Museum Map
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan acquired their first objects of ancient Egyptian art in 1874 and was followed in 1886 by another group of objects purchased directly from the Egyptian government. Between 1897 and 1906, the Museum primarily expanded their collection by funding excavations organised by the Egypt Exploration Fund (EEF), a British research society. Until a change in Egyptian legislation in 1983, the Egyptian government had a charitable practice known as partage which permitted a share of the non-unique finds from a field season to be given to the institution sponsoring the expedition.
In 1906, The Board of Trustees approved the establishment of a Department of Egyptian Art, one of the earliest departments at The Met. The Department’s mandate included excavating in Egypt under The Met’s patronage to allow the museum to acquire objects to expand the collection through the division of finds. In addition, each expedition was responsible for conducting a scientific excavation that would result in a complete archaeological record for each find. As a result, every found object, including the ones that came to The Met and those that remained in Egypt, were able to be carefully dated allowing them to be better understood within its appropriate historic period and cultural context. Until financial problems resulting from the Depression ended fieldwork, The Met sent their archaeologists almost annually into the field for the next 30 years.
Furthermore, The Met’s fieldwork in Egypt consisted of more than excavation; it also included the recording of standing monuments at or near the sites the Museum was working. Between 1907 and 1937, the Graphic Section of the Egyptian Expedition, led by Norman de Garis Davies, carefully drew and then painted facsimiles of wall paintings at ancient Egyptian sites exactly as they appeared.
While the Department of Egyptian Art was awarded its last item through partage in 1936, The Met continued to acquire art through purchases and gifts throughout their hiatus in fieldwork during the mid-twentieth century, Lila Acheson Wallace, an influential donor with a profound interest in ancient Egypt, began to formulate a plan with the Museum to put their entire collection of Egyptian art on view in some thirty-eight galleries. Considering that much of their collection had been kept in storage, this was a historic shift in the concept of display of art. While discussions of The Lila Acheson Wallace Galleries began in 1963, the plan only came to fruition with its third and final phase opening in 1983.
After an almost fifty-year hiatus, the Department returned to Egypt in 1984 and has been conducting ongoing archaeological fieldwork since. Today, Diana Craig Patch, the Lila Acheson Wallace Curator in Charge in the Department of Egyptian Art has stated that The Met’s “work continues the traditions of scientifically based fieldwork, exhibitions grounded in new scholarship, and critical acquisitions that bring new insights to our understanding of ancient Egypt.”
Bibliography:
de Garis Davis, N., Lilyquist, C. and Winlock, H.E. (1975). ‘“The Metropolitan Museum’s Egyptian Expedition”’, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin. Edited by K.S. Gilber.
Patch, D.C. (2022). The History of the Department, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Available at: https://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-met/collection-areas/egyptian-art/history-of-the-department (Accessed: 22 November 2024).
The British Museum
The British Museum is renowned worldwide for it’s Egyptology department and its permanent exhibition featuring incredible ancient artefacts. However, many are questioning how these Egyptian objects came to the United Kingdom and the ethical implications of how these artefacts become housed in institutions such as the British Museum.
In Brian Fagan’s book The Rape of the Nile, he describes the ‘raping’ of Egypt by archelogical efforts undertaken during ‘Egyptology’s Golden Age’ in late 19th and early 20th centuries. Fagan delves into Egypt’s long, complex, and often problamatic history of excavation, highlighting issues such as looting and the private trade of numerous ancient artefacts discovered through these research projects. His critique also helps contextualise how British colonial rule profited from these large-scale excavations, often exploiting Eygpt’s rich cultural history.
The British colonized Egypt and controlled its government from 1882 to 1956, granting them considerable authority over archaeological exploration. This colonial power, combined with the backing of the Egypt Exploration Fund - a British non-profit dedicated to Egyptological research - enabled the British to spearhead significant excavation efforts. Many intuitions, including The British Museum, sent prescription payments to the fund, in exchange for artefacts. Over 8,000 objects were acquired by the British Museum from the EEF, while others were curated via donations or purchases from private collectors, or from other excavation projects conducted by the British Museum in Egypt. Today, the British Museum holds thousands of anceint Eygptian antiquties in their collection with only 3 percent on display. This raises important questions not only about how these objects were acquired but also about the role of museums in housing Egypt's artefacts in the UK, and whether they should remain there or be returned to their place of origin.
