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Monday, 13 January 2020

A Brief Review of 2019

This week marks the first anniversary of the Egypt Centre collection blog, and so it seems appropriate to present a brief review of 2019. During this time, there have been many highlights, with just a few singled out here. It was on the 7th January last year that I officially started my position of Collections Manager at the Egypt Centre. Having the opportunity to rummage through the stores is a dream for any Egyptologist. Additionally, discovering more about the history of the collection, including individual objects, is rewarding. Even photographing and editing images, while time consuming and monotonous, is immensely satisfying (fig. 1).

Fig. 1: Selection of “Classical” objects recently photographed

Upon starting my job at the Egypt Centre, I decided to create this blog in order to present the collection to a wider audience. Fifty-two entries have been posted, many of which have been written by guests. The blog has proved very popular, with 22,248 views as of midday today! In particular, the weekly posts by students on the History of Egypt through the Egypt Centre were well received. I am grateful to all those who have contributed over the course of the year. The most popular entry was News from Luxor, which presented the reconstruction of a Middle Kingdom stela (fig. 2). Not surprisingly, those on Akhenaten and the Amarna Period were also popular. Twitter users can now follow me under the handle @DrKenGriffin, where I’ll be posting daily tweets on the Egypt Centre collection. Thanks to all those who have followed this blog, including leaving comments, and I hope you will continue to enjoy it!

Fig. 2: Reconstructed Middle Kingdom stela (EC1848)

In May, the Egypt Centre organised a successful conference, which saw sixteen speakers present research on objects in the collection. Some of the objects presented have featured in blog posts over the year, including the Old Kingdom lintel of Tjenti (W491), an unusual whistle (W247), and a model scribal palette (EC2018) of Djehutiemhat (fig. 3). The conference was held as part of the twentieth anniversary celebrations of the Egypt Centre, although we have now decided to make this an annual event. The second conference will take place over the weekend of the 23–24 May, with details to follow shortly!

Palette depicting Djehutiemhat (EC2018)

At the beginning of August, work on our new store was finally completed. Over the past five months we have moved almost 4,000 objects, finding a few surprises along the way. These two Soter shrouds (fig. 4) were found between old display panels after we had cleared one of our stores. The one on the right (EC4971) is illustrated on plate XXI of the 1906 Robert de Rustafjaell sale catalogue. Neither object appears to have been registered previously, although it is possible that we will come across some documentation in our archives. Speaking of, one of our old stores will now become our archive and research room. Work on organising both the store and archive room will continue throughout 2020. 

Fig. 4: Two new Soter shrouds (not to scale) 

Unfortunately, some very sad news reached us last Monday when were heard that Sybil Crouch had passed away. Sybil was a Labour councillor for the Castle ward, was head of cultural services where she managed the Taliesin Arts Centre, and was also a former chairwoman of the Arts Council for Wales. Sybil had been instrumental in setting up the Egypt Centre, helping to secure Heritage Lottery Funding and European Regional Development Funding. Following her retirement last year, we were invited to Mansion House to celebrate with her (fig. 5), which included staff from the Taliesin and Egypt Centre putting on a “Spectacular” performance of the can-can! We are all very grateful for the support Sybil offered over the years and our heartfelt condolences go out to all her family and friends.

Fig. 5: Celebrating Sybil’s retirement at Mansion House (© Swansea Life Magazine)

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