issue no. 04 MAR 2013 ART . CULTURE . ANTIQUITIES . NATURAL HISTORY SYDNEY CONTENTS UNIVERSITY MUSEUMS O1 RESOLVING THE MURDER OF 20 FAB FIVE Comprising the Macleay Museum, Nicholson Museum RAMESSES III 22 A PASSION FOR FISH: SIR and University Art Gallery 04 WILLIAM COMES HOME WILLIAM JOHN MACLEAY AND Open Monday to Friday, 10am to HIS DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE 4.30pm and the first Saturday of 06 ATELIER PARIS: every month 12 to 4pm THE POWER STUDIO 24 TEST PATTERN Closed on public holidays. General admission is free. 09 WHAT IS SHE HOLDING? 26 BELATED SEASON’S GREETINGS Become a fan on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. 10 THE SCULPTOR WHO SHAPED 27 ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE THE FUTURE Sydney University Museums 28 A GENDER-BENDING Administration 12 ON THE TRAIL OF LAWRENCE BUTTERFLY T +61 2 9351 2274 F +61 2 9351 2881 OF ARABIA 29 SYDNEY UNIVERSITY MUSEUMS E [email protected] 14 EYES AND EARS AND MOUTH DONOR HONOUR ROLL Education and Public Programs AND NOSE … FOR 2012 To book a school excursion, an adult education tour or a University 16 A LESSON IN MUSEUM DESIGN 30 OUT AND ABOUT heritage tour T +61 2 9351 8746 19 10,000 STRONG: A YEAR OF 32 WHAT’S ON E [email protected] EDUCATION MILESTONES MACLEAY MUSEUM Macleay Building, Gosper Lane (off Science Road) T +61 2 9036 5253 F +61 2 9351 5646 E [email protected] NICHOLSON MUSEUM LOOKING BACK, In the southern entrance to the Quadrangle T +61 2 9351 2812 LOOKING F +61 2 9351 7305 E [email protected] UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY FORWARD War Memorial Arch, the Quadrangle A WORD FROM THE DIRECTOR T +61 2 9351 6883 F +61 2 9351 7785 E [email protected] 2012 saw more than 95,000 visitors Opening at the Macleay Museum in late enjoy our museums and art gallery, a March is an exhibition of models used in MUSE edited by Michael Turner. 10 percent increase on the previous year. teaching over the past 100 years. Some Produced by Marketing and The number of primary and secondary of my favourites are the meticulously Communications, the University of students who participated in our schools crafted wooden models of mineral Sydney, February 2013. education program also rose by more crystal structures used last century for 13/3111 than 10 percent. Students came from teaching mineralogy in the University’s ISSN 1449-0420 ABN 15 211 513 464 as far away as Broken Hill to take part newly formed Geology Department, a CRICOS 00026A in experiences that included handling result of the mining boom in Australia. and analysing artefacts from the ancient Crystal models were first made in the Mediterranean worlds as a part of late 18th century to accompany books Cover image: Close-up of William, curricula-based school excursions. on the new science of crystallography. the Macleay Museum’s Auzoux anatomical model The Macleay Museum’s models date 87t 3kg The last of the exhibitions marking the from the 1880s. It promises to be a Photo © Tim Harland CO2-e CO2-e 50th anniversary of the Power Bequest Saved Saved fascinating exhibition. opened at the University Art Gallery in February. Atelier Paris: The Power Studio Finally, LEGO will be travelling! focuses on the work of a selection of After a very successful exhibition at the artists who took up residencies at the Nicholson Museum seen by more than Power Studio in Paris. Our association 2.4t 2.2t 3kg 45,000 visitors in its first six months, the with the Power Institute, however, CO2-e CO2-e CO2-e museum’s LEGO model of the Colosseum, Saved Saved Saved continues. Later this year, Professor together with a number of original Mark Ledbury, Power Professor and artefacts from ancient Rome, will travel Director of the Institute, and Dr Georgina to regional parts of New South Wales and Cole will be curating an exhibition of Victoria, commencing in August. This publication is printed on environmentally 16th- to 19th-century drawings from the responsible paper, using vegetable-based inks, University’s RP Meagher Collection. by SOS Print and Media, an FSC Chain of Custody DAVID ELLIS certified printer. DIRECTOR, MUSEUMS AND CULTURAL Printed on ENVI Recycled 50/50 by Spicers, which is NCOS certified. This is a PEFC-certified ENGAGEMENT paper, containing 50 percent recycled fibre, made from elemental and process chlorine free pulp derived from sustainably managed forests and non-controversial sources. ENVI Recycled 50/50 is Certified Carbon Neutral and Australian Paper is an ISO 14001 certified mill. RESOLVING THE MURDER OF RAMESSES III The Sydney Ostrakon (NM R97), recording the An ancient Egyptian earliest known industrial action in history in murder-mystery, an unknown hieratic script mummy, and an era of economic, military and political crisis. Dr Craig Barker examines objects in the Nicholson Museum collection from the