Academic literature on the topic 'Egypt antiquities'

During the Egyptian revolution in January 2011, the antiquities museum in Tahrir Square became the focus of press attention amid claims of looting and theft, leading Western organizations and media outlets to call for the protection of Egypt’s ‘global cultural heritage’. What passed without remark, however, was the colonial history of the Cairo museum and its collections, which has shaped their postcolonial trajectory. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Cairo museum was a pivotal site for demonstrating control of Egypt on the world stage through its antiquities. More than a century later, these colonial visions of ancient Egypt, and its place in museums, continue to exert their legacy, not only in the challenges faced by the Egyptian Antiquities Museum at a crucial stage of redevelopment, but also in terms of museological practice in the West.

In 2012, the National Museum – Náprstek Museum accessioned a collection of 13 Egyptian antiquities from the original ownership of Jaroslav Šejnoha, who served as the Czechoslovak Ambassador to Egypt between 1944 and 1946. The collection consists of 13 highly interesting pieces, dating of which spans from the Pre-Dynastic to Greco-Roman Periods.

This article argues that forms of civility governing who possessed the credibility to carry out archaeological fieldwork in Egypt changed during the post-Second World War era of decolonization. Incorporating Arabic sources, the article focuses on the preparation of a dig house used during an excavation run by the Egyptian Department of Antiquities and the University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania at the site of Mit Rahina, Egypt, in the mid-1950s. The study demonstrates how the colonial genealogies of such structures converged with political changes heralded by the rise of Egypt's President Nasser. Preparing the dig house, Euro-American archaeologists involved with the excavation had to abide by social norms practiced by the Egyptians who had recently taken charge of the Department of Antiquities. Given that these norms often perpetuated older hierarchies of race, gender, and class, however, the article questions what the end of colonialism actually meant for archaeology in Egypt and elsewhere.

Historical and cultural heritage serve as a bridge between a country's history and present and serve to define its identity. Egypt therefore takes all necessary steps to safeguard its historical treasures and antiquities by passing laws that serve this objective. There are, however, gaps in each of these laws and regulation that preclude a strict and thorough protection of the Egyptian antiquities. Utilizing contemporary technology has made it easier to sell illicit Egyptian artefacts. Therefore, the Egyptian antiquities cannot get full protection under the laws in place at this time for their protection. As a result, these laws need to be amended to accommodate the digital revolution period. This study tries to examine and identify all difficulties and barriers that come into contact with the stipulations of existing Egyptian antiquities laws and regulations protecting Egyptian antiquities. It outlines the required changes that must be made to several Egyptian laws and regulations in order to keep up with the digital age while also protecting Egyptian national heritage to the fullest extent possible.

Should cultural property taken by a stronger power or nation remain with that country or should it be returned to the place where it was created? Since the 1990s this question has received growing attention from the press, the public and the international legal community. For example, prestigious institutions such as the J. Paul Getty Museum of Art in Los Angeles and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York have agreed to return looted or stolen artwork or antiquities. British smuggler Jonathan Tokeley-Parry was convicted and served three years in prison for his role in removing as many as 2,000 antiquities from Egypt. Getty director Marion True defended herself against charges that she knowingly bought antiquities that had been illegally excavated from Italy and Greece. New books on the issue of repatriation of art and antiquities have captured the attention of the public. A documentary based on one of these books was shown in theaters and aired on public television. The first international academic symposium on the topic was convened in New York City in January 1995.

Abstract The beginnings of archaeology in Egypt and in India are the subject of this paper. In both countries, antiquities were carried away by the powerful. Moreover, the hubris of the colonial powers ruling both countries made it inevitable that not only antiquities, but knowledge about the past, were appropriated in different ways. For modern Egyptians, the Pharaonic past was remote in culture and distant in time. The people themselves were until fairly recently prevented from learning the Pharaonic writing, once it was deciphered, by various ways and means. In contrast, in India the colonial administration relied on Indian scholars to teach British personnel the ancient languages, texts, and religion. In neither country was the history of the ancient period taught in schools until the foreign rulers had left. But Indian archaeology became involved in Indian identity and in the framing of the nation as Hindu, and thereby acquired an ugly twist. Self-identification in Egypt in the earlier twentieth century, on the other hand, was possibly more with the Arab world than with the pyramid builders.

