Ancient Egyptian collections in and Croato-Aegyptica Electronica (CAE) database

Mladen Tomorad (Department of History, Croatian Studies, University of , Zagreb – Croatia) Estimate number of Ancient Egyptian artefacts in Croatia

• Minimum number of objects: cca. 4500 in institutional and private collections – cca. 3827 and 3838 artefacts in institutional collections – unknown number of private collections • estimate number: between 500 and 1000 objects • Dating: from Badari culture (c. 4500 BC) to the Arab conquest of Egypt (mid. 7th c. AD) Egyptian collections in museum institutions No.

The Archaeological Museum in Zagreb 2944

The Mimara Museum in Zagreb 502

The Archaeological Museum in 197

The Archaeological Museum in Split 66

The Archaeological Museum of in 39

The Archaeological Museum in 23

The Collection of the St. Euphemia monastery in Kampor - 10-21?

The Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb 11

The Museum of Slavonia in Osijek 10

The Museum of the City of Varaždin 7

Diocletian Palace in Split 6

The Archaeological Collection of the Franciscan Monastery in Sinj 6

Department for history of building and architecture in Split 3

Lapidarium on the Island of Veliki Brijun 2

Lapidarium in Novigrad (Istria) 1

Museo del territorio parentino 1

Lapidarium Varvaria in Bribirska Glavica 1

The Archaeological Collection and Lapidarium of Grga Novak in 1

The Collection Narona in Vid near Metković 1

The Collection of 'Narodno sveučilište' in Imotski 1

The Museum of the City of Koprivnica 1

The Museum of the City of Križevci 1

The Museum of the City of Zagreb 1

The Museum Bostan 1

The Museum of the City of Pregrada "dr. Zlatko Dragutin Tudjina" 1

Total no. 3827-3838? Number of Ancient Egyptian artefacts in museum institutions in Croatia

3500

3000

2500

2000 Number of artefacts 1500

1000

500

0 Archaeological Other museum Museums institutions Number of Ancient Egyptian artefacts in other instituions in Croatia

600

500

400

300 523 200

100

0 18 13 12 3

Other institutions Regional museums Lapidariums and in situ Archaeological collections Territorial and City museums Type of artefacts

• scuplture (figurines, statues and statuettes of men and dieties made from stone and bronze; sphinxes from the Diocletian’s palace in Split) • tablets made of different materials • fertility symbols • funeral equipment (shabtis, stelaes, portrait masks, hypocephali, mummy-cases, canopic jars and other vessels, various containers, mummies of human and animal remains) • religious equipment (votive offerings, offering tables, tanks and stands, altars, scarabs, amulets, funeral seals) • writing equipment and tools, inscriptions on papyrus and linen • objects of everyday life (vessels, toys, cloth, footwear, jewellery, rings, cosmetic equipment etc.) • coins from Ptolemaic and Roman period • various objects made from glass

• The Egyptian antiquities have found their way to Croatia in two ways: – material acquired from abroad through intermediates or donations, – material associated with the Egyptian cults in Croatia or more to the east. It has been acquired through archaeological excavations, and brought to the Croatian territory mostly in Roman antiquity. History of collections • genesis of the most collections is still unknown • the best known is Egyptian collection of Archaeological museum in Zagreb • first private collections – most likely in 18 century • early collectors– mostly unknown • Mihael Barić, first known collector – bought mummy of Nesi-Hensu with Liber linteus zagrabiensis in 1848 in Cairo • the biggest collection – private collection of Franz Koller – today in Archaeological museum in Zagreb (since 1868) – first examened by Heinrich Brugsch in 1869 • the biggest collection of Ptolemaic and Alexandrian coinage – private collection of Benko Horvat, today in Archaeological museum in Zagreb • well known collectors: Ante Topić Mimara, Benko Horvat, Frazn Koller, Dragica & Ivan Havliček, family Lanza from Split, dr. Nikola Grţetić, Tille Durieux, family Domančić from Hvar, family Marović form Split, private collector Draţen Kovačić and Ţarko Bošnjak, family Amerling, Ivo Nordeli etc. • the great number of artefacts came from Croatian noble houses and welthy citizens during 19th and early 20th century • most of the objects kept in Croatian museums were donated; smaller part was purchesed from various collections • the biggest number of objects examened and published in last few decades – cca. 3000 artefacts – the biggest collection that still need to be fully analyse is kept in Archaeological museum in Dubrovnik (197 objects) – Croato-Aegyptica database in Croatian language (since 2004) – cca. 3000 objects Project “Croato-Aegyptica Electronica” • 2004 – web site appeared on its own domain www.croato-aegyptica.hr – database was created (2004-2009) – first online database with 120 artefacts from AMZ • 2005 – database of news was created • 2005-2009 – almost all collections were examined, photographed and its objects were wrote with full discriptions in database (exceptions: numismatic collection of AMZ, Egyptian collection of Archaeological Museum in Dubrovnik) – today cca. 3000 artefacts in two databases • 2009 – database was hacked • 2010 – with some changes in CARNet our project lost its own domain – database was not available online since then • 2010-2011 – website was only available on server of Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb • 2011 – server crashed and almost all data were lost • 2012 – whole backup of website moved to new address: http://www.hrstud.unizg.hr/sites/cae/ – database with c. 3000 objects • Future plans: – New funds from various Croatian and International institutions – New team of collaborators (MA and PhD students from Faculty of Philosophy and Croatian Studies in Zagreb) • scholars: Mladen Tomorad (hear of project), Igor Uranić, Goran Zlodi • ex-students: Kristina Šekrst, Dejan Pernjak, Danijel Štruklec, Mihaela Diklić, Porin Ščukanec-Razniček – Bilingual thesauri and online digital catalogue (Croatian, English) – Interactive historical maps with various historical data (locations, photographs, short history etc.) – News database – New articles (the most of them are already written) – Merging with ICOM - CIPEG Worldwide Egyptian database – Europeana database via Croatian Ministry of Culture