troubled reign of Ramesses III. ISSUE 04 MARCH 2013 1 Medinet Habu, the mortuary temple built by Ramesses III on the west bank of the Nile at Luxor Ramesses III of the 20th Dynasty controversy. The Judicial Papyrus of reigned as pharaoh of Egypt from Turin states that in 1155 BC members of c.1186 to 1155 BC. It was a time of Ramesses’ harem attempted to kill him profound upheaval in the kingdom, as part of a palace coup. Some accounts reflected in carvings on the wall of suggest the assassination attempt was the mortuary temple of the pharaoh a success, while others indicated that at Medinet Habu, which depict the pharaoh survived the attack, at least conflict with the so-called ‘Sea for a short period of time. The Judicial Peoples’ and military campaigns in Papyrus tells of a number of separate Libya and Nubia. trials and lists punishments to those The heavy financial burden of the who had participated. They included one constant conflicts affected the of the king’s two known wives, called Egyptian economy severely, evidence Tiye, and her son, Prince Pentawere, a of which is recorded in the Nicholson potential heir to the throne. It was said Museum’s Sydney Ostrakon that Pentawere was found guilty at trial (NM R97). This limestone block with and then took his own life. a hieratic inscription, acquired by MUMMY FORENSICS Sir Charles Nicholson, dates to the In late 2012, the results of a forensic 29th year of Ramesses’ reign. It is investigation of two of the mummies one of the few surviving documents in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, of the first recorded industrial action published in the British Medical Journal, in history: royal tomb-builders and seemingly confirmed the regicide. workmen in Deir el-Medina walking Italian paleopathologist Albert Zink off the job in protest at a lack of and his team re-examined the mummy food provisions and corruption of Ramesses III, and the unidentified among officials. remains of another body found The mummy of Ramesses III photographed by University of Sydney alumnus Sir Grafton Elliot The precise cause of Ramesses’ alongside it, known as Mummy E, or the Smith for his landmark publication, The Royal death has long been the source of ‘screaming mummy’ due to its contorted Mummies (1912) 2 A scarab (NM R1176) with a catouche (left) of Ramesses III acquired by Sir Charles Nicholson facial features and open mouth. Both of Sydney alumnus, Sir Grafton Elliot The Nicholson Museum is home to mummies were found in 1881 at Deir Smith, examined both bodies for his a number of other 20th Dynasty el-Bahari. It has long been speculated masterly volume of 1912, The Royal objects, some of which have links that Mummy E is Pentawere. Mummies, and dismissed these theories, to the murdered pharaoh. A heavily Using CT scans on these bodies for the explaining that the body may have damaged limestone statue of a first time, the investigators found a deep assumed this position after any type of kneeling scribe (NM R1144), 1m high, wound to the throat of the pharaoh, just death. Unusually, however, the body of dates to this period and probably under the larynx, which was 7cm wide Mummy E was wrapped in a sheepskin depicts a vizier of the royal court. and probably caused by a sharp blade. and had not undergone the traditional An amulet in the form of a scarab The investigators speculate that the methods of mummification. The 2012 of blue-glazed steatite (NM R1176) wound could have caused immediate investigation showed the body had has a cartouche of Ramesses III with death. They also discovered an amulet unusual compressed skin folds around several epithets of the kings carved in the shape of a Horus eye embedded the neck and an inflated chest, which onto its base. Both objects were in the wound, deep enough to have may indicate death by strangulation acquired by Sir Charles Nicholson been missed by previous examinations (or alternatively post-mortem changes in 1856–57, and vividly reflect of the mummy. to the body). Whatever the cause of 20th Dynasty material culture. They, death, the sheepskin may suggest along with the Sydney Ostrakon, are Investigations of the ‘screaming a punishment in the form of a remarkable testaments to a period of mummy’ showed it was a young man, non-traditional burial. upheaval in Egyptian history, one that aged around 18 years. Early scientific saw a prince murder his father. investigators speculated sensationally DNA tests also confirmed that the that the body had been poisoned second body was indeed a blood relative or buried alive; the physician David of Ramesses III; they were found to share Dr Craig Barker is Manager of Fouquet, who examined the body in the same Y chromosome and 50 percent Education and Public Programs at the 1880s, wrote of how the “last of their genetic material, typical of a Sydney University Museums.