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).
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| 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.
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