The story of the Israelites’ slavery in Egypt and subsequent redemption is the central narrative element of the Pentateuch. Josephus’ claim that he was providing an accurate account of the Jews’ ancient history in Jewish Antiquities thus meant that he had to address the Jews’ servile origins; however, first-century Roman attitudes toward slaves and freedmen would have made this problematic for ideological and political reasons. Although Josephus added references to Jews’ slavery to the account of Jewish history in Jewish Antiquities, he appears deliberately to downplay the Jews’ servile origins at key parts of the narrative, including God’s promise to Abraham in Gen 15 and the account of the Jews’ enslavement in Exod 1. Josephus also demonstrates a concern with the servile status of Jacob’s secondary wives Zilpah and Bilhah. The account of Joseph’s life in Jewish Antiquities emphasizes his non-servile qualities and his chance enslavement. Roman hostility to slaves and freedmen, Josephus’ own personal experience of captivity, and the likely presence in Rome of Jewish freedmen might explain Josephus’ sensitivity to the Jews’ servile origins.

Non-systematically excavated archaeological legacy collections of antiquities are often undervalued or overlooked by museums because of their unknown provenience and questionable or problematic provenance. This article describes how extensive research into the provenance of an ancient Egyptian legacy collection purchased in Egypt in 1884 by Adolph Sutro that is now stewarded by the Global Museum at San Francisco State University exposes a new expansive research potential for the collection, enabling Museum Studies students and faculty and museum staff to construct innovative interpretive frameworks through integrated Museum Studies curriculum, educational public programming, and exhibitions of the collection in the museum. This case study underscores the importance of provenance research for contextualizing legacy collections and illustrates how this research can be a catalyst for important discussions of the antiquities trade, colonial collecting practices, public educational significance, and ethical collection stewardship, curation, and display.

This short study looks into the mind of the Ayyubid intellectual Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi, also known as al-Labbad, who was born in Baghdad in 1162 and died there in 1231–32 at the age of 69. The focus of this article is his famous book Kitāb al-Ifāda wa’l-iʿtibār fi’l-umūr al-mushāhada wa’l-ḥawadith al-muʿāyana bi-arḍ Miṣr (The Book of Instruction and Admonition on the Things Seen [mushāhada] and Events Recorded [muʿāyana] in the Land of Egypt), which, as I argue, is al-Baghdadi’s clear manifestation of his “change of mind” in the fields of scholarship and methods of learning. It seems that a turning point in al-Baghdadi’s academic career occurred during the time he spent in Egypt and, perhaps even and more importantly, in front of the antiquities of Pharaonic Egypt. His descriptions of the pyramids, Sphinx, and huge sculptures of ancient Egypt demonstrate al-Baghdadi’s progressive method of looking at and interpreting nature and thus of rewriting history.

Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Division of Humanities, Dept. of Ancient History, 2000.
Bibliography: p. 475-498.
PART I -- Thesis introduction -- Location, environment and routes of the Western Desert -- Cultural, historical and archaeological setting of Dakhleh Oasis -- Introduction to the vessel typology -- Introduction to the site catalogue -- Technology of pottery manufacture -- Fabrics and wares -- Conclusion -- PART II -- The vessel typology -- The site catalogue.
This thesis analyses a body of largely unpublished ceramic material from Dakhleh Oasis in the Western Desert of Egypt. The material is primarily from the survey of Dakhleh Oasis and the testing of sites by members of the Dakhleh Oasis Project and, except for some Phase 4 material recovered from excavations at Ismant el-Kharab, is unstratified. It covers a thousand years of Egyptian pottery-making from the eighth century BC to the late second century AD. -- A comprehensive survey of published and unpublished material from other sites in Egypt and adjacent regions has been undertaken to acquire comparative material for the pottery from Dakhleh Oasis. In addition, a study of the technical characteristics of the vessels that have remained accessible has been undertaken to describe and explain ancient pottery practices and to build up a framework for comparative purposes. -- With this body of information, a vessel typology divided into two series, each of which are further divided into two phases, has been devised and the chronology of the vessels determined. This ceramic typology has been used to compare surveyed sites of different utilisation - cemetery, settlement and temple sites - and to establish a dating system for these sites. The resulting chronology will be a guide to the determination of future excavations in the oasis and will assist in the on-going study of the socio-economic development of the oasis. The typology also provides a corpus of pottery for the processing of material from future excavations in Dakhleh Oasis and information for other ceramicists working in Egypt and elsewhere. -- The comparative survey of ceramic material from other sites demonstrates that Dakhleh Oasis, although a remote region in the Western Desert of Egypt, maintained contact with the Nile Valley and more distant areas. It also shows that, while this interaction influenced local pottery styles, the oasis retained and developed its own pottery traditions. -- In addition, a preliminary analysis has been made of fabrics and clays for descriptive purposes and to increase knowledge of the ancient ceramics from the oasis. -- A database has also been built to store and manipulate the information on this extensive body of ceramic material from Dakhleh Oasis. The pottery drawings have been produced in a format readily accessible for electronic transfer to researchers in the field of Egyptian ceramics.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
498, [199] p. ill. (some col.), maps

