence for the long-standing idea that the Badarian was in fact the first farmers of the Nile Valley, also in terms of their perceived exchange and trade networks. / Biblical and Ancient Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Ancient Near Eastern Studies)