Artefacts of Excavation: the international distribution of Egyptian finds from British excavations 1880-1980
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Oxford
Department Name: Oriental Institute
Abstract
From the 1880s to the 1980s British excavations in Egypt resulted in the discovery of tens of thousands of ancient Egyptian objects. This included unique discoveries at iconic sites such as the tombs of Egypt's first rulers at Abydos, the temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahri, the ancient city of Tell el-Amarna and vast animal cemeteries at Saqqara. A large proportion of the recovered objects, however, were distributed to an estimated 200 museums around the world before they were fully documented or published. Consequently, before any proper analysis of these excavations can be undertaken, considerable research time has to be invested in identifying where objects are so that they can be studied. To date, such searches have been piecemeal, dependent upon a researcher's regional or chronological interests. 'Artefacts of Excavation' is a more ambitious project that will create a valuable central resource for the relocation and re-contextualization of these objects, and will seek to transform our understanding of the role of these distributions in the development of archaeology and museology. By charting the nature of the relationships between objects, people and places that were created through a century of finds distribution from British excavations in Egypt we will transform our understandings of the historically contingent construction of ancient Egypt in museums and of the disciplinary development of archaeology and museology from both a global and local perspective.
These goals will be achieved by documenting for the first time the scope, scale and complexity of these distributions. This will be made possible by the skills of the project team, who will bring together their knowledge and experience of Egyptian archaeology, museum practice, digital technologies and archival research to bring dispersed collections back together virtually in a central, publicly accessible online resource that will enhance the potential for curatorial work with these collections. In so doing this project will provide a model of knowledge exchange between archaeological specialists and museum practitioners, which in turn will be of cultural benefit to the public through improved displays and collections information. It will also directly benefit archaeologists working in the field in Egypt, including our Egyptian colleagues, who are today re-excavating many of the key sites previously examined, but which were largely unpublished or else only partially published, by previous generations of British fieldworkers.
Investigation of such finds distribution will make it possible to examine the local, national, international, and colonial identities that were negotiated as different people and institutions vied for a share of excavated material and sought to influence the direction of work in Egypt itself. Such excavations were largely conducted at a time when the colonial project saw museum institutions established across the globe, while collections expanded considerably, but it was also the period that witnessed the establishment of archaeology as an academic discipline. By exploring the distribution of objects from excavations to museums, and the voluminous correspondence that accompanied these exchanges, this project will challenge the commonly held view that excavation in the field and museum work formed two areas of practice and through archival research demonstrate their symbiotic relationship. We will explore the processes of 'artefaction' that occurred both in the field in Egypt and in museums, in which Egyptian objects transformed from their 17th-19th century status of individual curios to polyvalent artefacts whose meaning was socially constructed through shifting links to specific places, objects, people, and institutions. Through detailed case studies of 9 different institutions across the UK, Commonwealth, and the globe these complex relations can be explored, transforming how we understand contemporary attitudes to the Egyptian past.
These goals will be achieved by documenting for the first time the scope, scale and complexity of these distributions. This will be made possible by the skills of the project team, who will bring together their knowledge and experience of Egyptian archaeology, museum practice, digital technologies and archival research to bring dispersed collections back together virtually in a central, publicly accessible online resource that will enhance the potential for curatorial work with these collections. In so doing this project will provide a model of knowledge exchange between archaeological specialists and museum practitioners, which in turn will be of cultural benefit to the public through improved displays and collections information. It will also directly benefit archaeologists working in the field in Egypt, including our Egyptian colleagues, who are today re-excavating many of the key sites previously examined, but which were largely unpublished or else only partially published, by previous generations of British fieldworkers.
Investigation of such finds distribution will make it possible to examine the local, national, international, and colonial identities that were negotiated as different people and institutions vied for a share of excavated material and sought to influence the direction of work in Egypt itself. Such excavations were largely conducted at a time when the colonial project saw museum institutions established across the globe, while collections expanded considerably, but it was also the period that witnessed the establishment of archaeology as an academic discipline. By exploring the distribution of objects from excavations to museums, and the voluminous correspondence that accompanied these exchanges, this project will challenge the commonly held view that excavation in the field and museum work formed two areas of practice and through archival research demonstrate their symbiotic relationship. We will explore the processes of 'artefaction' that occurred both in the field in Egypt and in museums, in which Egyptian objects transformed from their 17th-19th century status of individual curios to polyvalent artefacts whose meaning was socially constructed through shifting links to specific places, objects, people, and institutions. Through detailed case studies of 9 different institutions across the UK, Commonwealth, and the globe these complex relations can be explored, transforming how we understand contemporary attitudes to the Egyptian past.
