An Introduction to the Amarna Collection at Swansea

Just over a week ago, I started running a new Egypt Centre short course, the seventh to have taken place during the COVID-19 Pandemic. These courses have been extremely popular, with a total of 978 participants to date. Income from the courses has also helped to offset the losses from our regular sources of income; shop sales, educational visits, and other events. We are grateful to everyone who has supported us over the past fourteen months!

The topic for this course is the Amarna Period, with a focus on the 300+ objects from Amarna in the Egypt Centre collection. As the COVID situation in the UK is gradually improving and places start to open up, the topic of the course is somewhat fitting. When the UK lockdown was implemented by in March 2020, I was in the middle of teaching an in-person course on the same topic, which had to be cancelled after six weeks (fig. 1). Therefore, it is great to return to the topic as it allows me to highlight the Egypt Centre collection to a much wider audience. Unfortunately, unlike during the in-person sessions, students will not be able to handle the objects, instead relying on photographs. This blog post will present a brief introduction to the Amarna collection at Swansea, which has always been one of our most popular displays.

Fig. 1: Examining a copy of the bust of Nefertiti pre-COVID

With the Egypt Centre closed, this time has been the ideal opportunity to refurbish our current displays. In August, we were informed that a collaborative project with our colleague Dr Ersin Hussein was successful in obtaining funding from the Institute on Classical Studies to create a new display called Egypt and Its Neighbours. Objects in the Amarna case were relocated to a larger one, which previously displayed objects relating to technology in order to free up space for the Egypt and its Neighbours display. Over the past few weeks, I have been preparing the Amarna objects for their new location, carrying out photography, and completing condition reports. I am pleased to say that all the objects from the old display have now been transferred to the new case, although work will continue with revamping it before we open to the public again. (fig. 2). Additionally, new photography of all the objects in the case can now be found on our online collection catalogue. The catalogue entries for these objects will also be updated over the coming weeks. Some of these objects will be featured in subsequent blog posts by class participants over the next four weeks.

Fig. 2: Preview on the new Amarna case (still a work in progress!)

We are particularly excited that the bigger case has provided the opportunity to display a large storage vessel (W193) from Amarna, which has recently been conserved at Cardiff University. This was part of a Pilgrim Trust and AIM funded project, which we received in late 2019. Shortly before the lockdown started, Dr Ashley Lingle came to the Egypt Centre to disassemble the pot for transport to Cardiff. The vessel had been joined with cellulose nitrate and was showing signs of failing. Once in Cardiff, it was desalinated to remove the salts over a period of eight weeks, with water changes every two weeks. The vessel was removed from the water and airdried for four months due to the COVID pandemic. The vessel was then reconstructed with 50% Paraloid B-72 w/v in acetone. Small sherds and delaminated surface decoration from a bag kept inside the object were sorted and re-adhered with 20% Paraloid B-72 w/v in acetone as possible. Friable areas were consolidated with 5% Paraloid B-72 w/v in acetone. The vessel was packaged in a large storage container prior to its return to Swansea in October 2020 (fig. 3).

Fig. 3: W193 before and after conservation

Almost all of the objects from Amarna come from the excavations of the Egypt Exploration Society (EES) during the 1920–30s, with a few notable exceptions. As reported in an earlier blog post, some small objects can be traced back to the excavations of Flinders Petrie, who was assisted by a young Howard Carter during his excavations of the site in 1891–92 (fig. 4). Those that were excavated by the EES fall into three categories:

Fig. 4: Model throwstick (W962)

(1) Objects given to Sir Henry Wellcome, a financial sponsor of the excavations, as part of the distribution of finds. Records in the Wellcome Collection and the EES reveal that Wellcome received a little under 300 objects. These were subsequently redistributed to various museums (including Swansea) in the UK between 1969–1971. This included a substantial amount of pottery, such as the aforementioned vessel, and painted plaster from the North Riverside Palace (fig. 5).

Fig. 5: Fragment of painted plaster from the North Riverside Palace

(2) Objects from Amarna donated to Swansea by the British Museum in 1978, which were part of the “disposable remains” of objects transferred from the EES two years previously. The exact amount of objects is uncertain, so the list at the time is rather vague. E.g., “box of faience ring bezels”. Work is currently ongoing to trace some of these objects amongst the extremely valuable Amarna records cards, which are held at the EES offices and are also available online. The past week has seen some success, with one noteworthy example. While photographing objects, I noticed a tiny pendant bead with hieroglyphs on both sides, which was mixed in with eighteen other objects under the number EC1978. The excavation number on the side (26–7.280), which was only visible after photography, reveals that the object was excavated during the 1926–27 season in a large house (V37.1) in the North Suburb (Pendlebury & Frankfort 1933, 5–80). The EES object card for this item can be found here. Noteworthy is the fact that the inscription contains the name of Amun, which is written on both sides. One side possibly mentions a “Lector Priest of Amun”, while the other is potentially a personal name (fig. 6). Any thoughts on the readings here would be greatly appreciated!

Fig. 6: Fragment of a glass pendant

(3) The final group of objects from Amarna are those that were donated to the Egypt Centre collection by private individuals. The first of these was in 1973 by Cyril Aldred, the eminent Egyptologist and Amarna specialist, who sent a small number of faience pendants/amulets. These were part of Aldred’s “faience box”, with some being sent to Kate Bosse-Griffiths as comparison pieces for our Amarna collars (W8–W11). While the exact provenance of these items is unknown, it is possible they also originated from the EES excavations. The reason being that three subsequent donors of objects from Amarna purchased them from the EES offices in the 1960s, with many of the items still carrying their excavation numbers. The most recent of these occurred just a few months ago, when a limestone fragment containing a finely carved wig was transferred to the collection (fig. 7). The number 26 on the back was enough to identify it as TA.34–35.26, which was excavated by the EES during the 1934–35 season. The object card notes that this item was found in the buildings south-west of the Great Palace (O.42.2).

Fig. 7: Limestone relief fragment

Although the Amarna collection in Swansea has been the subject of much research over the past fifty years (Bosse-Griffiths 2001; Graves-Brown 2014), there is still so much for us to learn!

Bibliography:

Bosse-Griffiths, Kate 2001. Amarna studies and other selected papers. Edited by J. Gwyn Griffiths. Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 182. Freiburg (Schweiz); Göttingen: Universitätsverlag; Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. 

Graves-Brown, Carolyn 2014. A gazelle, a lute player and Bes: three ring bezels from Amarna. In Dodson, A. M., John J. Johnston, and W. Monkhouse (eds), A good scribe and an exceedingly wise man: studies in honour of W. J. Tait, 113–126. London: Golden House.

Frankfort, H. and J. D. S. Pendlebury 1933. The city of Akhenaten. Part II: The north suburb and the desert altars. The excavations at Tell el Amarna during the seasons 1926–1932. Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Society 40. London: Egypt Exploration Society.