Marking 25 Years of the Aberystwyth Collection in Swansea

Today marks 25 years since a group of 139 objects arrived at Swansea University from the School of Art at Aberystwyth University. Among the objects are shabtis, amulets, jewellery, copper alloy Osiris figures, pottery, stone vessels, mummified remains, and three coffins. The majority of the objects were donated to Aberystwyth by John Bancrot Willans (1881–1957), country landowner, antiquarian, and philanthropist (fig. 1). Willans was a subscriber of the Egyptian Research Account (later the British School of Archaeology in Egypt), which was headed by the famed archaeologist Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (1853–1942). As a subscriber, Willans received objects from Abydos in 1903, and from Tarkhan and Riqqeh during the 1912–13 seasons. This blog post will highlight some of the objects the Egypt Centre received from Aberystwyth. Several have already been highlighted in previous blog posts, including a wooden headrest (AB80), a Predynastic palette (AB79), and a group of objects from grave 993 at Tarkhan. A recent blog also highlighted our Late Period coffin (AB118), which is currently at Cardiff University undergoing conservation.

Fig. 1: John Bancrot Willans (https://www.peoplescollection.wales/items/32251)

Among the objects from material sent to Willans in 1903, said to be from Abydos, is a limestone fragment of an ꜣḫ i͗ḳr n Rꜥ stela (AB129). On the left, the dedicatee is seated on a high-backed chair wearing a wig with fillet and a wesekh-collar (fig. 2). He has a short beard and wears a short wig with a fillet band tied around it. The curved end of the top of the chair can be seen just above the collar. In his left hand he holds a lotus-flower, which sinuously curls away from his body with its blossom looping back towards his face, giving the impression that he is sniffing its pleasing fragrance. In his right hand the dedicatee appears to be holding a bouquet of flowers, the remains of which can be seen just in front of him. Traces of brown and white paint on the surface. In the lunette above the scene is a text, written in a number of vertical lines. The text, which is incomplete, can be tentatively reconstructed based on other examples of this type. Ancestor stelae were common during the Ramesside Period. This stela was published as part of the Festschrift presented to Prof. Alan Lloyd in 2007 (Griffin 2007). Thanks to the help of Lee Robert McStein, of Monument Men, a 3D model of the stela was created this week and is now available on the museum’s Sketchfab page.

Fig: Ancestor stela

Among the objects are numerous amulets, including wadjet eyes, scarabs, djed-pillars, and deities. Most of these are on display in our amulet case and are regularly used in our mummification activity with school parties. AB5 is a small inscribed faience scarab, the underside of which features a winged serpent to the left of the cartouche of Thutmose III (Mn-ḫpr-Rꜥ). AB6 is a faience uraeus serpent, which rests is upon a rectangular base, with a loop on the back for suspension. The uraeus was the emblem of royalty. AB7 is a red jasper heart amulet, which appears to be a cornice heart amulet (Sousa 2011, 17–20). This type dates to the Twenty-first Dynasty, at the earliest, though most are Late Period (fig. 3).

Fig. 3: Heart amulet

AB106 is copper alloy votive statue of Amun with a plaited beard. The figure is much corroded with one leg missing above the knee (fig. 4). The double-plumed headdress is also missing. Votive statues of Amun (or Amun-Re) were common from the Third Intermediate Period through the Ptolemaic Period. There are also four copper alloy Osiris figures, including one with a suspension loop on the back.

Fig. 4: Copper alloy statue of Amun

Several of the objects date to the Coptic era, including a metal earring with a mother of pearl Coptic cross (AB31). The early cross was similar in shape to the Egyptian ankh. Additionally, the radial lines at the base suggest the hieroglyph for a woman giving birth. This is very similar to two earrings featured in Petrie (1927, pl. 10). Woolley (1907) saw some similarities between Coptic crosses and Coptic fertility figurines. AB71 is a copper alloy square pendant with blue enamel depicting three unlabelled figures. Iconographically, they likely represent one of the saints flanked by Jesus (left) and Mary (right). The saint is shown holding a copy of the Bible, which suggests he represents one of the Four Evangelists (Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John). Since he is also shown quite bald, this can perhaps be narrowed down to John, the most common of the four to be depicted in this way (fig. 5).

Fig. 5: Coptic pendant

As noted previously, Willans received material from Petrie’s excavations at Tarkhan in 1912–1913. These are always interesting since they commonly have grave numbers written on them. So far, we have been able to identify objects from graves 7, 9, 27, 217, 261, 993, 1348, 1621, and 1622. This consists mainly of pottery, stone vessels, and palettes. AB22 is a turtle-shaped stone palette, manufactured from fine-grained greywacke sandstone found in the Wadi Hammamat in Egypt’s Eastern Desert (fig. 6). The animal-shaped (zoomorphic) palettes are from the Naqada II Period, with turtles being one of the rarer shapes and much less common than fish-shaped or bird-shaped palettes. Whilst not unprecedented in its lack of detail, this example is more stylised than other turtles and doesn’t feature eyes, limbs, or a suspension hole.

Fig. 6: Turtle-shaped palette

Most of the pottery from Tarkhan in the Egypt Centre has been studied by Swansea University students as part of our weekly pottery project taking place this semester. Most are cylindrical jars, with a full sequence of these wavy handled vessels seemingly being sent to Willans in 1913. Particularly noteworthy is AB90, which still contains the original contents, which has resulted in the vessel splitting (fig. 7). It is hoped that the contents of this vessel will be analysed at some point, as is currently being undertaken on another vessel from Tarkhan (AB98) by Alice Law at Cardiff University Conservation Department. Previous analysis on AB98 indicated that it was potentially pig fat (Hardy & Finch (2017).

Fig. 7: Cylindrical vessel with contents

We are immensely grateful to Aberystwyth University and the School of Art for gifting these objects to the Egypt Centre. They represent a major component of the collection, which has been used to educate school children, students, and researchers over the past 25 years!

All the objects from the Aberystwyth collection can be viewed on our online catalogue via the following link. Additionally, throughout the day, I’ll be posting highlights of the collection on Twitter!

Bibliography:

Griffin, K. 2007. An ꜣḫ i͗ḳr n Rꜥ stela from the collection of the Egypt Centre, Swansea. In Schneider, Thomas and Kasia Szpakowska (eds), Egyptian stories: a British Egyptological tribute to Alan B. Lloyd on the occasion of his retirement, 137–147. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag.

Hardy, Andrew & Paul Finch 2017. A chemical study of the contents of an Early Dynastic Egyptian storage jar. Pharmaceutical Historian 47 (1), 2–7.

Petrie, W. M. Flinders, G. A. Wainwright, and A. H. Gardiner 1913. Tarkhan I and Memphis V. British School of Archaeology in Egypt and Egyptian Research Account [23] (19th year). London, Aylesbury: Hazell, Watson and Viney, Ld. [pl. XLIX]

Petrie, W. M. Flinders 1927. Objects of daily use: with over 1800 figures from University College, London. British School of Archaeology in Egypt and Egyptian Research Account [42]. London: British School of Archaeology in Egypt; Bernard Quaritch.

Sousa, Rogério 2011. The heart of wisdom: studies on the heart amulet in ancient Egypt. BAR International Series 2211. Oxford: Archaeopress.

Woolley, C. Leonard 1907. Coptic bone figures. Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology Proceedings 29, 218–220.