Planned Impact
Beneficiaries:
(a) The major beneficiaries of this research outside of academia will be public museums not only in the UK, but also across Europe and the world - an estimated 200 institutions. There are 112 museums in the UK alone that curate many thousands of objects acquired during British excavations in Egypt (Serpico 2006). A scoping exercise conducted in July 2012 in preparation for this proposal established that outside of the UK at least a further 80 institutions hold objects from such fieldwork (Stevenson in review). Correspondence with curators across the world shows that there is great interest in acquiring more information about the objects in their care and for the resources to help identify, contextualise and interpret artefacts sent to their institutions over the course of the last century. We will engage those who manage such collections at the outset of the project through direct email contact in order to establish what information would be most useful to them on the project website. This will open a dialogue with such museum professionals to establish what objects they curate and share information about the background context to these objects and their acquisition in Egypt. Such knowledge exchange can, in turn, inform external museums' own collections management and documentation of these collections. In this process the website will be a fundamental portal of knowledge exchange providing information on sites, excavators and transcriptions of archives in London, Boston and elsewhere (e.g. Philadelphia) that relate to the distribution of collections around the world and can facilitate identification of objects in collections. This information will allow museums to more effectively respond to research enquiries about their Egyptian collections and use them creatively in Education (e.g. for key state 2 history) and public exhibitions.
(b) The public will also be major cultural beneficiaries. Objects often found their way into collections through the activities of local individuals. Stories of distribution of how Egyptian objects came to be in places as far flung as Aberdeen and Cape Town offer a dynamic way of reconnecting the public to artefacts in their local museums. We will seek to identify individual biographies that have resonance with communities in which Egyptian objects are now located and link these to wider histories. These object biographies will be a feature of the project's website. We will also host a series of public events in the Pitt Rivers Museum and the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, and the Egypt Exploration Society, London and Cairo, to engage the public. These will include public talks, object handling sessions, and a temporary (potentially touring) exhibition pulling together object, documentary and photographic materials that illustrate the history of British excavations in Egypt. By liaising with museum curators, promotion through events in and outside the museum, we will encourage individuals beyond the project team to submit object biographies of Egyptian objects in other museum collections that can be hosted on the website.
(c) Students in the University of Oxford and in Museum Studies more generally will be beneficiaries through numerous opportunities to volunteer in various aspects of the project's activities, including voluntary experience within the Ashmolean Museum as objects are prepared for incorporation in the website's resources and their contextualization is recorded as examples of how to link excavated collections with archives and published excavation reports. In this way individuals will gain valuable experience in working in Museum environments, enhancing future job prospects for some of them by developing transferable and employable skills. There will also be opportunities to contribute to the website content by authoring object biographies
(a) The major beneficiaries of this research outside of academia will be public museums not only in the UK, but also across Europe and the world - an estimated 200 institutions. There are 112 museums in the UK alone that curate many thousands of objects acquired during British excavations in Egypt (Serpico 2006). A scoping exercise conducted in July 2012 in preparation for this proposal established that outside of the UK at least a further 80 institutions hold objects from such fieldwork (Stevenson in review). Correspondence with curators across the world shows that there is great interest in acquiring more information about the objects in their care and for the resources to help identify, contextualise and interpret artefacts sent to their institutions over the course of the last century. We will engage those who manage such collections at the outset of the project through direct email contact in order to establish what information would be most useful to them on the project website. This will open a dialogue with such museum professionals to establish what objects they curate and share information about the background context to these objects and their acquisition in Egypt. Such knowledge exchange can, in turn, inform external museums' own collections management and documentation of these collections. In this process the website will be a fundamental portal of knowledge exchange providing information on sites, excavators and transcriptions of archives in London, Boston and elsewhere (e.g. Philadelphia) that relate to the distribution of collections around the world and can facilitate identification of objects in collections. This information will allow museums to more effectively respond to research enquiries about their Egyptian collections and use them creatively in Education (e.g. for key state 2 history) and public exhibitions.
(b) The public will also be major cultural beneficiaries. Objects often found their way into collections through the activities of local individuals. Stories of distribution of how Egyptian objects came to be in places as far flung as Aberdeen and Cape Town offer a dynamic way of reconnecting the public to artefacts in their local museums. We will seek to identify individual biographies that have resonance with communities in which Egyptian objects are now located and link these to wider histories. These object biographies will be a feature of the project's website. We will also host a series of public events in the Pitt Rivers Museum and the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, and the Egypt Exploration Society, London and Cairo, to engage the public. These will include public talks, object handling sessions, and a temporary (potentially touring) exhibition pulling together object, documentary and photographic materials that illustrate the history of British excavations in Egypt. By liaising with museum curators, promotion through events in and outside the museum, we will encourage individuals beyond the project team to submit object biographies of Egyptian objects in other museum collections that can be hosted on the website.
