Egyptian party in London
Egyptian antiquities were in the spotlight as the British Museum's celebrations of its 250th anniversary got underway. Nevine El-Aref attended the week-long event
Egyptian antiquities were the toast of the town last week in London as the British Museum, celebrating its 250th birthday, dedicated an entire week to honouring its Ancient Egyptian collection. The museum houses the largest and most comprehensive collection of Ancient Egyptian artefacts in the world. Beginning with pieces from prehistoric times and containing artefacts from across the ages through the Coptic era, those holdings on their own are something to celebrate. The jewel of the collection, of course, is the 2000-year-old Rosetta stone, which provided the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics.
The week was kicked off with a two-day conference dedicated to presenting the results of recent excavations and conservation projects carried out at five sites in Egypt by several expeditions of the British Museum.
Among the exciting discoveries discussed was a hieroglyphic inscription found in the tomb of the 17th dynasty governor Sobeknakht who ruled over Al-Kab province, south of Aswan. "It is an important inscription that adds substantially to knowledge of the history of the 17th dynasty and Egypt's relations with the Kingdom of Kush," Vivian Davies, head of the excavation team and keeper of the Egyptian department of the BM told Al-Ahram Weekly.
The inscription, Davies said, is a biographical text that recounts the attack on Al-Kab by Kush kingdom forces during the 17th dynasty. It enumerates the role Sobeknakht played in vanquishing the invaders.
Another discovery was the prehistoric necropolis in Kom Al-Hamam, south of Aswan, where a number of tombs containing human bones and pottery were found.
Linking past with present, another lecture outlined the situation of two sites currently being excavated, but are threatened by expansion of agricultural activities.
"While we are celebrating 250 years of service, we are looking forward to cementing our relationship with Egypt in order to promote Egyptology and conserve the nation's heritage," said Davies, who continued by outlining three key areas of work.
At the forefront of joint efforts by the British Museum and Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) is the protection of five archaeological sites in the Delta, and in Luxor and Aswan governorates. Urban development, pollution and the expansion of agriculture have the potential to undermine archaeological exploration.
The museum and the SCA are also working to train a new generation of archaeologists, conservators and museum curators. A number of promising Egyptian archaeologists have consequently been sent on intensive three-months-long training courses. Among the topics treated, Davies said, were curating exhibits and preserving and displaying objects.
The third type of cooperation concerns the return of stolen artefacts. Six years ago the British Museum helped identify, track down and secure the return to Egypt of a number of ancient papyri stolen by British national Jonathan Tokely Parry, who was subsequently sentenced by a court to prison for six years.
"Since then, we've become more concerned about the illicit trade of antiquities and we've increased our collaboration with British police, the Egyptian Embassy in London and the SCA in tracking stolen Egyptian artefacts and making sure they are returned to their homeland."
During the celebrations, Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the SCA was about to deliver an illustrated lecture on recent discoveries in Egypt to an audience of more than 540 people. Alas, it seems that the Pharaohs' curse hit the museum's auditorium when an unexpected problem with the electricity occurred. After an hour's delay, the problem was partly solved and Hawass enchanted some 320 persons crammed into the hall that was designed to accommodate a mere 150 people. The other 220-plus ticket holders were not so lucky, having to satisfy themselves with a refund and a free drink.
Those lucky enough to attend the event heard all about the recent discoveries made by Hawass and the American Egyptologist Mark Lehner near the pyramids in the area where the people who built the monuments lived and were laid to rest. Hawass also regaled his audience with information on the tombs of the first and second dynasties recently found in Saqqara. He also spoke about two unfinished drawings recently discovered in a harbour close by the unfinished obelisk in Aswan. The two drawings feature a school of fish swimming in the Nile and a group of ostriche.
During his fascinating lecture, Hawass expressed his hopes for the return of the Egyptian obelisk that currently presides over the Place de la Concorde in Paris so that it might resume its original place outside Luxor temple. In a similar vein, he mentioned the Rosetta stone, Queen Nefertiti's bust, in the collection of the Berlin Museum, and the statue of Hatshepsut at the Metropolitan Museum of New York. Hawass said that in exchange for those items, Egypt would be willing to offer other artefacts, a matter that could be negotiated.
