Egyptian Collections Research Articles

What visitors want to see

‘In museum complexes in which the art and culture of the whole world, from prehistory to the present day, are exhibited, it is almost always the Egyptian departments that meet with the keenest interest on the part of museum visitors.’ Dietrich Wildung thus challenges the received wisdom that has prompted many museums to give short shrift to their Egyptian collections, and explains why visitors have always flocked to view them.

Computerizing the Egyptian collections in the Louvre1

The computerization of the Egyptian collections in the Louvre has created a research tool and knowledge base which is unique in the world.

Catalogue of Greek and Roman Glass in the British Museum, 1. Core- and Rod-Formed Vessels and Pendants and Mycenaean Cast Objects. By Donald B. Harden.

text. It gives clear explanations of 16 different testing methods, ranging from simple tests to atomic absorption analysis and electron microscopy. Each method is described with its advantages, disadvantages and typical usage. Scientific methods available for dating, with their limited usefulness for glass, are also described. "The Conservation of Glass" provides sensible advice to the archaeologist faced with fragile glass objects on the site, and helpful references for later treatment. The author notes further on that the variable durability of glass may result in a distorted statistical picture, since only the most stable objects produced tend to survive. The remaining chapters deal with glassmaking history from the beginnings to the present, "Glass and Glassmaking Sites in Britain," "Glass and its Place in Archaeology" and "Searching for Information on Glass." The chapter on the history of glassmaking is fairly accurate, although abbreviated. Most of the general works cited in the bibliography for this chapter are helpful. For ancient glass, however, it is surprising that the 1968 British Museum Masterpieces of Glass is mentioned but not D.B. Harden's authoritative

A General Introductory Guide to the Egyptian Collections in the British Museum

A General Introductory Guide to the Egyptian Collections in the British Museum

Book Review: A General Introductory Guide to the Egyptian Collections in the British Museum

Book Review: A General Introductory Guide to the Egyptian Collections in the British Museum

The Growth of the Egyptian and Assyrian Collections from 1854 to 1924

The Growth of the Egyptian and Assyrian Collections from 1854 to 1924

The Egyptian Collections of the University Museum. By Hermann Ranke.

<i>The Egyptian Collections of the University Museum</i>. By Hermann Ranke.

A Search for the Alleged Sinemurian in the Wadi Araba, Eastern Desert of Egypt

AbstractMarine Lower Lias, with Ammonites bucklandi and other fossils, was recorded in the Wadi Araba by Figari Bey in 1864. No one has since been able to find marine Lias in Egypt, but in 1915 Greco figured a Sinemurian faunule, including an Arnioceras, from the Figari Egyptian collections at Florence, and claimed that Figari's discovery was confirmed. A special search for the locality was made in 1951, without success. The paper reviews the evidence and records Carboniferous rocks and fossils that were found. Some general remarks are also made on the structure and origin of the Wadi Araba.

The New Arrangement of the Egyptian collections

The New Arrangement of the Egyptian collections

Sir Robert Mond's Bequest to the British Museum

AT the meeting of the Trustees of the British Museum on May 13 the receipt was reported, under the terms of the will of the late Sir Robert Mond of the biggest and most important collection of Egyptian antiquities of all periods that has reached the Museum for at least fifty years. The bequest includes 260 objects, which fill gaps in the collections in every class of Egyptian art. Among the sculptures are an Eighteenth Dynasty three-quarter size head and shoulders of an official, a number of ushabtis, among which is one contained in a nest of model coffins, also belonging to the Eighteenth Dynasty, and a statuette in steatite, which is especially fine, of an official, Sunuri, of the Nineteenth Dynasty. Of the bronzes, one of the most remarkable, as well as one of the best, is an axe-head of the Eighteenth Dynasty, obviously intended for ceremonial or ornamental use. It is in the Syrian style, and has inserted within its margin an extremely beautiful group of a dog bringing down a wild goat. The bequest also contains jewelry, scarabs, pottery, copies of the Book of the Dead, and some examples of the now well-known Roman portraits from the Fayum. Of these, one represents a woman with a gold tiara and necklace, and is most vivid and convincing. Among other accessions to the Egyptian collections reported is an open-work scarab in gold of the Middle Kingdom c. 2700-2300 B.C.), which is of a type new to the Museum. It has been given by Prof. P. E. Newberry. Two fragments of Anglo-Saxon sculpture, the first to be received for some years, have been presented by Mrs. G. W. Haswell and Mr. F. T. Haswell. Both pieces are in red sandstone, and are North Mercian work of the ninth or tenth century A.D. from Chester or its neighbourhood. The finer fragment is ornamented on both faces and on the sides and end with an interlaced pattern of animals and scrolls, the chief figure being a large lion of barbaric design.

The magic, psychic, ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman medical collections of the Division of Medicine in the United States National Museum

The magic, psychic, ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman medical collections of the Division of Medicine in the United States National Museum

The Egyptian Collections at Cambridge

WE recently noticed at some length Dr. Wallis-Budge's book entitled “The Mummy,” and mentioned that it was intended as an introduction or a supplement to his catalogue of the antiquities which belong to the University. The catalogue itself is now before us, and is, as might be expected, a scholarly piece of work. There are people who like to read catalogues; to them this volume should prove to be of greater interest even than its companion “The Mummy”; but fortunately tastes differ, and we confess that, except perhaps to a scholar of endowments equal to those of Dr. Budge himself, “The Mummy” is the better of the two. It is satisfactory, however, to remember that the Fitzwilliam collection has been duly catalogued by competent hands, and that this catalogue is now published in an accessible form, Cambridge thus taking the lead among English universities in allowing the world to know what treasures it possesses of ancient Egyptian art. This knowledge is very valuable to the student. How many of us, for example, have seen and admired at the Louvre the granite sarcophagus of Rameses III.? Yet how few of us have known till now that the lid of the same coffin is at Cambridge? When Oxford has published a catalogue like this, and when the British Museum has followed suit, the cross references from one collection to another will in themselves form an excellent guide and help to everyone who goes in seriously for this fascinating branch of oriental scholarship.

II.—On some Egyptian bronze weapons in the collections of John Evans, Esq., and the British Museum

Through the activity and skill of native and European excavators in Egypt during the last few years, our knowledge of Egyptian archaeology has been much increased; and nearly every collection of Egyptian antiquities in Europe has been substantially enlarged. Curiously enough, however, the contents of certain sections of these collections have remained without many additions; and among such sections must be placed the weapons of war of the ancient Egyptians, who lived before the eighteenth dynasty. There are in the various Egyptian collections a comparatively large number of bronze daggers and knives, and other weapons which are supposed to have been made during the rule of the eighteenth or nineteenth dynasty over Egypt; but, in many cases, the proofs that would make the belief a certainty are wanting. When, however, by means of inscriptions, or the knowledge of the circumstances which attended the discovery of certain bronzes, we can fix their date beyond all doubt, it is most important to put such facts on record. The object of the following notes is to describe some of the most interesting of Egyptian bronze weapons now known to us.