The Archaeology of Museums: Virtually Reuniting Dispersed Objects

As many readers of this blog will be aware, I’m always looking to virtually reunite objects in the Egypt Centre collection with those in other museums. Due to the way in which objects from Sir Henry Wellcome’s Egyptian collection was dispersed, mainly between 1969–1971, it was common for object groups to be sent to different institutions. A good example of this are the shabtis of Ptahhotep, which were purchased by Wellcome in 1924 from the collection of the Reverend Frankland Hood (1825–1964). The auction catalogue (lots 157–8) describes two shabti boxes, each containing ten shabtis. Yet while the twenty shabtis (two overseers and eighteen workers) arrived to Swansea in 1971, their two associated shabti boxes were sent to Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery two years prior (fig. 1). Thus, I spend much of my time searching the online catalogues of other museums who received Egyptian material from the Wellcome. In fact, this time last year I was making virtual joins with stone fragments from Meroe, which are now housed in the Egypt Centre and the Petrie Museum.

Shabti box and shabtis of Ptahhotep in Swansea and Birmingham

Over the past year, I’ve been successful in reuniting two objects in the Egypt Centre with two in the Liverpool World Museum. Firstly, while reviewing fragments of the inner granodiorite coffin of Amenhotep son of Hapu ahead of a lecture on the topic by Aidan Dodson, I realised that a small fragment in Liverpool (1973.2.319) joins with one of two fragments in Swansea (W1367b). This join lines up perfectly with the fragment in Swansea to complete the end of the name of Amenhotep (fig. 2). While the fragment in Liverpool is recorded as coming from the Wellcome collection, no previous owner is recorded. This is in contrast to those in Swansea, which were purchased by Wellcome in 1906 (lot 99) from the collection of Robert de Rustafjaell. It is therefore possible that 1973.2.319 was also part of this lot, although any auction stickers associated with it are no longer present. 

Fig. 2: Amenhotep son of Hapu coffin joins

Just a few weeks ago, I was searching through Liverpool’s online catalogue, which had recently been relaunched with lots of additional images, when a sandstone “wall relief” (1973.4.217) instantly caught my attention. The fragment itself does not look particularly interesting. However, it immediately made me think of W349 in the Egypt Centre collection, a sandstone block with similar texts. It was clear when putting photos of the images side-by-side and comparing their measurements that the fragments belonged together. Note the slightly sloping angle of the upper edge of the fragments and the perfect lining up of the breaks (fig. 3). The Egypt Centre records note that our fragment was purchased by Wellcome in 1928 from the collection of Charles James Tabor (1849–1928) as part of lot 235. What’s more, the online catalogue for Liverpool notes that their fragment was also purchased by Wellcome as part of lot 235 of the Tabor collection! Liverpool even records the Wellcome accession number as A169469, something we didn’t previously have at Swansea. Now that these fragments have been reunited, the hunt is on for their possible provenance. If any readers have suggestions, please let me know!

Fig. 3: Fragment in Liverpool on the left and in the Egypt Centre on the right

The day after the aforementioned join, I was at it again! This discovery was more by chance rather than anything. I had searched “Swansea” on the Online Egyptological Bibliography (OEB) to see if there were any new references to add to our own online collections catalogue. While doing so, I noticed an article by Jónatan Ortiz-García and Ann-Katrin Gill, which was published in 2018. The associated abstract noted that the article deals with “two fragments of a Roman painted shroud … kept in the Centre de Documentació i Museu Tèxtil (CDMT) in Terrassa, Spain, and pertain to the same fabric, fragments of which are housed at the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities in Swansea, United Kingdom.” What was this fabric in Swansea I thought before asking a friend if she had a copy of the article. Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait long as the pdf arrived shortly after my request. I was very excited to see that the fabric in question was the shroud of a lady called Tashay, with the article publishing two previously unknown fragments housed in Spain. Tashay is well known at the Egypt Centre, with eight fragments (W649–W656) of her shroud on display in the House of Death gallery. These eight sections had been previously published by Gwyn Griffiths in 1982, who dated them to the second century CE. With the Egypt Centre closed to the public in the week before the lockdown last March, I was able to take these off display in order to produce high resolution photography of them. While doing so, I joined two of the fragments (W655 & W656) from the upper part of the shroud (fig. 4).

Fig. 4: Connecting fragments of Tashay‘s shroud (W655 & W656)

It didn’t take long to realise that inventory number 6325 in the CDMT also joined with the two fragments previously united. The angle of the cut of the textile matched exactly and the vignette was almost a mirror image of W655. In connecting these three sections, this completes the upper part of the shroud (fig. 5)! We have always hoped at the Egypt Centre that more pieces of Tashay’s shroud would emerge in other collections, so this was particularly exciting. The shroud likely would have had a large central figure of Osiris, with smaller vignettes flanking him. Unfortunately, at some point in the objects lifetime, the shroud was cut into sections and seemingly dispersed to multiple collections. The eight sections in Swansea were all purchased by Wellcome as part of lot 314 of J. C. Stevens Auction and Sale Rooms (13 Jan 1931), while those in the CDMT were donated by a private collector. It is clear that many of the sections remain missing, including the central element, so work continues to track down others.

Fig. 5: Tashay’s shroud (W655 on the left; W656 in the centre; CDMT 6325 on the right)

So, with museums still closed to the public, I urge you to explore the many museum catalogues online. Who knows, perhaps you’ll be able to make some virtual joins or identify additional sections of Tashay’s shroud!

Bibliography:

Griffiths, J. Gwyn 1982. Eight funerary paintings with judgement scenes in the Swansea Wellcome Museum. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 68, 228–252.

Ortiz-García, Jónatan and Ann-Katrin Gill 2018. Newly identified fragments of a Roman painted shroud from the Centre de Documentació i Museu Tèxtil of Terrassa, Spain. In Busana, Maria Stella, Margarita Gleba, Francesco Meo, and Anna Rosa Tricomi (eds), Textiles and dyes in the Mediterranean economy and society: proceedings of the VIth international symposium on textiles and dyes in the ancient Mediterranean world (Padova - Este - Altino, Italy, 17–20 October 2016), 491–495. Zaragoza: Libros Pórtico.

Riggs, Christina 2005. The beautiful burial in Roman Egypt: art, identity, and funerary religion. Oxford studies in Ancient Culture and Representation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.