Another highlight was a gala dinner held in the Egyptian gallery. Statues of the Egyptian Pharaohs including Ramses II presided over the event, looking down upon the distinguished guests in the candle-lit hall as they celebrated Ancient Egypt -- a moment that made me particularly proud of my heritage.
Among the luminaries attending the event were Sir John Boyd, chairman of the museum's board of trustees, Egyptologists like Pitsy Brines and Renee Friedman, the director of the Egyptian Museum, Mamdouh El-Damaty and Adel El-Gazzar, Egyptian ambassador in London as well as a host of foreign and Egyptian journalists. Rifaat Rozeik, whose computer software company Superbase Developers PLC sponsored the event, was also in attendance with his family.
During the dinner, Hawass suggested that Egypt should borrow the Rosetta Stone for three months to display in a special exhibit at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
That magical evening was followed by yet another at the Egyptian Embassy also dedicated to celebrating the Egyptian collection.
While Egyptian artefacts were singled out during the last week, they will be sharing the limelight with their counterparts from other eras and locales during the year as part of an exhibit entitled "the Museum of the Mind: Art and Memory in World Culture". Comprising hundreds of artefacts, the show brings together items that have contributed to sustaining individual and collective memory across the continents and ages.
The exhibition opens with a consideration of the aides- mémoire produced in different cultures, from the wooden models of wave patterns made by Micronesian sea-farers to the mnemonics of the Inca and the memory coins of 18th century Europe. A section on living memory looks at how people seek to influence the way things are remembered. It also treats how certain religious figures are represented, with a selection of icons, and huge stone footprint from Burma modeled on one believed to have been left by the Buddha. Egypt is represented by funerary artefacts juxtaposed with ones from ancient Rome. Among the artefacts from Egypt were the painted lid of a coffin of the enchantresses at the temple of the god Amun-Re, a well-preserved painted fragment from the tomb-chapel of an official, ancient gold coins and from a more recent era, a Qur'an.
British Museum
THE BRITISH Museum was founded on 7 June 1753 by an act of Parliament as the first national public museum in the world -- the first to belong to a nation rather than a monarch or private patron, established for the people's benefit. Its collection is available to every citizen, to all 'studious and curious' people regardless of rank or status, free of charge.From the very beginning, narrated Joan Mackle, the head of communications, the British Museum has seen itself as a world museum. This originally was meant only in the sense that its collection was drawn from across the world, but has expanded as foreign visitors flock in from Asia, Africa, Australia and the Americas as well as from Britain itself. More than five million people visit it every year, making it, together with the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the State Hermitage in St Petersburg, one of the world's most popular museums.
The ideals of its founders, she continued, are as crucial to our future today as they were in 1753, in a world where competing nationalisms and cultures still obscure our common humanity.
The British Museum's role is to display the world's great civilisations and cultures throughout the ages in a story of united human achievement. Its treasures and everyday artefacts allow the visitors to glimpse and better understand the lives of our ancestors who made them. The museum's purpose is to give knowledge and meaning to human existence past and present.
Now with the return of the Museum of Mankind, Mackle added, the British Museum reaffirms its universality and will once again become a place where the visitor can meet all the peoples and cultures of the world, historical and modern, under a single roof. By displaying their art and craft their rituals of birth and death and of love and work and worship, the museum reveals the richness of their relationship to each other as well as their differences. As recent events in Iraq and Afghanistan have shown, the present position of the British Museum has never been more relevant and important as a fascinating and accessible means of explaining the historical and cultural background of the modern world and how it came to be.
It continues to be not just a treasure house of objects, but a living collection and active centre of education, research and discovery for its visitors. With the opening of the spectacular Great Court in 2000 the experience of visiting the museum has been transformed, and its position as one of the most popular and dynamic museums in the world has been reaffirmed. Its guiding principle since its foundation has been, and will continue to be, free access to everyone.
Now in 2003 the museum celebrates its fascinating history with a series of important and timely exhibitions and new galleries which celebrate the extraordinary scope of its collection which appeal and reaches ever expanding new audiences.
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 24 - 30 July 2003 (Issue No. 648)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/648/he1.htm