The museum world is constantly facing new challenges about how to utilize its collections in order to engage visitors and tap into new audiences. The antiquities of the ancient Mediterranean and Egypt have consistently been on display in various exhibitions and museums in the United States. Using the city of Philadelphia as a geographical locus, this paper will examine the success and shortcomings of various styles of exhibition. Using new museum theory from Janet Marstine and the concept of the social life of things by Arjun Appadurai, this paper examines the exhibits, the motivation behind them, and their relative success. The blockbuster-style exhibit can be financially beneficial but may compromise museum missions, while more traditional style exhibits lack the ability to interact with new and large audiences but are often the site of technological innovation. Museums must engage various styles of exhibition to remain stable and viable as cultural institutions.

Antiquities are looted from archaeological sites across the world, seemingly more often in areas of armed conflict. Previously, the relationship between antiquities looting and armed conflict has been assessed with qualitative case studies and journalistic evidence?due to a lack of data. This study considers the relationship between antiquities looting and armed conflict in Egypt from 1997 – 2014 with a newly collected time series dataset. A combination of Lag-augmented Vector Autoregression (LA-VAR) and Autoregressive Distributed Lag Models (ARDL)?is used to look at both the overall relationship between these two phenomena and their temporal ordering. Ultimately, this thesis finds that: (1) antiquities looting and armed conflict have a positive statistically significant relationship, (2) there is stronger support for antiquities looting preceding armed conflict than for the reverse temporal ordering, and (3) this relationship varies by type of conflict.

Animals were given a preponderant position in Egyptian art, symbolism, and cultual practices. This thesis centres on the relationship between humans and animals during the predynastic period in Upper Egypt (Naqada I-IIIB, 4th millennium BCE), focusing on hippopotamus and crocodile as representatives of the Nile environment and antelope species as representatives of the desert environment. Depictions of these animals are analysed and compared with contemporary faunal remains derived from activities such as cult, funerary, or every day consumption. The material analysed covers several centuries: temporal evolutions and changes have been identified. The animals studied in this thesis were first used by the Naqada I-IIB elites as means to visually and practically express their power, which they envisioned in two contrasting and complementary ways. The responsibilities of the leaders were symbolised by the annihilation of negative wild forces primarily embodied by antelope species. In contrast, they symbolically appropriated positive wild forces, chief among them being the hippopotamus, from which they symbolically derived their power. Faunal remains from after mid-Naqada II are few, depictions of hippopotamus disappeared and those of crocodile became rare. Antelope species became preponderant, especially on D-ware vessels, which were accessible to non-elite people. However, toward the end of the predynastic period, antelope species came to be depicted almost exclusively on high elite material; they lost their individuality and became generic representatives of chaotic forces that the leaders and early rulers had to annihilate in order to maintain control and order.

Kheperkarê Sésostris Ier est le deuxième souverain de la 12ème dynastie (vers 1958 – 1913 avant notre ère). Son règne, globalement bien documenté, a vu la (re)construction de plusieurs des principaux sanctuaires divins d’Égypte, dont ceux d’Amon-Rê à Karnak et d’Atoum à Héliopolis, et est à l’origine d’œuvres littéraires de première importance – certaines étant par ailleurs analysées en tant que pièces de propagande en faveur du roi après l’assassinat de son père, le pharaon Amenemhat Ier. Enfin, cette période est marquée par de nombreuses expéditions, militaires ou non, à destination de la Nubie ou des gisements de pierre et de minerais.

Si la bibliographie relative à Sésostris Ier est loin d’être négligeable, tant en qualité qu’en quantité, force est de constater que certains aspects de son règne ont été négligés dans les études précédentes, non sans influencer notre perception de celui-ci et tout particulièrement notre connaissance de la chronologie et des différentes réalisations statuaires du souverain.

