On Thursday 17th July several members of the BE group enjoyed a visit to the Egypt Exploration Society offices in Doughty Mews to renew old acquaintances and enjoy the ‘pop-up’ exhibition Excavating Egypt. The event, introduced to us by the society’s Education and Public Engagement Manager, Carl Graves, has been staged to give greater public access to material usually available to researchers by appointment and is presented in such a way as to give an impression of life on excavation in Egypt during the formative years of the the discipline of Egyptology. Highlights of our visit were a presentation by Louise Atherton entitled ’Amarna Archivers and Archaeology’, and a tour of the exhibits by the two volunteers largely responsible for mounting the exhibition, Katherine Piper and Ildiko Kalnoky.
Displays included a wide variety of objects, amongst which were some of Petrie’s historic photographs of Tanis, field notebooks, object record cards from Amarna – many of which are now published online at: – https://www.flickr.com/photos/egyptexplorationsociety/ – watercolours by Howard Carter, and examples of diary entries and correspondence authored by well-known figures from the early years of the EES. Of particular interest, from my own point of view, was a replica of an alabaster vase, inscribed for Hatshepsut, which had been found in a courtyard behind the king’s house at Amarna. The name of Amun had been carefully erased from inscribed texts, while the cartouches containing the king’s names were otherwise undamaged; an object surely giving some clues regarding political correctness during the Amarna Period.
A remarkable feature of the exhibition is the pseudo-tented environment. It has to be admitted that draping the walls of the committee room with canvas added to the ambience of the display areas, lending some authenticity to exhibits designed to present the experiences of early egyptological pioneers. The feeling of life in a desert environment was further enhanced by the heat, but that was simply the atmosphere of central London in July – or was it!
There is still time to visit the exhibition which remains open daily, from 11.00 to 15.00, until Sunday 26th July. For details of the activities scheduled to take place visit: http://www.ees.ac.uk/events/index/340.html . I am sure you will receive a warm welcome from Carl and his team.