In Dan Hicks’ book The Brutish Museum, he aruges for the repatriation of objects in Britain to their countries of origins. Hicks states that ‘the museum’ is not a neutral player in colonialism but a weapon that continues the violence of British imperialism. (Hicks, 2020) Dr. Zahi Hawass, an archaeologist and former Egyptian antiquites minister, has also made large efforts in the fight for repatriation of Egyptian artefacts since 2002. He calls on the British Museum to return the ‘Rosetta Stone,’ which he claims was stolen illegally- first by the French army, and later by the British, who brought the stone to England in 1802. While the British Museum has acknowledged Hawass and his petition for repatriation, the Rosetta Stone remains within their collection, with the museum disputing claims that the stone was removed illegally and under violence. This debate has continued for decades, and over the last 20 years, many objects have been successfully returned to Egypt.
In light of these ongoing debates, we - The Threads of Life team - have decided to create an online exhibition that highlights these remarkable linen objects while striving to present them in a way that acknowledges their cultural significance. We aim to celebrate their value without disconnecting them from their country of origin, while being as transparent as possible of the complex history of their acquisition to Western intuitions.
Bibliography:
ABDEL-MAGUID, O. (2014). Ethics of Egyptology and Collecting: Who Needs the Past? National Values and Egyptology. Shedet, 1(1), pp.18–25. doi:https://doi.org/10.21608/shedet.001.10.
Fagan, B. (2009). The Rape of the Nile. Basic Books.
Hawass, Z. (2014). Reparation . [online] Dr Zahi Hawass. Available at: https://www.hawasszahi.com/repatriation [Accessed 30 Nov. 2024].
Hicks, D. (2020). Brutish Museums: the Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution. Pluto Press, pp.235–242.
The British Museum (2019a). Collecting Histories. [online] The British Museum. Available at: https://www.britishmuseum.org/about-us/british-museum-story/collecting-histories.
The British Museum (n.d.). Egypt and Sudan. [online] The British Museum. Available at: https://www.britishmuseum.org/our-work/departments/egypt-and-sudan.
The British Museum (2019b). History. [online] The British Museum. Available at: https://www.britishmuseum.org/about-us/british-museum-story/history.
The Petrie Museum
The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archeology is home to one of the most prominent collections of Ancient Egyptian Archeology; situated in the University of London campus. The Petrie Museum, home to more than 80,000 objects stemming from flax fragments, tomb engravings, mummified bandages, beading and the infamous Tarkan Dress tunic, was first discovered and named after the pioneering archeologist Flinders Petrie. The museum, first opened in 1915, has attracted individuals from across the world to visit the vast array of key fragments from Ancient Egyptian History. The museum is free to visit and the entire collection is available online, clearly identifying each object with their individual unique numbers and prefaced with the letters ‘AC’ - meaning ‘University College.’
During the years between 1910- 1915, UCL had agreed to acquire and display the archeological findings discovered by Flinders Petrie and his team. During this time, the museum was primarily used for study and teaching purposes; rather than being intended for visitations and attraction of general visitors as we see today.
The Petrie Museum was faced with continuing difficulties and threats during the interwar period, wars and natural disasters exposed and destroyed many artefacts that were being exported abroad. Luckily, due to the dedication of individuals that were responsible for the upkeep of the Museum, they were able to rebuild the foundations of the collections.
In terms of looking towards the future of social responsibilities and positionality of the Petrie Museum of Archeology, a change in the Egypt legislation in 1983 brought excavations and exportations of Egyptian artefacts housed within Egypt to a standpoint. Previously, individuals such as Flinders Petrie, were allowed to expand on their collections in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries; only a small number of ‘gifts’ made to other excavations at the discretion of Egyptian authorities was allowed. Unfortunately, since the 1990s the Petrie Museum has not been allowed to receive any antiquities from fieldwork, nor will excavators be able to seek purchased artefacts. Contrastingly, thanks to the growing availability and development of technological practices, the Museum has implemented new and exciting ways to use alternative materials to help illustrate lost threads of Egyptian Archeology, encouraging an online presence to identify the history of Egyptian Archeology. Instead, the curation of the Museum acts simultaneously as a form of legacy of Archeology, from the likes of individuals such as Flinders Petrie, and creates awareness that these artefacts were discovered during a time of the high points of British coloniality.
Bibliography:
Stevenson, A. (2015). The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archeology: Characters and Collections. The Petrie Museum (Online) Available at: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1468795/4/The_Petrie_Museum_of_Egyptian_Archaeology.pdf Last accessed: 28th November 2024.
The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archeology. (2024). UCL Press. (Online) Available at: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/culture/whats-on/petrie-museum Last Accessed: 29th November 2024.