(c) Students in the University of Oxford and in Museum Studies more generally will be beneficiaries through numerous opportunities to volunteer in various aspects of the project's activities, including voluntary experience within the Ashmolean Museum as objects are prepared for incorporation in the website's resources and their contextualization is recorded as examples of how to link excavated collections with archives and published excavation reports. In this way individuals will gain valuable experience in working in Museum environments, enhancing future job prospects for some of them by developing transferable and employable skills. There will also be opportunities to contribute to the website content by authoring object biographies
Organisations
- University of Oxford (Lead Research Organisation)
- University Libre Bruxelles (Université Libre de Bruxelles ULB) (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF EAST LONDON (Collaboration)
- Allard Pierson Museum (Collaboration)
- University of Ghent (Collaboration)
- Royal Museums of Art and History (Collaboration)
- Royal Museum of Mariemont (Collaboration)
- University of Leuven (Collaboration)
- Egypt Exploration Society (Project Partner)
Publications
Libonati E
(2017)
An aspect of the object habit: Pliny the Elder, audience and politics
in Museum History Journal
Stevenson A
(2017)
Introduction-object habits: Legacies of fieldwork and the museum
in Museum History Journal
Stevenson A
(2016)
Conflict antiquities and conflicted antiquities: addressing commercial sales of legally excavated artefacts
in Antiquity
Stevenson, A.
(2016)
Artefacts of Excavation': a transnational perspective on ancient Egypt in the modern world.
in Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections
Stevenson A
(2016)
'A selection of minor antiquities': a multi-sited view on collections from excavations in Egypt
in World Archaeology
Stevenson, A.
(2015)
Artefacts of excavation
in Egyptian Archaeology
Stevenson A
(2014)
Artefacts of excavation
in Journal of the History of Collections
Stevenson A
(2014)
Artefacts of excavation
in Journal of the History of Collections
Title | "Exporting Egypt: Where? Why? Whose?" Temporary exhibition at UCL Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology |
Description | This exhibition explores the journeys taken by Egyptian objects from archaeological sites to institutions around the world, the issues involved and their legacies today. The exhibition runs from 31 January - 29 April, Tues - Sat, 1-5pm in the Petrie Museum. |
Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Impact | The interest in the project led to the audience development team programming a series of further events to tie in with the exhibition including an 'ideas slam'. Public engagement with the exhibition has been encouraged through the provision of luggage label tags for visitors to record their responses to questions raised in the exhibition (https://twitter.com/excavatedegypt/status/824923392088428551). |
URL | https://harngroup.wordpress.com/2017/01/19/artefacts-of-excavation-project-exhibition/ |
Title | Performing the Archive |
Description | The Artefacts of Excavation project team has collaborated with the University of East London's theatre students (BA acting and MA Directing and Writing) in the Performing the Archive course to devise a series of dramatic performances based around the archive and the history of British excavations. The Artefacts of Excavation website and the Exporting Egypt exhibition are integral components for the research the students are undertaking. Two class sessions were held for the students. The project has also offerd additional small group sessions around objects and archives relevant to their performance. One performance is being staged in the Petrie Museum, which is a principal focus the students' course. |
Type Of Art | Performance (Music, Dance, Drama, etc) |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Impact | None so far. |
Description | We have developed a fully searchable online resource to allow non-specialists to discover and understand Egyptian artefacts in local institutions across the UK, Europe, and the rest of the world. In preparing the material for this resource, and digitizing archives, we have discovered that at least 320 institutions around the world benefited from British excavations in Egypt. In terms of our principal research question, we have demonstrated that the phenomenon under study formed the most widespread distribution of cultural heritage known from anywhere. Our research papers published so far discuss the impact of this practice on the development of disciplines and museum practice through a series of case studies. For example, recent research in Japan has shown how excavated artefacts sent from Britain to Japan stimulated the development and shaped the course of archaeology in Japan and Korea. Now that the online resource has been constructed and is fully operational, we shall engage with the collections we have identified in order to enrich their knowledge and understanding of their holdings and to set them in their historical and intellectual context. For their part, they will enhance and deepen our project by adding to it both factually and in terms of its narrative impact. |
Exploitation Route | Our website has been operational since early 2015. It is designed for dissemination both to museum curators and to the wider interested public. The site has attracted international attention and is increasingly used by curators and members of the public. The project maintains a presence on Facebook and Twitter, and on both platforms it has attracted a large amount of interest. The effects of this are expected to last long past the end of the funded project. |
Sectors | Creative Economy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
URL | http://egyptartefacts.griffith.ox.ac.uk/ |
