An Update from the Egypt Centre

As many readers of this blog will know, Dr Carolyn Graves-Brown, who served as the Egypt Centre Curator since 1997, retired in April. During her time as Curator, Carolyn brilliantly led the museum, transforming it into an internationally recognised institution. Many readers might also know that I was appointed Carolyn’s successor and officially started this new role at the beginning of June. I am honoured to be following in the footsteps of Carolyn and Kate Bosse-Griffiths (1910–1998), the latter serving as the Honorary Curator of the collection from 1971–1993. While these are obviously big shoes to fill, I am looking forward to working in this new role. To mark this change, I created a virtual trail of twenty objects in the collection that remind me of people (both ancient and modern), events, or who have played a role in helping to develop my career. Readers can view the trail here.

Many people have asked whether this new appointment will mean that I will no longer be teaching online Zoom courses, as has been the case for the past two years. I am very happy to say that these courses will continue, with a new one on the Middle Kingdom due to start in a few days. This period was one of the most stable epochs of Egyptian history and included great rulers such as Senwosret III. It has been hailed by some as the period that introduced the “democratization of the afterlife” and has been recognized as the “classical” period of Egyptian literature. This course examines the Middle Kingdom, looking closely at the great kings of the period, the art and architecture, burial customs, and the internal administration. As always, I will be drawing on objects in the Egypt Centre collection throughout this course (fig. 1). For more details and tickets, please see the museum’s Eventbrite page.

Fig. 1: Middle Kingdom goose from Arab el-Birk (W588)

Now that the Egypt Centre has reopened to the public again (since October 2021), our visitor numbers are increasing. We have school visits three to four times a week, with our education team delivering a wonderful experience for our younger audience. Some of our supporters, both old and new, have been visiting the museum over the past few months. Just a few weeks ago, I gave a tour of the museum galleries and store to two of our supporters (fig. 2), which will feature in a blog post next week. Having been reliant on Zoom for the past few years, it’s always great to see people in person and to show them around the collection!

Fig. 2: Enjoying a guided tour of the Egypt Centre

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic, I have been working to rephotograph all the objects on display in the Egypt Centre, which represents around one-third of the collection (1859 objects). This is quite time-consuming, especially now that the museum has reopened to the public once again. Objects are photographed from at multiple angles using focus stacking, which increases the quality of the photos. This project is reaching its final stages and should be completed by the end of the year (fig. 3). Our online catalogue allows visitors to explore the museum virtually by gallery and case through the location filter. At the same time, object photography is continuously undertaken on objects in storage, which will take much longer to complete. For more on focus staking and the benefits, see the excellent blog post by Julia Thorne.

Fig. 3: Photography status

In addition to the project to rephotograph all the objects on display, we have been undertaking improvements to the cases, particularly in our House of Life gallery. This includes refurbishing the displays, creating a new exhibition (Egypt and its Neighbours), new interpretation panels and object labels, and improvements to the lighting (fig. 4). Next month, thanks to the income generated through the museum’s online courses and donations received this year, we will be having a new display case installed in the House of Life. This will replace our current Writing, Maths, and Measuring exhibit, with the new case doubling the amount of space. The company installing the case, Glasshaus, will also be retrofitting twelve cases in this gallery with new LED lights. This will not only improve the lighting, but also reduce both the heat levels and carbon footprint, thus presenting a better solution for the objects and the environment.

Fig. 4: The new Egypt and its Neighbours case

As has already been announced on this blog, colleagues from the Egypt Centre and Swansea University, in conjunction with those from the Egypt Exploration Society, will be hosting the Sixth EES Congress. This event will take place online throughout the month of September, followed by a hybrid event over the weekend of 01–02 October. The programme for this event will be released imminently, so stay tuned for details!