The last few months have been quite busy as we have been working to update the Egypt Centre’s website. Our previous site was hosted on WordPress, whereas the new site is through CampusPress. Rather than migrating the previous site, we decided to largely start from scratch. The reason being that the old site had over 800 pages, many of which were out of date, no longer needed, or had no Welsh version (compulsory in Wales). Starting from scratch also allowed us to slim down our new site with fewer pages (56 per language). I’m delighted to announce that the new site is now available on the same URL as our previous address: egypt.swan.ac.uk (or egypt.swansea.ac.uk)!
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| Website homepage |
The site navigation has been made much easier with the introduction of tiles. These can direct visitors to information about the Egypt Centre, such as volunteering, our learning programme, collections, and visiting us. Additionally, the text and layout are now consistent, while each image has alt text (alternative text) to assist those with visual impairments. In addition to all our pages being translated into Welsh (big thanks to our volunteer Sian Charlton!), we are also in the process of having everything translated into Arabic for the first time. This is currently around 50% complete, so please bear with us for the next month or two while this is being worked on (likewise, a big thanks to Fatin Haddad for undertaking this!). There are several new features of the site that I will present below:
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| Use of navigational tiles |
We have introduced a new timeline page presenting a history of the collection from before it arrived in Swansea (1971) until the present day. This page, which will be continually updated as noteworthy events take place, can be found here: https://egypt.swansea.ac.uk/timeline/.
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| Timeline tile |
The Egypt Centre has received many awards over the years, both from a museum, volunteering, or individual perspective. Chief amongst these is the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service (2018), the equivalent of an MBE, in recognition of our volunteer programme. Details of all our awards can be found at the following link: https://egypt.swansea.ac.uk/awards/.
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| Awards page |
We have created a new page bringing together Egypt Centre
publications. Many of these are out of print, so we have made PDFs available to
download for free: https://egypt.swansea.ac.uk/publications/.
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| Publications page |
The Egypt Centre is proud to be an advocate of Playful Places, which supports play
in museums and cultural spaces. We are committed to creating a playful
environment where visitors can engage with history through hands-on
experiences. Our play offerings range from formal play spaces to informal
opportunities, fostering a sense of wonder and discovery. Full details of these
can be found here: https://egypt.swansea.ac.uk/A-Playful-Museum/.
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| Our playful museum |
Our What’s
On page will provide details of current events, workshops, and courses that
are taking place. This includes the Friends of the Egypt Centre lecture programme:
https://egypt.swansea.ac.uk/friends/.
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| What's On |
The Support
Us page includes details of how visitors can support the Egypt Centre with
a donation or leaving a legacy. Additionally, we are very excited to launch a
new Adopt an Object scheme, which is an exciting way to support the Egypt
Centre’s mission to preserve and share ancient Egyptian history. We have
created three packages (Bronze Beetle, Silver Shabti, and Golden God), each
with different benefits. While all 7,000+ objects in our collection are
available for adoption, a selection of 30 objects to inspire you is presented here: https://egypt.swansea.ac.uk/adopt-an-object/
With the planned redevelopment
of the House of Death gallery in 2025, we need your support more than ever!
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| Adopt an Object tiers |
As with any new site, there are likely to be some teething
problems, so we would be grateful if visitors reported any issues or broken
links to me (k.griffin@swansea.ac.uk). We are grateful to the Digital Humanities
team at Swansea University for their help and support with the creation of the
new site. Finally, we hope that you enjoy exploring the site and learning new things about the Egypt Centre!