Description | This summary extends the one given in March 2016, which is retained at the end for all parts that still apply. The further progress of our research has increased the number of institutions that have been identified as being allocated objects excavated by British teams in Egypt. Our estimate now stands at more than 350 institutions, in 27 different countries across 5 continents. This number is likely to increase a little further. This work has confirmed that there is no other area of world archaeology with a material legacy of such a spread and scope. Egyptian archaeology thus stands as central to the development of Old-World archaeology in the formative period for fieldwork, as well as for the formation of public collections and the position of non-Western civilizations in academic and popular discourse. The full list of the institutions that were allocated finds and the excavations that are represented in their collections can now be viewed online. The website includes 2600 archival documents from the Petrie Museum that detail lists of finds from Egypt that were sent to public museums and other institutions. These are fully searchable by year, institution and excavation. A further 4000 unpublished archival documents in the Egypt Exploration Society (EES) that contain information about objects and the museums to which they were sent have been scanned. Metadata is currently being attached to the scans for upload to the website, in order to allow them to be easily shared through this single repository with the museums to whose collections they relate. We have engaged museum professionals, some of whom have taken an interest in the project and written short articles and blogs for the project's website. A good example of these is by the Curator of the Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow: http://egyptartefacts.griffith.ox.ac.uk/?q=janet-may-buchanan-scotlands-forgotten-heroine-egyptology Our national and international case studies are well advanced. A recently developed example is the identification of a previously 'lost' collection in the National Museum of Ghana. We are forming collaboration with Ghanaian, Italian, and Egyptian colleagues to investigate this material further. We have helped to identify previously unknown collections for example in Vancouver, the University of Manchester archives, Wellesley College (Wellesley, MA), and Garrett Theological Seminary (Evanston, IL). We presented our findings at a 135-year anniversary event for the Egypt Exploration Society in Cairo on 18 February 2017 that was attended by local journalists interested in picking up the story of the project for an Egyptian audience. We were interviewed by Egypt's premier newspaper, al-Ahram, and have provided images and text for consideration for a series of articles. Several case studies are presented in our temporary exhibition "Exported Egypt", which was opened to the public on 28 January 2017 and will be on display for four months. The displays engage audiences with a range of themes revealed during research for the project, including the significance of collecting Egypt for women's suffrage campaigns, the devastating effect of World War Two on collections, and contemporary debates about the ethics and legality of the commercial sale of some objects that left Egypt through the distribution process. A number of public events are programmed as part of the exhibition. A public lunch-time talk by the project's doctoral student, Alice Williams, was attended over twenty people. A student who wishes to be involved in the project came forward at the end. Other public events have included an evening panel debate at UCL entitled "Whose artefacts are they anyway?", with Alice Stevenson in conversation with John Reeve and Heba Abd el-Gawad, and invited lectures at the British Museum Department of Egypt and Sudan and the University of Leicester Archaeology Department. The exhibition has had a significant impact in the first month after its opening. Around 1500 visitors have viewed it to date, and feedback in a visitor survey was both positive and encouraging in engaging with the themes of the project. Examples are: "Interesting to read about the attitudes that people had in Victorian times towards Egyptian artefacts and the idea of 'saving' them"; "Definitely thought provoking"; "Raises questions about who has rights over cultural heritage and the political nature of antiquities exports"; "It was really interesting to follow an object`s life after its discovery and, sometimes, see how poor it looks like without its context!" We have made considerable progress in addressing our other research questions. In exploring objective (b) "to understand the shifting relationship between museums, field and archaeology, and research" our two-day conference "The Object Habit", held at UCL in April 2016, contributed importantly to developing a new theoretical framework through which such collecting can be interpreted as a phenomenon that has parallels in a number of cultural spheres. This conference attracted scholars from Germany, France, Italy, and across the UK, with papers given by specialists in a range of disciplines. Our proposal to the Museums History Journal for a special edited issue "The Object Habit: Legacies of Fieldwork and Museums" has been accepted, and papers are currently in peer review, with publication expected in mid-2017. The issue will include an introductory paper co-authored by Alice Stevenson, Emma Libonati, and John Baines, together with seven papers from the conference and a theme-setting new study by Emma Libonati. Our introduction also addresses the project's other two objectives: local, national, international, and colonial identities; and the material legacy of those practices in the present. Alice Stevenson is writing a book that will incorporate the project's research findings and will advance its intellectual objectives significantly. This is one of the core outputs originally planned for the project. The book proposal, together with a substantial chapter, has been welcomed by peer reviewers, and a contract has been signed with UCL Press for delivery of a final manuscript of 90,000 words on 1 March 2018. The book will be open-access on the UCL Press platform. The project has been an important point of departure for student engagement. Four Masters students from UCL's Department of Information Studies are using project archives for a course assignment, with the aim of creating an online exhibition that will trace an object through the archives to the museum in which it now resides. Three undergraduate students from the Department of Computer Science designed a phone and tablet app based on the project as part of their assignment in Object-Oriented Programming; this shows the destinations of object from distributions of excavated finds. Fifteen Masters students in Transnational studies focused a research class around the project. Three International Relations students at LSE have approached us for interviews for a documentary that is being created on Neocolonialism and the British Museum. At secondary school level we have been contacted by an A-level Archaeology student in Worcester who is basing a project on material excavated by Petrie that is held in the local area. Below is the text of out 2016 report. Above is the 2017 update. This project has become known in the museum community in particular, and it has already generated