Wednesday 28th May – Xth International Congress of Egyptologists

It’s the last day of the International Egyptology Congress, which has been running since last Wednesday, on the island of Rhodes in Greece, with five simultaneous sessions of papers all day every day, and plenary sessions by eminent Egyptologists. There are over 500 delegates attending from all over the world, speaking on everything from recent fieldwork, to philology, beliefs, foreign relations and museums. I spoke about the gallery redevelopment at Manchester, and the approach to presenting human remains. This provoked a very interesting discussion amongst the curators of some of the world’s best known Egyptology collections – Turin, Berlin, Egypt – with a consensus that respect was essential, but how this was implemented needed careful consideration.

The weather has been lovely, and there have been many Egyptologists splashing in the sea when time has allowed…

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May 21st – Celebrating the Two Brothers

We hosted the Egypt Day School at the Museum on Saturday 17th May, on the Tomb of the Two Brothers, to celebrate their 100th anniversary in the Manchester Museum collection, with an excellent attendance. Papers were given on the political and cultural background to the Middle Kingdom, as well as on work carried out on the Two Brothers by Professor Rosalie David. The afternoon session focussed on presenting the Two Brothers in the context of the debate surrounding the displaying of human remains, a session which promoted much discussion. Many thanks to all the speakers and attendees.

At the end of the week I will be going to Rhodes for the Xth International Congress of Egyptologists (http://www.rhodes.aegean.gr/tms/congress2008.htm), where I will be giving a paper on innovative approaches to presenting Egypt in Museums- hence the image accompanying this post!

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Wednesday 14th May – Kids and Copts

On Saturday Andrea, Curator of Community Exhibitions, and myself, met with the Manchester Museum Youth Board to talk about their ideas about the ancient world, in particular Egypt, Human Remains and the proposed content of the new galleries. The teenagers presented an excellent critique of the current galleries, and went on to discuss at length the issue of displaying Egyptian human remains, which the majority were in favour of, as long as a choice was provided.

Tomorrow I am heading to London to attend the Coptic Culture symposium taking place at the British Museum and in Stevenage, a good opprtunity to meet up with people involved with aspects of early Christian Egypt.

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Friday 9th May – Project Team meeting

We had a Project Team meeting this afternoon, where the core staff working on the gallery redevelopment project met to catch up on how the research year is coming along. The Project Team consists of myself as the Egypt/Sudan curator, the Curator of Archaeology, Bryan, the Exhibitions Designer, Jeff, the Finance Manager (very important!), Louise, the Head of Development (fundraising), Steve (equally important!), the Head of Learning, Pete, and the Curator of Community Exhibitions, Andrea. We discussed ideas that have come up at the various consultation events that have taken place, and how to maintain relationships with everyone who contributes. It will be impossible to include all the ideas in the final gallery spaces, but they will all be incorporated into a report which will be made available to all participants, and hopefully published on the Web. In addition, many ideas may come to fruition as events or virtually in the associated webpages.

My two expert volunteers came in to catalogue the Egyptian amulets that are going back on display. Workshop have made the stand, Conservation are in the process of mounting them, and I just need to write the text.

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Research into Egypt and the Sudan at Manchester University

There are numerous ongoing research projects into Egypt and the Sudan, ancient and modern, at Manchester University, which the Museum showcases in one way or another, and which will contribute to the content development of the new Egypt/Archaeology gallery. For example, current research projects include the geomorphology of the Nile Vallery, analysis of fat residues in 12th Dynasty pottery held at the Museum to recreate the ancient diet, and studies of health and disease in ancient populations through studies of the Egyptian human remains.

More details of these research projects will follow – and please post information on your own research if it is related to Egypt and the Sudan at Manchester.

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Ancient Egypt Summer School

Monday 23-Friday 27 June
Organised by the Manchester Museum and the KNH-Centre for Biomedical Egyptology, University of Manchester.
Book on 0161 275 3274 http://www.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/coursespublic/
For further details, contact Dr Joyce Tyldesley (joyce.tyldesley@manchester.ac.uk)

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Tuesday 6th May

Back in after the Bank Holiday on what feels like the first day of summer. Spent the day setting up the Egypt at the Manchester Museum blog, refining the Manchester Museum – Ancient Egypt Facebook Group with my volunteer Shawn, and arranging to talk to the Youth Board at the Museum on Saturday about the plans to redevelop the galleries. We’re half way through a year of research and consultation, and have begun to collate the results of the public consultation days we held in March and April. In addition to these events, we are talking to schools, specialist and cultural groups, students and academics to see what they want froma set of new galleries on ancient Egypt. Feel free to post your thoughts on displaying Egypt in museums on this blog.

Stopped by the comments board on the Afterlife Gallery to see what people think of the newly covered mummies – some rumbles of discontent there…

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The Egypt galleries at the Manchester Museum

The ancient Egypt galleries at the Manchester Museum are the most popular of all galleries in the Museum. Visit during school termtime and you will find groups of eight-year olds posing as hieroglyphs (!) or learning about the life of the temple singer, Asru; visit at the weekend and you will find the galleries full of families, interested amateurs and specialists. The galleries display, amongst other things, the tools and personal belongs of the pyramid builders of Kahun, perfectly preserved for nearly 4,000 years, and the complete tomb group of the Two Brothers, of around the same date. The galleries were designed and installed over 20 years ago, and plans are afoot to completely redesign them, together with the Archaeology gallery above on the mezzanine, and present a new set of galleries on the Ancient World…

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Covering the mummies

Last week, the unwrapped mummy of Asru, and the partially wrapped mummy of Khary, and the loaned child mummy from Stonyhurst College, were covered. The covering was carried out in order that the human remains be treated with respect and to keep the bodies on display in line with the Manchester Museum Human Remains policy (http://www.museum.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/reportspolicies/fileuploadmax10mb,120796,en.pdf). The covering of the mummies coincides with the opening of the year-long exhibition of Lindow Man: A Bog Body Mystery (http://www.museum.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/ourpractice/lindowman/), where the Museum has interpreted the bog body through the opinions of seven individuals involved with his discovery and analysis.

All decisions relating to human remains at the Museum are made by the Human Remains Panel, and not by individual curators.

 

 

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