La première partie de la présente thèse de doctorat ambitionne donc de préciser l’historique du règne de Sésostris Ier dans une perspective diachronique, et met en œuvre des ressources documentaires appartenant tant à la sphère royale qu’à celle des particuliers. Elle vise à établir le continuum temporel des diverses entreprises royales, et leur synchronisme éventuel, qu’il s’agisse du parachèvement de la conquête de la Nubie dans la deuxième décennie de son règne, de la construction de son complexe funéraire à Licht Sud dans la première moitié de celui-ci ou des multiples (re)fondations de sanctuaire, voir des expéditions vers les carrières du désert oriental durant les 45 années passées par Sésostris Ier sur le trône du Double Pays. C’est enfin l’occasion de définir une trame chronologique – malheureusement partielle – pour les œuvres statuaires du pharaon.

La deuxième partie de cette étude est en effet consacrée à la statuaire royale de Sésostris Ier, et constitue un catalogue raisonné et critique inédit de quelques 87 pièces, complètes ou fragmentaires. Le catalogue tâche de sérier les statues suivant que leur appartenance au règne de Sésostris Ier me semble certifiée (C), que je les attribue personnellement à celui-ci (A), que leur datation de ce règne soit problématique (P), ou que les pièces se réduisent à des fragments iconographiquement peu signifiants (Fr). une étude typologique des regalia et des attitudes du souverain prolonge le catalogue, de même qu’une évocation de la polychromie des œuvres.

La troisième et dernière partie est consacrée à l’étude critique des réalisations architecturales de Sésostris Ier et à l’insertion des œuvres statuaires dans ces espaces construits. Elle distingue les contextes proprement égyptiens, répartis entre Éléphantine et Bubastis, et les sites extérieurs à l’Égypte stricto sensu, à savoir la Basse Nubie et le Sinaï. Bien que reposant le plus souvent sur les seules sources publiées, qu’elles soient le résultat de fouilles archéologiques ou de documents contemporains du règne, l’interprétation de ces vestiges permet néanmoins d’apporter un éclairage nouveau sur plusieurs sanctuaires ou parties d’édifices, voire de proposer des solutions alternatives quant aux restitutions des bâtiments, en ce compris la localisation des statues du roi.