significant response from collections whose curators wish to enhance their understanding of where their holdings fit into the wider picture of the acquisition of provenanced antiquities from Egypt in the late 19th and 20th centuries. The material legacy of finds distribution has been directly tackled with reference to the contemporary issue of the auctioning of cultural heritage. An Open-Access publication in Antiquity (February 2016) by Alice Stevenson argues that excavated objects should not be offered at commercial auctions, calling for institutions to review their ethical guidelines with regard to cultural artefacts. Within a few days of publication online, the paper was reviewed and the arguments supported: http://www.anonymousswisscollector.com/2016/03/conflict-antiquities-and-conflicted-antiquities-by-alice-stevenson.html This project and its cataloguing of archives made the intervention on this issue possible. The project has also engaged with the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA). Stevenson's correspondence with the AIA and provision of scanned documents informed their policy decisions on the sale of excavated artefacts, which directly affected the withdrawal from auction of an important group of material that was subsequently accessioned to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The archival documents that have digitized as part of the project have been shared with museums around the world to assist in their identification of collections. To date we have provided rapid advice to: -Kelvingrove Museum, Glasgow -Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada -Dartmouth College Collection, Hanover NH, USA - Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge - The McManus: Dundee's Art Gallery and Museum - Kyoto University Museum, Kyoto, Japan |
First Year Of Impact | 2014 |
Sector | Creative Economy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections,Security and Diplomacy |
Impact Types | Cultural,Societal |
Description | Direct advice to museum sector on identifying collections |
Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
Policy Influence Type | Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health |
Impact | During the course of the project we have been approached by curators and collections managers from a number of museums in the UK and abroad seeking advice on the history of their collection. To date we have provided rapid advice to: -Kelvingrove Museum, Glasgow -Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto -Dartmouth College Collection Hanover New Hampshire - Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge - The McManus: Dundee's Art Gallery and Museum |
Description | Informed policy debate and professional practice |
Geographic Reach | North America |
Policy Influence Type | Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health |
Impact | Following the St Louis Branch of the Archaeological Institute of America's decision to sell excavated ancient Egyptian objects at commercial auction Stevenson was able to rapidly advise the central Committee of the AIA of the historical background using archives digitised by the project. This informed the AIA approach to dealing with the situation and their development of an improved ethical framework. |
URL | https://www.archaeological.org/news/advocacy/17257 |
Description | Provided advice on HLF bid for Maidenhead Museum |
Geographic Reach | National |
Policy Influence Type | Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health |
Impact | Our research was able to inform the development of an HLF bid by Maidenhead Museum for a redisplay of its Egyptian collection by being able to rapid advice and a letter of support pointing out the significance of the collection, its history, its links with Egypt and with Flinders Petrie's excavations. |
Title | Artefacts of excavation website |
Description | The Artefacts of excavation website presents a comprehensive overview of British excavations in Egypt and the distribution of artefacts to major international collections, regional museums, universities, schools and other institutions around the world. In addition to providing archival documents documenting the distribution of artefacts from the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology and the Egypt Exploration Society for researchers, museum professionals and the general public, site and yearly excavation information is provided as well as information on institutions and their collections. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2015 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | The website has been used by researchers, museum professional and students to embark on original research on Egyptian objects. |
URL | http://egyptartefacts.griffith.ox.ac.uk |
Title | Project website and database |
Description | The initial goal of the website is to provide institutions that have received excavated artefacts - including museums, schools, and libraries - with background details that can help to identify and contextualize collections. To this end we have not only made available the distribution lists held by the EES and UCL's Petrie Museum, but also provided background information that we hope will assist non-specialists to understand these documents and permit them to make discoveries for themselves. For example, we are pulling together details about the people who worked on excavations and the different excavators' marks that were physically applied to finds from specific years of fieldwork. Sharing data online is all part of an ongoing endeavour. The website is fully searchable by excavation season, excavator, site name and institution. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2015 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Museums around the world are now able to cross check their collections with archives held in London. |
URL | http://egyptartefacts.griffith.ox.ac.uk/ |
Description | Allard Pierson Museum, Netherlands, project and exhibition |
Organisation | Allard Pierson Museum |
Country | Netherlands |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Allard Pierson Museums' 'Petrie Perspective Project' is researching the history of its collection. We have supplied historical context and a methodology for thinking about their collection. We have shared digitizated archives and research papers. |
Collaborator Contribution | Funded a two-day workshop in London to discuss the history of the distribution of Egyptian artefacts and informed our records for the distributions to the Netherlands. |
Impact | International seminar and exhibition |
Start Year | 2014 |
