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Newsletter Egypt and Sudan Newsletter Egypt and Sudan Issue 6, 2019 Introduction Neal Spencer Keeper of Nile Valley and Mediterranean Collections Even within the British Museum, the array of research, projects, displays and discoveries around Egypt and Sudan can come as a surprise to colleagues. That very much continued in 2018, with rediscovered papyri in the rare (and wonderfully named) ‘abnormal hieratic’ script, scientific analysis of ‘black goo’ on coffins to reveal details of ancient funerary rituals, or new approaches to well-known gilded mummy masks that suggest how these fittings were produced. Recognising and researching the history of the British Museum continues to form an important strand of study. This was evident in the Annual Egyptological Colloquium on Displaying Egypt, which explored how acquisitions, design, political and social contexts shape, and are shaped by, how Egypt has been represented to the public in museums and beyond. The Museum’s collection continues to grow, whether through donations of objects with rich layered histories (such as the samples used to support an early 20th century history of hair and style), or the acquisition of very new objects, such as the football boots Archaeological fieldwork, training and collaboration of Egypt and Liverpool star Mohamed Salah. continue in Egypt and Sudan – from museum interpretation workshops to training on digitising glass Very different perspectives on Egypt were presented plate negatives, or the removal of a rare Kushite wall to British Museum audiences this year. The Albukhary painting in Dangeil. Our Circulating Artefacts project Foundation Gallery of the Islamic world placed Egypt is addressing the current increase in illicit export of within a world that stretches from Morocco to Indonesia, antiquities from Egypt and Sudan. Four Sudanese while also addressing the contribution of non-Muslim colleagues spent three months at the Museum communities in those regions. The Asahi Shimbun displays documenting the art market and learning about research The past is present: becoming Egyptian in the 20th century techniques and legal frameworks. looked at how Egyptians – not Europeans – deployed and reimagined the pharaonic past for domestic audiences This year sees collaboration on a yet grander scale: from the 1920s onwards. Finally, the BP exhibition I am the British Museum will join the Museo Egizio (Turin), Ashurbanipal: king of the world, king of Assyria allowed the Musée du Louvre, the Rijkmuseum von Oudheden us to think of Egypt as a place at the periphery of the (Leiden) and the Egyptian Museum in Berlin to work with Assyrian world view, and how it provided the setting for the Ministry of Antiquities on Transforming the Egyptian clashes between the great Mesopotamian empire and the Museum (Cairo), a project generously funded by the EU kingdom of Kush. Delegation in Cairo. Follow Neal on Twitter @NealSpencer_BM Exhibitions and galleries Pharaoh touring in Spain Marie Vandenbeusch Project Curator: Egyptian Touring Exhibitions, Department of Egypt and Sudan Following the display at the Cleveland Museum of Art in 2016 (see Newsletter 4, 2017: 6–7), the exhibition Pharaoh: King of Egypt was transformed with new objects and two short films, designed to evoke the Egyptian landscape and the evolution of royal tombs. This latest incarnation of the exhibition is now touring in Spain as part of a collaboration between the British Museum and La Caixa Forum. It will travel across the country, already having visited Barcelona and Madrid where it was seen by nearly 350,000 visitors. A slightly smaller version – prompted by space constraints – will be shown at Caixa Forum venues in Girona and Seville, before finishing in Tarragona in 2020. The 3D design of the exhibition by Guri Casajuana was notable for the use of innovative lighting, through film atop each exhibition case that provided a high level of background light, yet also strongly raking light to highlight relief and sculptural detail. Reliefs with shallow carving were transformed. For example, a red granite block from Bubastis (EA 1102), originally inscribed with the name of Senwosret III, was recarved some 500 years later during the reign of Ramses II. In the exhibition, details of Senwosret III’s cartouche not seen before were suddenly apparent. Rediscovering objects in the collection is one of the privileges of developing exhibitions. They are not only revealed through beautiful display, but also re-excavated from museum storerooms. For example, a sandstone lintel (EA 153) depicting Thutmose III offering the symbol of Maat to four gods; Amun-Ra, Mut, Khonsu and Hathor, with Amenhotep I presenting vases to a company of four other gods. Not displayed before, to our knowledge, this relief had not even been photographed. The Spanish tour of Pharaoh prompted its cleaning, conservation and documentation, with high-resolution imagery now available on the British Museum’s collection online (www.britishmuseum.org/ research/collection_online/search). This red granite relief from Bubastis shows various layers of carving: the name of Senusret III was later replaced by the cartouche of Ramses II (EA 1102). Lintel showing two New Kingdom kings, each offering to a company of four gods (EA 153). Right: View of the opening section of the exhibition Pharaoh. King of Egypt in La Caixa Forum, Barcelona (© Fundación Bancaria “la Caixa”). 