Heritage Placements at the Egypt Centre

The blog post for this week is written by two Swansea University students, Elle Kerridge and Bethany Saunders, on their volunteer placements at the Egypt Centre. Both placements were designed to provide the students with key heritage skills, including education, preventative conservation, and digitisation of archives.

During the 2019–20 academic year, I (Beth) have been a part of the WoW (Week of Work) placement at the Egypt Centre whereby I participated in scanning a donation of 25,000 slides and negatives of sites in the ancient Mediterranean, including Egypt, Asia Minor, North Africa, Morocco, Syria, Israel, Greece, Italy, and Cyprus. These photos had not been previously digitised and contained a wide range of places that have been destroyed or severely damaged in recent times (particularly Syria). Therefore, it is important to preserve the rare photos we have, so we can preserve their history even if the structures no longer stand today (fig. 1). This allowed me to develop my archival and documentation skills, whilst also observing moments in time from different perspectives that had not been seen before; this made it possible to not only view the sites from an academic point of view, but also to witness the enjoyment of the donor and those around, to show what impact ancient cultures have on modern understanding and their historical appreciation. As a third year Egyptology student, I was particularly fascinated with the photos of the pyramids (fig. 2), Cairo Museum, and Tutankhamun’s death mask, but other photos of Palmyra at sunset and the coastal regions of Greece and Italy were particularly stunning.

Fig. 1: Slide of Palmyra (c. 1980s)

Fig. 2: Pyramid of Khafre (c. 1980s)

Through the efforts of all the volunteers, we scanned the slides and negatives much faster than anticipated, so we began scanning photos of the Egypt Centre objects and public related activities that were in need of better-quality digitisation. This allowed me to view objects that I have never seen before, but also observe older photos of ones that I have studied, including beautifully decorated cartonnage cases and fragments from the Book of the Dead. Though there were many great aspects of this placement, a personal highlight for me was discovering that I actually had an object in the photos living in my current student house (fig. 3). Bearing in mind that these photos of the Egypt Centre are many years old, I recently scanned a photo which made me question, why does this object look so similar to something I have sitting in my living room? I have been living in my current accommodation in Swansea for two academic years now and for as long as I can remember, this object had been in my house. I remember it even being in my current room when I did the house viewing! I made the comparison and showed Syd Howells from the Egypt Centre where we were both in agreement that it is in fact the same object, which was likely used as an educational tool! I can only wonder how it ended up in my house, but since the previous residents left it behind, I gave it to the Egypt Centre. The object, of course, is not ancient, but a modern tourist piece probably brought back from Egypt (fig. 4)!

Fig. 3: Egypt Centre workshop (c. 2002)

I am very grateful to Ken Griffin for this amazing opportunity to gain more experience in museum work, to view and preserve photos of ancient sites, to uncover mysterious disappearances of objects, and to look at the way the Egypt Centre has evolved in its public sector.

Fig. 4: Object from the previous photo

I (Elle) started volunteering for the Egypt Centre at the beginning of February 2020 for my module Heritage Work Placement, which was one of six modules that I would complete for my History Masters 2019–2020. I chose this module because it would give me a chance to do something completely different outside of the usual essays and seminar readings that I did throughout my undergraduate. As a side note, I knew nothing about Egyptology before coming to volunteer here! I was meant to complete 100 hours of volunteering before the end of term in June. I completed around half of that before the current COVID-19 pandemic caused everything to crash down around students and faculty alike and my cultivation of Egyptological knowledge was cut short. The idea behind this blog post was thought up by Syd Howells, the volunteer manager at the Egypt Centre, and myself to show the experiences of a student volunteer.

Fig. 5: Mummification at the Egypt Centre

The first few sessions of volunteering consisted of my induction, which included being gifted my gallery assistant notebook that would guide me along the different courses I would need to take part in and the details I would need to learn about each gallery. The courses included a Customer Care workshop, a Gallery Tour, and, my favourite, the Preventative Conservation Training. This was my favourite as it included a trip to the recently refurbished archives and store and I had the chance to see some of the artefacts that had not made it to display, including the human and animal remains! Before the untimely temporary closure of the Egypt Centre, I was about to start my assessment of the public activities consisting of Mummification (fig. 5), Materials (fig. 6) and Senet (an Egyptian board game). This would allow me to independently educate the public on these activities and help out with the educational aspects if necessary.

Fig. 6: Handling session with a royal couple!

Throughout the entire length of my volunteering experience, I was welcomed by everyone; full-time staff and other volunteers of all ages. As a result of my studying and working alongside my volunteering, I came into the Egypt Centre different days and a variety of times so as to meet an array of volunteers who all helped me in different ways and were always there to talk to, whether it be Egypt related or not! Every volunteering session was different and whilst it was a challenge being in a gallery where I was unfamiliar with the content, it pushed me to really concentrate on the displays and ask questions that I might not have thought of prior to this experience. Overall, the past couple of months at the Egypt Centre have been challenging but mostly fun and educational. This opportunity to meet new people and expand my historical knowledge has enhanced my university experience and I would definitely recommend it to anyone, student or not, given the chance.