Description | University of East London |
Organisation | University of East London |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | See details under Performances. |
Collaborator Contribution | See details under Performances. |
Impact | None so far. |
Start Year | 2017 |
Description | University of Leuven collaboration on the history of Belgian Egyptology in the colonial era |
Organisation | Royal Museum of Mariemont |
Country | Belgium |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | In March 2017 we were invited by Professor Harco Willems (KU Leuven, Belgium) to advise and participate in the development of a collaborative project on the history of Belgian Egyptology in the colonial era. The partners are Dr Eugène Warmenbol for the Université Libre de Bruxelles, together with Prof. Laurent Bavay (currently on secondment as director of the Institut français d'Archéologie Orientale in Cairo), Dr Marleen De Meyer and Prof. Harco Willems for KU Leuven, together with a group of cultural historians from the University of Ghent, the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels (MRAH/KMKG), and the Musée Royal de Mariemont (Morlanwelz). Most of the project will concern how Belgian expansionism affected the climate in which Egyptology began to flourish in Brussels and in museums and universities elsewhere in the country in the late nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century. The international context presupposes intimate contacts with the British and French authorities in Egypt at the time, as well as with British archaeologists, most notably Flinders Petrie, who was one of the central nodes in the distribution network that the Artefacts of Excavation project is researching. We will share data and expertise in this area, including advice on how archival research can link the artefacts now in Belgium to original find contexts in Egypt. |
Collaborator Contribution | We have accepted the offer to participate in this project. Our contributions to date have been input into the further funding proposal being led by Prof. Harco Willems and suggestions for developing our project in relation to theirs. |
Impact | No outputs yet. This will be a multi-disciplinary collaboration between Egyptologists, archaeologists, museum professionals and cultural historians. |
Start Year | 2017 |
Description | University of Leuven collaboration on the history of Belgian Egyptology in the colonial era |
Organisation | Royal Museums of Art and History |
Country | Belgium |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | In March 2017 we were invited by Professor Harco Willems (KU Leuven, Belgium) to advise and participate in the development of a collaborative project on the history of Belgian Egyptology in the colonial era. The partners are Dr Eugène Warmenbol for the Université Libre de Bruxelles, together with Prof. Laurent Bavay (currently on secondment as director of the Institut français d'Archéologie Orientale in Cairo), Dr Marleen De Meyer and Prof. Harco Willems for KU Leuven, together with a group of cultural historians from the University of Ghent, the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels (MRAH/KMKG), and the Musée Royal de Mariemont (Morlanwelz). Most of the project will concern how Belgian expansionism affected the climate in which Egyptology began to flourish in Brussels and in museums and universities elsewhere in the country in the late nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century. The international context presupposes intimate contacts with the British and French authorities in Egypt at the time, as well as with British archaeologists, most notably Flinders Petrie, who was one of the central nodes in the distribution network that the Artefacts of Excavation project is researching. We will share data and expertise in this area, including advice on how archival research can link the artefacts now in Belgium to original find contexts in Egypt. |
Collaborator Contribution | We have accepted the offer to participate in this project. Our contributions to date have been input into the further funding proposal being led by Prof. Harco Willems and suggestions for developing our project in relation to theirs. |
Impact | No outputs yet. This will be a multi-disciplinary collaboration between Egyptologists, archaeologists, museum professionals and cultural historians. |
Start Year | 2017 |
Description | University of Leuven collaboration on the history of Belgian Egyptology in the colonial era |
Organisation | University Libre Bruxelles (Université Libre de Bruxelles ULB) |
Department | Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences |
Country | Belgium |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | In March 2017 we were invited by Professor Harco Willems (KU Leuven, Belgium) to advise and participate in the development of a collaborative project on the history of Belgian Egyptology in the colonial era. The partners are Dr Eugène Warmenbol for the Université Libre de Bruxelles, together with Prof. Laurent Bavay (currently on secondment as director of the Institut français d'Archéologie Orientale in Cairo), Dr Marleen De Meyer and Prof. Harco Willems for KU Leuven, together with a group of cultural historians from the University of Ghent, the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels (MRAH/KMKG), and the Musée Royal de Mariemont (Morlanwelz). Most of the project will concern how Belgian expansionism affected the climate in which Egyptology began to flourish in Brussels and in museums and universities elsewhere in the country in the late nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century. The international context presupposes intimate contacts with the British and French authorities in Egypt at the time, as well as with British archaeologists, most notably Flinders Petrie, who was one of the central nodes in the distribution network that the Artefacts of Excavation project is researching. We will share data and expertise in this area, including advice on how archival research can link the artefacts now in Belgium to original find contexts in Egypt. |
Collaborator Contribution | We have accepted the offer to participate in this project. Our contributions to date have been input into the further funding proposal being led by Prof. Harco Willems and suggestions for developing our project in relation to theirs. |
Impact | No outputs yet. This will be a multi-disciplinary collaboration between Egyptologists, archaeologists, museum professionals and cultural historians. |
Start Year | 2017 |
Description | University of Leuven collaboration on the history of Belgian Egyptology in the colonial era |
