This Handbook provides a transnational reference point for critical engagements with the legacies of, and futures for, global archaeological collections. It advances museum archaeology as an area of ...reflexive research and practice addressing the critical issues of what gets prioritized by and researched in museums, by whom, how, and why.
Whenever twentieth-century modern art or new contemporary artworks are included amongst displays of ancient Egypt, press statements often assert that such juxtapositions are ‘surprising’, ...‘innovative’, and ‘fresh’, celebrating the external perspective they bring to such collections. But contemporary art’s relationship with museums and other disciplines needs to be understood in a longer-term perspective. Pairings of twentieth- and twenty-first-century artistic works with objects of antiquity is an activity that has been undertaken for more than a century in what has been a relatively long period of mutually reinforcing influences between modern/contemporary art, museum display, the art market, and Egyptian heritage. Together, they have decontextualised ancient Egyptian culture and shaped the language and perspectives of scholars, curators, and artists. In this paper, rather than considering how artists have been inspired by ancient Egypt, I will give a few examples of how more recent art practices from the late nineteenth century onwards have impacted the language and discourse of Egyptology and its museum representation. Then, using more recent artist engagements with the British Museum, I argue for greater interdisciplinary dialogues between artists and Egyptologists, as both take more critical stances towards research that recontextualises the power and agency of collections, representation, and knowledge production.
When the archaeology of Predynastic Egypt was last appraised in this journal, Savage (2001a, p. 101) expressed optimism that "a consensus appears to be developing that stresses the gradual ...development of complex society in Egypt." The picture today is less clear, with new data and alternative theoretical frameworks challenging received wisdom over the pace, direction, and nature of complex social change. Rather than an inexorable march to the beat of the neo-evolutionary drum, primary state formation in Egypt can be seen as a more syncopated phenomenon, characterized by periods of political experimentation and shifting social boundaries. Notably, field projects in Sudan and the Egyptian Delta together with new dating techniques have set older narratives of development into broader frames of reference. In contrast to syntheses that have sought to measure abstract thresholds of complexity, this review of the period between c. 4500 BC and c. 3000 BC transcends analytical categories by adopting a practice-based examination of multiple dimensions of social inequality and by considering how the early state may have become a lived reality in Egypt around the end of the fourth millennium BC.
Full text
Available for:
BFBNIB, DOBA, EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, IZUM, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NMLJ, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Scattered Finds explores the politics, personalities and social histories that linked fieldwork in Egypt with the varied organizations around the world that received finds. Case studies range from ...Victorian municipal museums and women’s suffrage campaigns in the UK, to the development of some of the USA’s largest institutions, and from university museums in Japan to new institutions in post-independence Ghana. By juxtaposing a diversity of sites for the reception of Egyptian cultural heritage over the period of a century, Alice Stevenson presents new ideas about the development of archaeology, museums and the construction of Egyptian heritage. She also addresses the legacy of these practices, raises questions about the nature of the authority over such heritage today, and argues for a stronger ethical commitment to its stewardship.
Artefacts of Excavation Stevenson, Alice
Archaeology international,
03/2018, Volume:
20
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Egypt's cultural heritage is amongst the most widely dispersed of any country following centuries of intense colonial and imperial interest in its history, monuments and antiquities. The three-year ...Artefacts of Excavation project, which began in 2014, is examining one facet of this: the distribution of finds from British excavations in Egypt to institutions worldwide, between 1883 and the present day. The project aims to create an online resource to assist others in making connections for themselves and to map out the full scope of the finds dispersal network, and to examine their role in the development of archaeology as a discipline and the museum as an institution.
Kohl, a dark eye cosmetic, is a well-known part of Ancient Egyptian culture. Modern chemical analyses of kohls have largely found lead-based inorganic constituents, whereas earlier studies argued for ...a much broader range of constituents. Furthermore, organic materials in kohls remain severely understudied. This raises questions regarding the true diversity of materials and recipes used to produce kohls. We analysed the contents of 11 kohl containers from the Petrie Museum collection in London. The objects selected cover a broad range of times and locations in Egypt. Our multi-analytical approach allowed us to characterise both inorganic and organic components. Our data show that inorganic ingredients in kohl recipes are not only lead-based but also manganese- and silicon-based. Our analyses also revealed that organic ingredients derived from both plant and animal sources were commonly used in kohl recipes and sometimes even represent the main constituent. All these findings point towards more varied recipes than initially thought and significantly shift our understanding of Ancient Egyptian kohls.
Full text
Available for:
IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology first opened its doors in 1915, and since then has attracted visitors from all over the world as well as providing valuable teaching resources. Named after ...its founder, the pioneering archaeologist Flinders Petrie, the Museum holds more than 80,000 objects and is one of the largest and finest collections of Egyptian and Sudanese archaeology in the world. Richly illustrated and engagingly written, the book moves back and forth between recent history and the ancient past, between objects and people. Experts discuss the discovery, history and care of key objects in the collections such as the Koptos lions and Roman era panel portraits. The rich and varied history of the Petrie Museum is revealed by the secrets that sit on its shelves.
Evidence for A-Group tomb superstructures is exceedingly rare and only one cemetery has ever shown definitive proof that such monuments existed, that of Tunqala West. Located during the UNESCO ...international rescue campaign of 1961, only one tomb from this cemetery was ever published. Although this tomb was the best preserved, it did not possess some features seen elsewhere in the cemetery, such as evidence for dedicated offering places above ground. The remaining tombs are presented here for the first time together with a discussion of the significance of the site in light of 50 further years of research since the cemetery was discovered.
Full text
Available for:
BFBNIB, INZLJ, NMLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, ZRSKP
In histories of archaeology, A.H.L.F. Pitt-Rivers and W.M.F. Petrie both have very prominent roles. It has long been known that the two were acquainted, leading many to assume that several key ...aspects of Petrie’s archaeological approaches were adopted directly from Pitt-Rivers. Few histories, however, have critically evaluated Petrie’s early archaeological work in the UK prior to his well-known endeavours in Egypt and Palestine. It is argued in this article that on doing so it becomes clear that the influence of Pitt-Rivers on Petrie has been overstated in the past. Moreover, a brief comparison of their approaches to fieldwork, to publication, to engagement with objects, and their views on museums, demonstrates more contrasts than similarities. In order to begin to evaluate Petrie’s disciplinary development this article considers some of the intellectual networks of late Victorian England as well as the social and economic contexts in which Petrie practised archaeology, which were to shape his methods independently of Pitt-Rivers.
PDF