2 3 Exhibitions and galleries The Albukhary Foundation Gallery of the Islamic world Venetia Porter door panels of the Coptic church of Sitt Mariam, known Curator, Department of the Middle East as the Mu‘allaqa (Hanging) Church. Carved around 1300 and acquired by the British Museum in 1878, these are In October 2018, the Albukhary Foundation Gallery of placed alongside wooden panels from minbars (pulpits) of the Islamic world opened, situated at the heart of the mosques. This juxtaposition allows a focus on the stylistic Museum, within two high-ceilinged galleries that had vocabulary of the Mamluk period (1250–1517) which previously housed medieval European collections. Made includes the extensive and elaborate use of the repeating possible through the extraordinary generosity of the vegetal ornament sometimes known as the ‘arabesque’. Malaysia-based Albukhary Foundation, the result is a total restoration and refurbishment of these elegant In her analysis of the Mu‘allaqa panels, Lucy-Ann Hunt rooms within the ‘White Wing’ of the Museum, adjacent demonstrated the similarity between the designs on the to The Sir Paul and Lady Ruddock Gallery of Medieval minbar of Sultan Lagin (1296) within the mosque of Ibn Europe, within which are shown the famous Sutton Hoo Tulun, and the motifs on the panels. In her discussion of collections. An ambitious scheme for the new gallery, the iconography of these important panels, Hunt also worked on by a team of six curators for over three years notes that the designs can be seen to be responding with leading architects Stanton Williams, involved the to ‘Oriental Christian, Western, and Byzantine works creation of a new narrative and a holistic way of looking of art, reinforced with aniconic motifs in common with at the cultures of the Islamic world. At its full stretch this contemporary Islamic art.’ She is thus highlighting an can be defined as a series of regions that extend from interconnected world in which trade, patronage and West Africa to Southeast Asia, from the 7th century AD pilgrimage finds artistic expression in the objects. to the present day. Exemplified in theMu‘allaqa doors, this globalised theme is one of the main threads running through the displays. It Within the gallery, unsurprisingly, Egypt plays a central is a gallery full of stories, told through a myriad of objects role. As the visitor enters the gallery, they are greeted by drawn from across the Museum’s collection. objects made during the rule of the Fatimids (969–1171) and a text in Arabic from the Moroccan traveller Ibn The British Museum would like to thank the Albukhary Battutah (d.1369) stating ‘Misr um al-dunya (Egypt is the Foundation for their generous support that made possible Entrance to mother of the world)’. the creation of these new permanent galleries. the Albukhary Foundation Gallery of the Islamic The underlying curatorial vision sought to create a gallery world. focussing not only on high Islamic art, but that such objects made for sultans would be shown alongside the Mamluk basin of Sultan al-Nasir objects of everyday. Thus an impressive brass basin inlaid Muhammad ibn with silver made for Nasir al-Din Muhammad ibn Qalawun, Qalawun, made in a great patron of art and architecture who reigned three Damascus or Cairo c. AD 1320-1341 times between 1293–1341, can be seen with a display (1851,0104.1) of Fatimid era water filters broken from their clay jugs. Carved panel from These filters were found discarded on the rubbish heaps the Coptic church of Fustat, and feature a variety of delightful designs that of Sitt Mariam include an elephant. Another important element of the (Mu’allaqa), Cairo, c. AD 1300 Egyptian narrative is a case devoted to carving traditions, (1878,1203.7). and here, we have been able to include the cedar wood 4 5 Exhibitions and galleries The BP exhibition: I am Ashurbanipal: king of the world, king of Assyria ‘Taharqa, against the will of the gods, made efforts to take away the country of Egypt… He was defeated on the battlefield and the troops on which he relied were massacred… Panic and fear befell him and he became mad. He left his royal city, Memphis, the place on which he had trusted, boarded a ship to save his life, abandoned his camp, fled alone, and entered Thebes.’ The Assyrians pursued Taharqa but appear to have faced firm resistance – perhaps even defeat – in Thebes, for Taharqa’s kingship was still acknowledged in Upper Egypt until his death around 664 BC.
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