Cette étude de la statuaire de Sésostris Ier et de ses contextes historiques et architecturaux offre un regard neuf sur une documentation régulièrement utilisée mais peu étudiée et peu analysée. Les principaux apports inédits concernent le canevas événementiel diachronique du règne et la réalisation d’un corpus statuaire critique du deuxième souverain de la 12ème dynastie.
Doctorat en Histoire, art et archéologie
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Thesis (DPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2004.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This dissertation examines illustrated funerary papyri and wooden funerary stelae for information they can provide about the organization of artists in the 21st and 22nd Dynasty. It is an inquiry into the relationship between visual representation on the funerary papyri of the 21st Dynasty and wooden stelae of the 22nd Dynasty. An attempt is made to determine whether it is possible to identify the work of individual artists and workshops involved in producing the illustrated funerary papyri and wooden stelae, and in what way they may be related. This study covers a representative sample of workshops or individuals from around the beginning of the 21st Dynasty to the early 22nd Dynasty. Methodology involved undertaking the research on a descriptive and interpretative/comparative level. Panofsky's (1972: passim) model for describing pictorial works was used to interpret the iconography. The comparisons between the papyri and stelae were based upon a combination of the models developed by Freed (1996: passim) and Niwinski (1989a: passim). These models functioned as a control or corrective in order to formulate an interpretation. It was possible to definitively place 208 manuscripts out of 214 papyri into seven individual workshops. This was based upon their stylistic similarities and corresponding content. Papyri Workshop 1 is comprised of fifty-six manuscripts, and constitutes the largest group. The highest quality manuscripts were produced in this workshop, which was patronized by the high priests of Amun and their families. Papyri Workshop 2 is the smallest group consisting of only seven manuscripts. These two workshops contain the earliest manuscripts, which were generally executed in the Ramesside tradition. Papyri Workshop 3 contains the second largest grouping with fifty-two, and Papyri Workshop 4 consists of eleven. The majority of the members of this workshop belong to a homogenous, almost analogous group, in terms of content and composition. In the twenty-five manuscripts that belong to Papyri Workshop 5, it can be observed that the artists have taken complete liberties with the mass of iconography at their disposal. They have adapted and transformed the existing symbols into new compositions, so that no two manuscripts are alike. Papyri Workshop 6 is comprised of thirty manuscripts, and Papyri Workshop 7 has twenty. As opposed to Workshop 5, these two workshops display an economy of style and execution. They are also generally outlined in black. Furthermore, several subgroups are evident in the workshops, especially those that span many decades, such as Papyri Workshop 1 and 3.From a comprehensive examination of 103 stelae, it was possible to group 100 stelae into nine workshops. It is important to note that Stelae Workshop 1 is, in fact, linked to Papyri Workshop 1, to which thirteen stelae can be attributed. The stelae contain the same attributes and style of execution as the papyri. Stelae Workshop 2 consists of fifteen stelae, these are skilfully executed, and appear to be custom-made for the deceased. Workshop 3 comprises of fourteen stelae. Stelae Workshop 4 contains five, and Workshop 5 has nine. In contrast to Stelae Workshop 1, the principal representations within the stelae from Stelae Workshops 2 to 5 are generally standardized in form and format. Stelae Workshop 6 has six, while 7 and 8 are the two largest workshops with sixteen members each. These three workshops represent a general degradation of proficiency, culminating in a provincial folk-art quality of Stelae Workshop 7 and 8. Stelae Workshop 8 represents the final transition in style and format to the stelae of the Late Period. Stelae Workshop 9 is comprised of five stelae. The style of execution corresponds to the first phase of the Late Period stelae style. It is possible to observe the hand/s of individual artists or a master and student in the study selection, even within one workshop.