A Review of 2021 at the Egypt Centre

As with 2020, this past year has been one with many challenges due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Throughout this time, staff at the Egypt Centre have been working extra hard with our public engagement, both in person and online. In doing so, we have been able to make 2021 a success on many fronts. This blog post will present a brief review of some of the yearly highlights.

Perhaps the most important development of 2021 was the reopening of the museum to visitors after sixteen months of closure due to the Pandemic. This was a moment staff and volunteers had been waiting for what seemed like an eternity. Preparation for the reopening started in July to make the museum “COVID safe”. This was followed by four weeks of workshops for small groups of children in order to trial the new regulations. The museum finally opened the public and for schools in early October, albeit with reduced numbers and opening times. School groups now regularly visit the museum three times a week, while students also have the opportunity to work directly with the collection in-person once again (fig. 1).

Fig. 1: Object-focused learning retuns to the Egypt Centre

2021 was a special year for the Egypt Centre as we celebrated fifty years since a large portion of the Wellcome collection arrived in Swansea, a collection that forms the core of the museum. To mark this occasion, we hosted a successful three-day conference. This event brought together curators and researchers from across the UK who work directly with Wellcome’s Egyptian collection. One of the highlights of the event was the announcement that the UCL Culture Heritage and Museums committee had agreed to transfer the plaster cast of the statue of Djedhor the Saviour to Swansea to be reunited with the base (fig. 2). The transfer of the statue is expected to take place in the summer of 2022. We are grateful to the committee, and especially to Anna Garnett, for making this happen.

Fig. 2: Plaster cast of the Djedhor the Saviour statue on display in the old Wellcome Museum

Coinciding with the anniversary conference was the launch of the new Egypt and its Neighbours display. Thanks to funding from the Institute of Classical Studies, Ersin Hussein and I selected objects from Greece, Rome, Cyprus, the Near East, and Nubia, many of which had never been displayed before (fig. 3). The case has been well received by visitors, with the cast of a statue of Lamassu—a celestial being from ancient Mesopotamian religion bearing a human head, bull’s body, sometimes with the horns and the ears of a bull, and wings—a particular favourite with school children. With the museum being closed for the first half of 2021, this also provided the opportunity to refurbish some of the other cases. For example, the Amarna objects were moved to a larger case, which allowed for more objects to be displayed.

Fig. 3: The new Egypt and its Neighbours case

From February 2021, the Egypt Centre collaborated with the newly formed Interdisciplinary Egyptology (IntEg) group to host twelve discussion panels via Zoom. One of the aims of the group is to present cutting-edge interdisciplinary discussions in the field of Egyptology. Over six weeks in February and March 2021, twelve discussion panels took place. Topics included archaeology, Egyptology in the digital age, ethics, and Egyptology’s post-colonial future (fig. 4). While these events were not organised by the Egypt Centre, they helped to increase the international awareness of the museum.

Fig. 4: Stats from the IntEg panel discussions

In November, Egypt Centre volunteer and former Swansea University student, Sam Powell, was awarded the prestigious Welsh Regional Marsh Award for Museum Learning in a ceremony held at the British Museum (fig. 5). During the Pandemic, Sam moderated online Egyptology courses, fundraising events and conferences, created and hosted online quizzes, as well as writing blogposts. Her creation of the Egypt Centre’s online catalogue (Abaset) has helped to make the collection much more accessible to researchers and the public. In addition, Sam’s research on Egypt Centre objects, specifically wooden ancient Egyptian figures, has broadened the knowledge of these items. This was a thoroughly deserved award and we are very grateful for all the work that Sam has done for the Egypt Centre.

Fig. 5: Sam receiving her volunteer of the year award

While the above highlights are just a few of the many successes of 2021, we look forward to more in 2022. In a few weeks, I’ll be starting my latest Egypt Centre course, which examines priests and priestesses in ancient Egypt. We plan to continue refurbishing the galleries, including installing a new Writing and Maths case in the House of Life. And don’t forget that in September the Egypt Centre is teaming up with the Egypt Exploration Society to host the EES Congress. All in all, plenty to look forward to in 2022. Happy New Year from all of us at the Egypt Centre!