Handling Sessions at the Swansea University Open Day

On Saturday, the final Swansea University Open Day took place in the Taliesin Create, just next door to the Egypt Centre. As with the previous five open days this academic year, prospective students had the opportunity to handle some of the objects in the Egypt Centre collection. People often assume that because the museum is called the Egypt Centre, all of the objects relate to Egypt. This is not true. The Egypt Centre also possesses a significant collection of Classical objects (Gill & Gee, 1996). With Egyptology at Swansea University coming under the Department of Classics, Ancient History, and Egyptology, this was the perfect occasion to also highlight some of these Classical objects (fig. 1). This blog post will present three of the objects used for the handling session.

Fig. 1: Display of the objects ready for handling

The centrepiece of the display was a life-size marble head of a bearded figure (W914). Although this object was too big and heavy to be handled, prospective students were able to see this head up close. This head was recently studied by one of our volunteers and Masters students, who will be writing a guest blog about it shortly. We did, however, have a much smaller, and very intriguing, terracotta head that they were able to handle (fig. 2). GR106 is described in the Egypt Centre catalogue as being a scent bottle dating to the sixth century BC, with the rather vague provenance of “Eastern Mediterranean”. This identification is presumably based on parallel objects. Not being familiar with these objects, the fact that there are holes in the base, along with the rear and top of the head, doesn’t seem to make much sense. These holes, particularly the one in the base, would have to be plugged in order to retain any liquid. If any readers have any ideas about this object, we would love to hear them! 

fig. 2: Scent bottle? (GR106)

A second non-Egyptian object the prospective students got to handle was a Cypriot horse (W229a), which has been dated to the sixth century BC (fig. 3). Cyprus is the primary area of interest by our colleague Ersin Hussein, who we work closely with on a number of projects. This small ceramic figure was originally part of a larger chariot group, as is evident from the fused rear legs. Black and pink painted decoration is present on the front of the horse. A circular label on the side indicates that this figure was sold as part of lot 33, which contained 8 items. In fact, it was purchased by Henry Wellcome almost exactly 100 years ago, on the 18th July 1919. The description at the beginning of the catalogue reveals that it was originally part of the “Laurence-Cesnola collection”. The name Cesnola has been long associated with Cyprus, particularly through the excavations of Luigi Palma di Cesnola (1832–1904), who became the first Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (1879–1904). Yet the Laurence-Cesnola collection (also referred to as the Lawrence-Cesnola collection) relates to his brother, Alessandro Palma di Cesnola (1839–1914), who married Augusta Alexandra Lawrence in 1879. She was the youngest daughter of Edwin H. Lawrence (1819–1891), a London financier and Alessandro’s excavation partner.

Fig. 3: Cypriot horse from a chariot (W229a)

The final object to be presented here is a mummy label (W449), one of our chosen Egypt Centre highlights, which almost certainly originated from Egypt. The label is written in Greek, clearly by two different hands: the first two lines by one person, and the remaining five lines by another. The text reads as “Hermiysis, [son] of Kollouthos, farewell!”, and “Kollouthos to Kallistos: When the mummy of my child reaches you, keep guard until I arrive.” In Graeco-Roman times (332 BC–AD 395), people who died away from home were normally taken back for burial in their local cemeteries. In order to make sure that the dead were correctly identified, the senders put labels around their necks. W550 was purchased by in 1922 by Harry Stow, on behalf of Henry Wellcome, from the collection of the Reverend William MacGregor. Lot 643, which consisted of three mummy labels written in Greek (W548 & W550), and the fragment of a wooden tablet inscribed in Coptic (W551), was purchased for £1/2 (Mueller, 1973).

Fig. 4: Mummy label (W549)

So why study at Swansea? The Department of Classics, Ancient History, and Egyptology offers a diverse range of degree schemes at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The Egypt Centre also teaches modules on the new MA in Public History and Heritage degree, which is part of the Department of History. Lecturers favour a hands-on approach to teaching, from experimenting with ancient technology, to object-centred learning at the Egypt Centre (fig. 5). The close links between the Department and the Egypt Centre mean that the collection is well-used by a wide variety of students. These students benefit from these links, helping to provide them with key employability skills and preparing them for the workplace by encouraging creativity and innovation.

Fig. 5: Prospective students enjoying the handling session

Bibliography:

di Cesnola, A. P. (1881–1882) Lawrence-Cesnola Collection. Cyprus Antiquities Excavated by Major Alexander Palma di Cesnola, 1876–1879. London: W. Holmes and Son.

Gill, D. W. J. and R. Gee (1996) ‘Museum Supplement: Classical Antiquities in Swansea’. The Journal of Hellenic Studies 116: 157–161.

Mueller, D. (1973) ‘Three Mummy Labels in the Swansea Wellcome Collection’. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 59: 175–180.

Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge (1919) Catalogue of Greek, Roman, Egyptian and Other Antiquities from Various Sources Including Greek and Roman Glass, Tanagra and Other Figures. London: Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge.

———. (1922) Catalogue of the MacGregor Collection of Egyptian Antiquities. London: Davy.