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis ondersoek ge"illustreerde begrafnispapiri en hout stelae met die oog op die inligting wat hulle oor die kunstenaarsorganisasie in die 21ste en 22ste dinastie kan verskaf. Die navorsing ondersoek die verband tussen visuele afbeeldings op die begrafnispapiri van die 21ste dinastie en hout stelae van die 22ste dinastie. Daar word gepoog om vas te stel of dit moontlik is om die werk van individuele kunstenaars en "werkswinkels" wat by die totstandkoming van die ge'illustreerde begrafnispapiri en hout stelae betrokke was, asook die wyse waarop hulle moontlik verwant is, te identifiseer. Die navorsing dek 'n verteenwoordigende korpus van die werkswinkels of individue uit die tydperk van die begin van die 21ste dinastie tot die vroee 22ste dinastie. Die metodologie het navorsing op 'n deskriptiewe en interpretatiewe! vergelykende vlak behels. Panofsky (1972: passim) se model vir die beskrywing van kunswerke is gebruik om die ikonografie te interpreteer. Die vergelykings tussen die papiri en die stelae is gebaseer op 'n kombinasie van die modelle wat deur Freed (1996: passim) en Niwinski (1989a: passim) ontwikkel is. Hierdie modelle het as 'n kontrole of korrektief gedien vir die formulering van 'n interpretasie. Dit was moontlik om 208 manuskripte uit 214 papiri met sekerheid in sewe individuele "werkswinkels" in te dee!. Die indeling is gebaseer op die stilistiese ooreenkomste en ooreenstemming in die inhoud. Papiruswerkswinkel 1 bestaan uit 56 manuskripte, en maak die grootste groep uit. Die hoogste gehalte manuskripte het in hierdie werkswinkel ontstaan en kan met die hoepriesters van Amun en hulle gesinne verbind word. Werkswinkel 2 is die kleinste groepie en bestaan uit net sewe manuskripte. Hierdie twee werkswinkels bevat die vroegste manuskripte. Papiruswerkswinkel 3 bevat die tweede grootste groepering met 52 manuskripte, en Papiruswerkswinkel 4 bestaan uit 11. Die meerderheid van die manuskripte van hierdie werkswinkel behoort aan 'n homogene, byna analoe groep, wat betref inhoud en samestelling. Uit die 25 manuskripte wat aan Papiriwerkswinkel 5 behoort, is dit duidelik dat die kunstenaars hulle vryhede veroorloof het met die massa ikonografiee tot hulle beskikking. Hulle het die bestaande simbole aangepas en tot nuwe komposisies verander, sod at nie twee manuskripte dieselfde is nie. Papiruswerkswinkel 6 en 7 is saamgestel uit onderskeidelik 30 en 20. In teenstelling met Werkswinkel 5 vertoon hierdie twee werkswinkels 'n "ekonomie" van styl en uitbeelding. Hulle het ook oor die algemeen 'n swart buitelyn. Daarbenewens is dit duidelik dat daar verskeie subgroepein die werkswinkels is, in die besonder die wat oor baie dekades strek, 5005 Papiruswerkswinkels 1 en 3. Uit 'n omvattende ondersoek van 103 stelae was dit moontlik om 100 stelae in nege werkswinkels te groepeer. Dit is belangrik om daarop te let dat Werkswinkel 1 in werklikheid met Papiruswerkswinkel 1, waaraan 13 stelae toegeskryf kan word, verbind kan word. Die stelae vertoon dieselfde kenmerke en styl as die papiri. Werkswinkel 2 bestaan uit 15 stelae wat kunstig gemaak is en wat Iyk asof hulle op bestelling vir die oorledenes vervaardig is. Werkswinkel 3 bestaan uit 14 stelae. Werkswinkel 4 bevat vyf, en in Werkswinkel 5 is daar nege. In teenstelling met Werkswinkel 1 is die belangrikste afbeeldings by die stelae in Werkswinkels 2 tot 5 meestal gestandaardiseer wat betref vorm en formaat. Werkswinkel 6 het ses, terwyl 7 en 8 die twee grootste werkswinkels is met 16 stelae elk. Hierdie drie werkswinkels verteenwoordig 'n algemene degradering van vakmanskap, wat daartoe lei dat die gehalte van Werkswinkels 7 en 8 die is van 'n "provinsiale volkskuns". Werkswinkel 8 verteenwoordig die finale oorgang in styl en formaat na die stelae van die Laattyd. Werkswinkel 9 bestaan uit vyf items. Die sty I stem ooreen met die eerste fase van die styl van die stelae uit die Laattyd. Die studie toon aan dat dit wei moontlik is om die hand(e) van individuele kunstenaars of 'n meester en sy student te onderskei, selfs binne net een werkswinkel.