Organisation | University of Ghent |
Country | Belgium |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | In March 2017 we were invited by Professor Harco Willems (KU Leuven, Belgium) to advise and participate in the development of a collaborative project on the history of Belgian Egyptology in the colonial era. The partners are Dr Eugène Warmenbol for the Université Libre de Bruxelles, together with Prof. Laurent Bavay (currently on secondment as director of the Institut français d'Archéologie Orientale in Cairo), Dr Marleen De Meyer and Prof. Harco Willems for KU Leuven, together with a group of cultural historians from the University of Ghent, the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels (MRAH/KMKG), and the Musée Royal de Mariemont (Morlanwelz). Most of the project will concern how Belgian expansionism affected the climate in which Egyptology began to flourish in Brussels and in museums and universities elsewhere in the country in the late nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century. The international context presupposes intimate contacts with the British and French authorities in Egypt at the time, as well as with British archaeologists, most notably Flinders Petrie, who was one of the central nodes in the distribution network that the Artefacts of Excavation project is researching. We will share data and expertise in this area, including advice on how archival research can link the artefacts now in Belgium to original find contexts in Egypt. |
Collaborator Contribution | We have accepted the offer to participate in this project. Our contributions to date have been input into the further funding proposal being led by Prof. Harco Willems and suggestions for developing our project in relation to theirs. |
Impact | No outputs yet. This will be a multi-disciplinary collaboration between Egyptologists, archaeologists, museum professionals and cultural historians. |
Start Year | 2017 |
Description | University of Leuven collaboration on the history of Belgian Egyptology in the colonial era |
Organisation | University of Leuven |
Department | Department of Materials Engineering (MTM) |
Country | Belgium |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | In March 2017 we were invited by Professor Harco Willems (KU Leuven, Belgium) to advise and participate in the development of a collaborative project on the history of Belgian Egyptology in the colonial era. The partners are Dr Eugène Warmenbol for the Université Libre de Bruxelles, together with Prof. Laurent Bavay (currently on secondment as director of the Institut français d'Archéologie Orientale in Cairo), Dr Marleen De Meyer and Prof. Harco Willems for KU Leuven, together with a group of cultural historians from the University of Ghent, the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels (MRAH/KMKG), and the Musée Royal de Mariemont (Morlanwelz). Most of the project will concern how Belgian expansionism affected the climate in which Egyptology began to flourish in Brussels and in museums and universities elsewhere in the country in the late nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century. The international context presupposes intimate contacts with the British and French authorities in Egypt at the time, as well as with British archaeologists, most notably Flinders Petrie, who was one of the central nodes in the distribution network that the Artefacts of Excavation project is researching. We will share data and expertise in this area, including advice on how archival research can link the artefacts now in Belgium to original find contexts in Egypt. |
Collaborator Contribution | We have accepted the offer to participate in this project. Our contributions to date have been input into the further funding proposal being led by Prof. Harco Willems and suggestions for developing our project in relation to theirs. |
Impact | No outputs yet. This will be a multi-disciplinary collaboration between Egyptologists, archaeologists, museum professionals and cultural historians. |
Start Year | 2017 |
Title | Artefacts of distribution app |
Description | App for graphic presentation of distribution of excavated artefacts across the globe and across time, under development for IoS and Android by computer science students at UCL. |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2016 |
Impact | Still under development. Intended for museum practitioners, students, and the general public. |
Description | Evening event in the Petrie entitled "Whose artefacts are they anyway?" 13 October 2016 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | The evaluation forms circulated at the event recorded people's changed ideas on the topic: In response to the question what did you discover today? "A different perspective to what I came with"; "how complex this whole issue is"; "the complex history of acquiring artefacts and the problems this causes" |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | Lecture at the British Council in Cairo for the Egypt Exploration Society |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | More than sixty people, including Egyptian museum professionals, archaeology students and journalists, attended a presentation by Alice Stevenson and Emma Libonati at the British Council. The presentation led to questions from journalists from Al-Ahram who expressed interest in writing a series of articles on the project. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Petrie Museum public lunchtime talk on project exhibition |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Project DPhil student, Alice Williams, gave a 30-minute presentation on the project in the public galleries of UCL's Petrie Museum. Museum visitors asked multiple questions at the end of the talk, demonstrating particular interest in the project. Seventeen evaluation forms were completed all rating it as an excellent event, with visitors reporting to be from UCL, London, UK and the USA. In response to the question "What did you discover today", people stated: "The complex nature of excavation and distribution", "aspect I have not considered much before"; "Interesting aspect for Egyptian objects"; "How all that Egyptian stuff distributed and how". |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | https://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums/petrie/whats-on |