Les études sur la nécropole thébaine durant le Nouvel Empire se sont surtout concentrées sur le début de la 18ème dynastie et l’époque ramesside (19-20èmes dynasties) et ont permis de définir les caractéristiques propres aux tombes de ces époques. Ces deux périodes sont séparées par une période mouvementée dans le domaine religieux :l’épisode amarnien (règne d’Akhenaton) qui se caractérise par la focalisation du culte sur le dieu solaire Aton.

Bien que les idées de l’époque amarnienne aient été longtemps considérées comme innovantes et révolutionnaires, des études récentes ont montré que les règnes précédents (Thoutmosis IV et Amenhotep III) ont davantage servi comme terreau de ces nouvelles conceptions. Or, malgré l’importance de ces deux règnes, les tombes privées de cette époque n’ont reçu que peu d’attention.

Notre recherche portera donc sur les tombes datant des règnes de Thoutmosis IV et Amenhotep III et sera réalisée dans une optique d’anthropologie religieuse afin d’analyser les croyances et les pratiques religieuses transparaissant dans le programme iconographique et textuel ainsi que dans l’agencement architectural. Nous souhaitons ainsi montrer comment ces divers moyens d’expression sont combinés pour produire une signification.

Notre étude permettrait donc de mettre en évidence les éléments distinctifs des tombes de l’époque Thoutmosis IV-Amenhotep III (qui forment la transition entre les tombes du début de la 18ème dynastie et celles de l’époque ramesside) et d'expliquer, grâce à l'étude des pratiques du mythe mises en oeuvre dans ces monuments, l’évolution des conceptions religieuses sous ces deux règnes, en faisant sortir l’étude des mythes du cadre strictement narratif qui lui est généralement donné en égyptologie. C’est donc en tant que discours complexe sur une réalité complexe, selon les termes de L. Couloubaritsis, que nous approcherons ces tombes en mettant en dialectique l’espace, l’écrit et l’image.
Doctorat en Langues et lettres
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Chapter 8 draws the web of relations between Egypt’s antiquity, empire, modernity, and internationalism from the outbreak of the First World War to decolonization. It focuses on the era between Britain’s unilateral granting of formal independence to Egypt in 1922 and the Anglo-Egyptian Agreement of 1936, and sets the imperial preoccupation with ancient Egypt in national and international contexts. The chapter fills a lacuna in the historiography of Egyptology and Egyptomania which has focused on the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922 and has largely overlooked the internationalist angles of the interwar obsession with ancient Egypt. The chapter maps the expansion of interest in Egypt beyond the pharaonic past and considers its extension to prehistoric Egypt. It relates Egyptology to the modernization of travel and speed technologies, and to popular representations of Egypt as a centre of globalized travel in a connective empire. The chapter further considers the roles of the global media in mediating between discoveries and transnational audiences. Following on the theme of the internationalization of Egypt’s past, it considers the presence of Egypt in material culture, particularly in eclectic styles and design which were associated with modernity, such as Art Deco architecture and fashion. One main argument of the chapter is that the interwar discovery of Egypt’s multiple pasts was characterized by an internationalization apparent in the politics of archaeology, the spread of the new regime of antiquities and cooperation between Egyptian nationalists and internationalist bodies, and in the mass production and consumption of Egyptiana.

Abstract The chapter presents an overview of the history of antiquities leaving Egypt, both legally and illegally. In the early part of the nineteenth century almost anything could be taken out of Egypt, and this is when European museums such as the British Museum and the Louvre began building their impressive collections of Egyptian antiquities. In 1883, when the French were in control of the Antiquities Service, it was decreed that foreign excavation teams could keep a portion of the duplicates that they excavated. During this period of division of the finds, many American museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago built their collections. This policy of partage began to change shortly after the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb. It was a slow process, but in 1983, Egypt passed Law 117, forbidding the export of any antiquities. This chapter discusses the role of the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in this change.

Chapter 9 anchors the history of the rediscovery of ancient Egypt in the archaeological site of Tell el-Amarna (Tall al-ʿAmarnah), Pharaonic Akhetaten, the city of the 18th Dynasty Pharaoh Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV), abandoned after his death, together with his religion and cult of the Sun Disc. Excavated before the First World War by German Egyptologists, Amarna was reclaimed by British Egyptological institutions after it. It had a special hold on the archaeological imagination, on visual culture, as well as on the contemporary political imagination. Amarna and its ruler were associated with modernity in discussions on topics ranging from urban and suburban planning and living, through the modern family, to anti-war politics. Amarna’s ephemeral existence was interpreted as a failure of a utopia and as an imperial crisis at the heyday of Egypt’s 18th Dynasty, analogous to the imperial crisis of the 1930s and to issues of Britain’s imperial defence. The chapter, which focuses on the excavations under the directorship of J. D. L. Pendlebury, follows representations of Amarna in popular and professional publications, as well as the material history of the findings and their circulation which reflected the economics of Egyptology. The chapter traces the exchange of Amarna objects for financial support, by museums in the USA (mainly the Brooklyn Museum) and in Belgium. The materiality and mobility of Amarna objects are connected to their value and uses, and their emotional value for collectors and archaeologists. The chapter also offers a history of the feelings towards ancient Egypt, demonstrated in the writing of archaeological workers like Mary Chubb.

The discovery and collection of multilingual inscriptions through excavation and the antiquities trade in the nineteenth century played a crucial role in the decipherment of Egyptian scripts. The history of the modern ownership of inscriptions now located in Egypt, Europe, and North America and their role in the development of Egyptology are closely linked. The chapter traces the history of scholarship on several Greek-Egyptian texts, including an unpublished inscription from the Delta, a decree in honour of a member of a prominent family from Upper Egypt, foundation plaques from a temple of Hathor-Aphrodite, and a sphinx from Koptos. The reassembly of stones which were often dispersed and broken into separate pieces through circumstances of excavation or the antiquities market allows us to establish equivalences between Egyptian and Greek concepts, people, and places, and sheds light on the sociolinguistic situation in individual communities, and in Egypt as a whole.

Chapter 5 focuses on Ur, Tell al-Muqayyar, in southern Iraq, and the discovery and popularization, after the First World War, of Sumerian civilization, largely unknown until then. Excavated between 1922 and 1934 by an Anglo-American expedition directed by Leonard Woolley, the most prominent public archaeologist of the Near East between the wars, Ur became a spectacle of a distant antiquity that was related to modernity. The discovery of Ur’s cemeteries, studied here, competed with the contemporary exposure of the tomb of Tutankhamun. The chapter considers Ur’s appeal as an “antique modern”, combining the drawing power of the biblical paradigm manifested in the identification between Ur, Abraham, and the birth of Abrahamic religions, and the appeal of the material riches discovered in the cemeteries, extracted from their place of origin and displayed in metropolitan museums and venues, a process which the chapter recovers. Represented as an Ur-culture, the place of origin of Near Eastern and world civilizations, older than Egypt, Ur was modernized and envisioned as the hub of a global ancient world, a vision that matched mandate notions about the development of Iraq. At the same time, evidence of live burials at the cemeteries was connected to mass killing during the First World War and the commemoration of the war dead. In addition to written, archival, and published sources, the chapter makes use of a wealth of visual representations, including aerial photography, illustrations, and archaeological objects.

Chapter 1 examines the new definitions of antiquity that emerged after the First World War and relates them to the new post-war imperial order and international system. It tracks the shift from a perception of ancient objects and monuments as the loot of victors, through their handling within the framework, which had first emerged in the nineteenth century, of laws of war, to their treatment as a part of policies of an imperial peace in the Middle East—in peace treaties and the new mandates system. The chapter follows the internationalization of the discourse on antiquity and the formation of a new “regime of antiquities”, a term referring to international and local mandatory legislation on archaeology and to practices of its monitoring. It offers a view “from above” of the new regime and its formulation by internationalist experts, within the League of Nations and its organizations for intellectual cooperation, such as the International Institute for Intellectual Cooperation (IIIC) and International Museums Office (OIM), and of internationalist apparatuses, as well as considering the implementation of the regime “on the ground” by the antiquities’ administrations in mandate A territories, formerly under Ottoman rule (Palestine and Transjordan, and Iraq), and the nominally independent Egypt. The chapter demonstrates how the internationalist pull and discourse seeped to colonial rhetoric but conflicted with notions of imperial sovereignty and the power of the mandatories to implement policies on the ground. At the same time, visions of regional cooperation amongst archaeologists and national rights to patrimony were adopted by local archaeologists and nationalists.

Chapter 10 examines the rediscovery, between the early 1920s and the 1950s, of the Graeco-Roman Near East, particularly Egypt. It considers the writings and activities of archaeologists, explorers, modernist writers, and journalists, who experienced and represented Near Eastern remnants of a Hellenism associated with the short-lived world empire of Alexander the Great and its Ptolemaic successors. After briefly considering writings on Graeco-Roman Transjordan, the chapter looks at the imagining and representations of Ptolemaic Alexandria, focusing on the writings of E. M. Forster, Mary Butts, Henry Vollam Morton, and a host of British, American, and Egyptian intellectuals, authors, and explorers. These authors perceived and experienced modern Alexandria as a Greek rather than an Egyptian city and comprehended it by invoking a cosmopolitan Graeco-Roman past. Alexandria served as a launching board to revivals of Alexander’s travels in Egypt’s Western Desert, to the oasis of Siwa, reputed place of his deification. The chapter traces re-enactments of classical texts on Alexander, as a form of appropriation by repetition and interpretation, of an imperial Graeco-Roman past. It demonstrates how imperial visions and itineraries were coupled with technologies of mechanized mobility in the desert in specially developed desert automobiles, iconized as emblems of imperial mobility and modernity. It thus showcases the relationship between the rediscovery of antiquity, technologies, and imperial defence. These are illustrated in the activities of explorer and military man and physicist Ralph Alger Bagnold. Some of the writings examined here expand beyond the formal end of British rule in the Near East, indicating the persistence of British imperial presences in the region immediately before and after the formal end of empire.

This chapter is a call to archaeologists and museum curators to reflect upon their roles in the production of knowledge surrounding antiquities and to take more responsibility for historical awareness and appreciation in Egypt. Historical objects transform in significance over time and are in constant re-creation of identity, so we must keep pace with their contemporary relevance, and we should use that relevance to start a discourse on the construction of new identities in relation to cultural memories of the past through the contemporary interpretations of these objects in the daily life of different communities. People cannot appreciate what they do not know; if Egyptians do not have access to the knowledge of their ancient past, they will not understand the value of the significance of its material remains, and will continue to allow, through neglect, the total loss of archaeological sites to looting and commercial urbanization. In the end, this loss will result in a complete attrition of cultural heritage and historical memory that will further lead to a more diluted identity.