Description | Presentation at the International Council of Museums (ICOM) panel for the international committee for Egyptology |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | 50 people engaged with PhD student Alice Williams talk 'Remarkable Discoveries': Annual Exhibitions of Egyptian Archaeology and their Impact on Museum Practice' at Staatliches Museum Ägyptischer Kunst, Munich, Germany on 2 September 2015. The was a lively discussion afterwards and Alice noted considerable interest in the project. It was a successful example of knowledge-exchange with many connections made between our research and international museums keen to understand their collections. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
URL | http://cipeg.icom.museum/media/docs/cipeg_annual_meeting_munich_pro_.pdf |
Description | Press statement and journalist interviews on 'who owns antiquity' |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
Results and Impact | In October 2014 Bonhams offered for sale on behalf of the St Louis Branch of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) objects excavated by the British School of Archaeology in Egypt that had been distributed to St Louis in 1914. Our project clearly documented that this distribution was intended solely for public benefit of the museum not private profit. Our research informed the production of a press statement condemning the sale (http://www.ees.ac.uk/userfiles/file/Petrie%20Mus_EES%20The%20Loss%20of%20Antiquities%20from%20Public%20Collections%281%29.pdf), which was picked up by the Daily Telegraph ('Bonhams criticised for Egypt treasure sale', The Daily Telegraph, 2 October 2014), the International Council of Museums (http://cipeg.icom.museum/media/docs/stevenson___naunton._the_loss_o_.pdf) and online blogs (https://mikepitts.wordpress.com/tag/archaeological-institute-of-america/). Alice Stevenson liaised with the central AIA board as the case was discussed and she provided advice and records to support their handling of the situation. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
URL | https://www.archaeological.org/news/aianews/17866 |
Description | Project Conference - 2-day event |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | 89 people attended our 2-day, international conference the 'Object Habit', designed to engage not just academics, but also museum professionals. We invited papers from a range of disciplines (palaeontology, anthropology, geology) to broaden our own perspective on collecting in the field and distributing to museums. Cross-disciplinary dialogue was established sparking new questions and opening up new possible research avenues. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
URL | http://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums/petrie/research/research-projects/AHRC_project/Conference_schedule |
Description | Project temporary exhibition launch: 'Exporting Egypt: Why? Where? Whose? |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | 75 people attended the exhibition launch of 'Exporting Egypt', a temporary exhibition based in the Petrie Museum. Launch to promote final stage of project and engage public audiences in research questions. Immediate responses on Twitter included comments "Thought-provoking in challenging collections and collecting. Must visit!", "Fantastic launch last night @PetrieMuseEgypt exhibition questions museum's acquisition rights and procedures #museumpolicy". |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Public talk 'How does stuff get into museums?' |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | 42 people attended a public talk in the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology introducing the project. There was a lot of animated discussion and many questions from the audience, in particular responding to one of our research questions on 'who owns the past'. One undergraduate student and two postgraduate students approached the team after offering to volunteer on the project, two of whom have become regular contributors to the online resource. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
URL | http://events.ucl.ac.uk/event/event:dbw-i234p2s9-1460lx/how-does-stuff-get-into-museums |
Description | Public talk Plymouth and District Egyptology Society |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Project DPhil student, Alice Williams, spoke to the the Plymouth and District Egyptology Society about the project and it relevance to Plymouth. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
URL | http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/Society-Plymouth-caters-Egyptology/story-28814956-detail/story.html |
Description | Public talk West Midlands Egyptology Society (WMES) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | 30 People attended project PhD student, Alice Williams', presentation on the project, which initiated lots of questions and interest in the project. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
URL | https://wmegyptology.wordpress.com/2015/11/ |
Description | Public talk: Showcasing the Society: The Annual Exhibitions of the Egypt Exploration Society. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | 17 people attended a public lecture given by project PhD student, Alice Williams, at the Egypt Exploration Society. Audience mambers asked numerous questions increasing interest in the project and this part of the history of excavation in Egypt. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
URL | http://www.ees.ac.uk/events/index/397.html |
Description | Twitter feed |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | The Twitter feed of Artefacts of excavation (@excavatedegypt) has generated a very active engagement across a range of users. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
URL | https://twitter.com/excavatedegypt |
Description | Workshop for North West Museums |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | A workshop for North West collections to provide assistance and information about provenancing and contextualising Egyptian material in local museums. Participants include: University of Manchester Museum, Manchester; World Museum, Liverpool; Garstang Museum, University of Liverpool. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
Description | Workshop for Scottish museums and collections |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | A workshop for the National Museums Scotland to provide assistance and information about provenancing and contextualising Egyptian material in Scottish collections. Participants included: McManus Museum, Dundee; Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums, Aberdeen; University of Aberdeen Museums, Aberdeen; McLean Museum and Art Gallery, Greenock; Scottish Borders Council; Aberdeen City Council, Aberdeen; Renfrewshire Leisure, Paisley; Glasgow Museums, Glasgow; University of Glasgow, Glasgow; National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |