Ancient Egypt December 2014 January 2015

As the end of the year approaches(where did 2014 go?), may I takethe opportunity to wish all ourreaders a very enjoyable holiday seasonand good health and happiness in 2015.I have two suggestions for those lookingfor something different as a Christmaspresent. The first will be familiar to manyof you, as it is certainly not the first timethat I have donned my a salesmans hat atthis time of the year: an annual subscrip-tion to AE! On page 60 are details ofhow to order a gift subscription and receivean extra bonus issue of the magazine foryourself.My second suggestion is to take your sig-nificant other on a trip to see one of thetwo excellent exhibitions that are reviewedin this issue. Combine a shopping trip toLondon with a visit to the Cairo toConstantinople exhibition showing until 22nd February in theQueens Gallery at Buckingham Palace. Sarah Griffithsand I were fortunate to be invited to theopening of the exhibition and foundthe photographs on display trulyremarkable for their quality and con-tent. They were taken in 1862 in Egyptand elsewhere in the Middle East byFrancis Bedford, during a tour made bythe then Prince of Wales, and those ofyou familiar with the present-day con-dition of the monuments will be fasci-nated to see them as they were at thattime. The photographic exhibition is combined withanother displaying a selection of stunning golden treas-ures from the Royal Collection items thatwould never otherwise be seen.For Egyptophiles, the exhibition alsoincludes a number of ancient Egyptianartefacts, including the statue of a MiddleKingdom queen pictured on the right.Again, this is an item that you are not like-ly to see elsewhere, and alone makes a visitworthwhile. And, by the way, the shop atthe Queens Gallery provides anotherexcellent shopping opportunity!Coincidentally, the statue of QueenSenet provides a link to the other visit youmight like to make if your budget is rathermore generous. Take the Eurostar fromLondon to Lille in France and you can seesomething very special: the first exhibitionin the world to be devoted to the MiddleKingdom pharaoh Senusret III. Details ofthe exhibition and how to visit it are givenin the review starting on p. 34 and in theExhibitions section on p. 63. If youarrive by train from London by Eurostarand present your train ticket at theMuseum, you will be offered one free

entrance for each full-price entrance ticket.The statues of Middle Kingdompharaohs, like the one of Senusret III onthe left, have always appealed to me. Theirstern faces with extra-large ears seem (per-haps erroneously) to be true likenesses ofreal people, unlike the bland smilingimages of their New Kingdom successors.However, I had never taken a particularinterest in Senusret III until I readRaymond Betzs review of the Lille exhibi-tion. To quote Nicholas Picardo, writing in30-Second Ancient Egypt (reviewed on p. 57):

... Senwosret [Senusret] successfully initiatedaggressive foreign and domestic policies. Heannexed at least one area of Palestine, andEgyptian occupation of Nubia intensified substan-tially under his rule ... . Domestically, SenwosretIII may have invented Big Government ...

He was truly one of the great pharaohs, who funda-mentally altered the history of hisrealm.Despite all the bad press about Egyptand the continuing problems with loot-ing in more remote sites, tourism inLuxor at least is beginning to resume,according to the report of the 2013-14season at Chicago House there. Thework of the University of ChicagosEpigraphic Survey at Medinet Habu(where the reconstruction of the

Domitian Gate is progressing well), the Khonsu temple atKarnak, Luxor Temple and Tomb TT107 (the tomb of

Nefersekheru, Amenhotep IIIs Malqatapalace steward) continued successfullythroughout the season, and will have re-commenced recently.On the West Bank at Luxor, HourigSourouzian, Director of the Colossi ofMemnon and Amenhotep III TempleConservation Project, has installed twomore colossal statues of the pharaoh at thesite, and has plans to restore and re-erectseveral more.At Hierakonpolis, Rene Friedmansteam have had a remarkably interestingseason in 2014, with a series of fascinatingdiscoveries that are throwing new lightupon the very earliest years of Egyptiancivilisation. The spectacular finds fromHK6 Tomb 72, made in the last days ofthe season, which include an ivory statuetteand a set of beautifully crafted and pre-served ivory combs (see AE84), are amongthe most important, but by no means theonly, Egyptological highlights of 2014.

JPP

From the Editors

5ANCIENT EGYPT December 2014/January 2015

ABOVE: A statue of Senusret III,found at Deir el-Bahri and now inthe British Museum. Photo: RBP

BELOW: Queen Senet, consortand mother of two unidentifiedpharaohs of the Twelfth Dynasty.Acquired in Egypt by the Princeof Wales in 1862; on display atthe Cairo to Constantinople

exhibition. Photo: JPP

ANCIENT EGYPT December 2014/January 20154

Maps and Time-line

by Peter Robinson.

ABOVE:Inset map of

Nubia and Sudan

RIGHT:detailed map ofthe Theban area

Periods

Dyna

stie

s

MAPofEGYPT Time-line

28-30


New Thutmose III Temple DiscoveredAn illegal dig underneath a residential el-Badrashin areaof Giza has uncovered the remains of a temple dating tothe reign of Thutmose III. Seven local men were arrestedafter they were discovered digging up stone fragments ina back garden but have since been released as the site wasnot a recognised heritage area. The Ministry ofAntiquities has taken control and declared the area anofficial archaeological site. Several column bases made from pink granite, statuefragments (including the remains of a large seated statue)and limestone blocks inscribed with hieroglyphs have sofar been uncovered and removed for restoration andMinistry Inspectors are confident there will be further dis-coveries to come.

New Diagnosis for Royal MummiesNew research from the Cairo University in Egypt suggeststhat the New Kingdom royal families, suffered from adegenerative spinal condition known as DISH (diffuseidiopathic skeletal hyperostosis and not ankylosingspondylitis as determined from previous X-ray studies.The new study, carried out on thirteen different royals,

used sophisticated computer tomography (CT) technolo-gy to give a more accurate diagnosis. There was no evi-dence of the joint erosion in the lower back and pelvischaracteristic of the ankylosing spondylitis, an inflamma-tory condition; instead the researchers noticed a harden-ing of ligaments along the spine in four of the mummies(Amenhotep III, Rameses II, Merenptah and RamesesIII), a sign of DISH, which is a degenerative conditionthat affects the over-60s. The researchers are hoping to use the studies of ancientmummy material to learn more about the evolution ofthese diseases which are still prevalent worldwide today.

Mummy Brain ImprintResearchers in Barcelona have discovered the preservedimprints of brain blood vessels inside the skull of a 2000year-old mummy, the earliest example to be found in aman-made mummy. The brain itself had been removedand the skull lining coated with preservative, and yetimprints of the delicate blood vessels in the membranesurrounding the brain survived the skull cleaning andembalming process. The body, dating to the Ptolemaic Period, is one of fiftydiscovered in the Kom al-Ahmar necropolis on the site ofancient Hierakonpolis, but is the only mummy to showevidence of brain tissue. Researchers are now trying todiscover what special conditions could have broughtabout this extraordinary and rare occurrence.Turn to page 44 to find out more about the brain inmummification!

Ancient Hair ExtensionsA 3000 year-old woman has been discovered with asmany as seventy different hair extensions in a cemetery atAmarna. The hair pieces were fastened using animal fatand arranged in different layers and varying heights onthe head to form a complex hair style that may have beencreated for the womans burial, but could also have beenworn in daily life. Other skulls from the same cemeterywere also found to have hair extensions, one of whichincluded hair from at least two different donors, and shortbraids were also common.

The Life of Children in Roman EgyptAn investigation of 7500 papyrus documents fromOxyrhynchus has revealed important details about the lifeof children in Egypt during the Roman Period. Children

NEWS

ABOVE: The mummies of Amenhotep III (top) and Rameses II. Photos: Elliot Smith (18xx) The Royal Mummies

ABOVE: The mummy ofMerenptah.

RIGHT: The mummy of Rameses III.

Photos: Elliot Smith (18xx) The Royal Mummies

ANCIENT EGYPT December 2014/January 2015 7

only appear in official documents from their early teens;by examining the papyri, together with images and textsfrom pottery, toys and other objects, researchers from theUniversity of Oslo and the University of Newcastle havebeen able to shed light on the daily lives of younger chil-dren.It appears that children began their working lives at

between seven and nine, although their tasks would havebeen light (such as collecting wood or dung for fuel). Theboys of wealthy free-born citizens were enrolled in a spe-cial youth organisation called a gymnasium where theywere taught how to be good citizens and took part in ath-letic games such as wrestling. Boys from less wealthy fam-ilies served a two to four year apprenticeship, mostly inthe weaving industry. Boys were considered to be fully adult only once they

had married, usually in their early twenties. Girls, howev-er, married in their late teens. They did not attend thegymnasium or serve apprenticeships (although the

researchers did find a contract for one orphan girl whowas expected to pay off her late fathers debts); theyremained and worked at home. Sadly some children werekept as slaves in the town, with evidence of some as youngas two being put up for sale. Find out more on the researchers blog site:

http://paidesblog.wordpress.com

Restorations and Reopenings at GizaThe Sphinx enclosure has reopened to the public afterthree years of restoration work following the discovery ofsevere cracks in the stones on the northern side of themonument. These cracks, which were caused by erosion,were found in new stone used in the 1980s restorationwork. A mortar of stone and lime was also added to some

news

TOP: The mummy of a child. from the Roman Period. British Museum.

ABOVE LEFT: A Roman Period coffin for a child. British Museum.

ABOVERIGHT: The Roman Period mummy portrait of a young man. Manchester Museum.

Photos: SG.


of the weaker areas of the Sphinx including the neck andchest. The small temple built by Amenhotep II will alsobe opened to the public for the first time. The Ministry for Antiquities has also reopened the

Menkaura Pyramid following work inside the pyramid,and two Old Kingdom tombs. The tomb of Imry, HighPriest during the reign of Khufu (c. 2589-2566 BC) hadbeen damaged by modern graffiti and required new mor-tar on the walls while the tomb of Nefer bau Ptah, theoverseer of the royal estates during the Fifth Dynasty, hadbeen damaged by a badly installed sewer system in thenearby housing area.In other news from Giza, fifteen wooden plates from

Khufus second solar boat (which had been conserved insitu in the boat pit where they were found) have recentlybeen transferred to the new Grand Egyptian Museum atGiza, due to open in early 2015. Meanwhile the Ministerfor Antiquities Mamdouh el-Damaty has announcedplans for a comprehensive restoration of the MeidumPyramid site to make it more tourist-friendly, includingthe construction of a visitors centre and installation of asound and light show.

Hanging Church ReopensThe 1700 year old Saint Virgin Marys Coptic Churchin Cairo has been re-opened after 16 years of renova-

tions. Known as the Hanging Church (because it is part-ly suspended from the ruins of a Roman fortress), theCoptic orthodox church is one of the oldest churches inthe world and was the seat of the Coptic Pope until thethirteenth century. Experts from Russia carried out con-servation work on the frescoes and icons (the oldest ofwhich, known as the Coptic Mona Lisa dates to the8th century AD) while the architectural restoration workwas completed under the supervision of the EgyptianMinistry of Antiquities.

Step Pyramid Restoration ControversyA delegation from the Egyptian Engineers Association(EEA) have inspected the restoration work at DjosersStep Pyramid following recent claims in the press that theEgypt-based engineering company tasked with therestoration was not qualified for the work and had actual-ly damaged the ancient monument while carrying outrepairs. These allegations were denied by the Ministry ofAntiquities at a press conference held in September.The pyramid, a UNESCO World Heritage site, suf-

fered severe damage during the 1992 earthquake, leadingto fears that it was at the point of collapse. In 2011, Welshcompany Cintec carried out support work using giant air

news

The small Amenhotep II temple beside the Great Sphinx.Photo: JPP

The Hanging Church in Cairo. Photo: RBP


bags to support the ceiling of the burial cahmber (see arti-cle in AE80). The Egyptian company Shorbagy werethen brought in to restore the monument, but work cameto a halt in March 2013 due to a lack of funds. UNESCO has asked the Ministry for confirmation that

its 2011 recommendations for the restoration of the StepPyramid are being followed and has recently received adetailed technical report of the ongoing work. The find-ings of the EEA are due to be made public shortly.

Tutankhamun The Truth Uncovered?More controversy, this time surrounding a recent BBCdocumentary Tutankhamun: The Truth Uncovered, whichrevealed a new reconstruction of the boy king with buckteeth, enlarged breasts, wide female-like hips and a clubfoot. The 3D computer model was created from theresults of a virtual autopsy based on over 2000 CT scansof the kings mummy. The programme claimed that the condition of the

kings foot would have made it impossible for him to standunaided in a chariot and so he could not have died aftera fall from one. Professor Albert Zink, head of theInstitute for Mummies and Icemen in Italy, argues thatthe boys death is most probably related to a weakenedphysical state, a result of malaria and congenital defectsbrought about by inbreeding (genetic analysis has sug-gested the kings parents were brother and sister). This revised image of Tutankhamun has however upset

several Egyptologists, including former Minister Dr. ZahiHawass, who dispute the scientific validity of the pro-grammes claims, and argue there is no evidence ofgenetic disorders or of a feminised physical form.

Treasures for SaleIn AE86, we reported that a collection of artefacts, theTreasure of Harageh discovered by Flinders Petrie, hadbeen put on the open market by the St. Louis Society ofthe Archaeological Institute of America, and valued byBonhams at $200,000. A spokesman for the St. LouisSociety said they had been forced to sell as they could nolonger afford to store and properly preserve the artefacts.

news

A recent view of the Step Pyramid at Saqqara, covered inmodern scaffolding. Photo: Peter james, Cintec.

The Treasure of Hagareh. Photo: Bonhams

Web Site: http://www.egypt.webplus.net/


After an outcry from Egyptologists on both sides of theAtlantic (regarding the ethics of selling antiquities forprofit in violation of the original agreement with thedonor that they remain in a museum, accessible to thepublic and researchers), the sale was withdrawn andshortly after an announcement made that theMetropolitan Museum of Art in New York has bought thegroup for an undisclosed sum. However, one item fromthe group was sold at auction separately for more than$44,000.Meanwhile, Northampton Borough Council has been

stripped of its museums service accreditation after sellingthe Sekhemka statue to a private buyer for 15.8 million.The council has also been denied a Heritage LotteryFund grant on the grounds that without accreditation, itis no longer eligible to apply.

Make Your Own AntiquitiesThe British Museum is joining several other major muse-ums in offering visitors the chance to own a copy of anartefact. Rather than buying a replica in the museumshop, you can now download and print your own modelusing 3D printing technology. There are currently fourteen different objects to choose

from, nine of which are from ancient Egypt, including the

seated lion of Amenhotep III and the colossal bust ofRameses II. The objects are free to download on the 3Dcontent website Sketchfab, but as you need access to a 3Dprinter and materials, production could become ratherexpensive, especially if you wanted a life sized model ofthe Rameses bust!Find out about a special 3D printing project at the

Kendal Museum on page 32.

Egypt in SpaceAncient Egypt is the inspiration behind the recentEuropean Space Agency mission to land a probe onto thesurface of a comet. Space scientists are hoping that theRosetta spacecraft and Philae lander will help to unlock thescientific secrets of how comets were created, just as theRosetta Stone and the Philae Obelisk (now at KingstonLacy in Dorset) were instrumental in unlocking the secretsof the hieroglyphic script. Data collected by the lander will be analysed by an

instrument on board the Rosetta spacecraft calledPtolemy, which uses a method of analysis called MOD-ULUS, named after Thomas Young who made the initialbreakthrough in deciphering hieroglyphs (YoungsModulus is a measure of elasticity named in his honour).The Rosetta orbiter also carries an Optical,

news

The British Museums bust of Rameses II. Photo: RBP The Kingston Lacy obelisk. Photo: RBP

Spectroscopic, and Infrared Remote Imaging System, orin short: OSIRIS.The Philae Obelisk is itself also the subject of pioneer-

ing technology. Originally from the Temple of Isis onPhilae Island, the monument was brought to the UK byWilliam Bankes and erected in the grounds of KingstonLacy in 1829. The notorious English weather has sinceeroded the hieroglyphic and Greek inscriptions (carryingthe names of Ptolemy VII Euergetes and his consortCleopatra III) so that much of the text is no longer clear-ly visible. Researchers from the University of Oxford areusing Reflectance Transformation Imaging or RTI (whichinvolves combining a series of photographs of the stonesurface taken from many different angles and varyinglight directions) to bring out details that are no longer vis-ible to the naked eye.

Gold & Silver Middle Kingdom JewelleryDiscovered in LuxorA Spanish team working on the restoration of the mortu-ary temple of Thutmose III on the West Bank have dis-covered gold and silver jewellery in a Middle Kingdomtomb underneath the New Kingdom structure. The tombis part of a Middle Kingdom necropolis on the site. Whileother tombs in the cemetery that have been excavatedwere found to have been looted in antiquity, this tombbelonging to an elite woman had been preserved after theroof collapsed, crushing the sarcophagus and part of themummy. The jewellery includes two bracelets, a pendant

of semi-precious stones, gold cylinders and silver anklets.While the gold is in good condition, the silver jewellery isbadly deteriorated.For more on Middle Kingdom jewellery, see Wolfram

Grajetzkis article on p. 18.

Mummy Stuck at the AirportA three thousand-year-old Egyptian mummy of a younggirl was held up by American customs officials at MiamiAirport while on route from Asia to a museum exhibition.However, rather than the mummy itself causing a prob-lem, officials from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wereconcerned about several ivory pieces that were packedinto the same crate following a tightening of importrestrictions on ivory introduced to protect endangeredelephants.

And finally

Giant Sphinx discovered in California!American archaeologists have just unearthed a largesphinx buried in sand dunes near Guadalupe, a small fish-ing village on the Californian coast. The sphinx dates to1923 ... and is part of a massive movie set from the CecilB. DeMille movie The Ten Commandments that was brokenup and buried on site once filming had finished.

SG


news

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Over the last two centuries of the existence ofEgyptology as a discipline in its own right, theScottish contribution thereto has been consider-able, and, in this article, I shall recount the fascinatingbiographies of the two most important Aberdonians inthe history of Egyptology: Robert Wilson and JamesGrant. During their lives, Wilson and Grant were respon-sible for assembling Scotlands second largest collection ofEgyptian antiquities: that of the Marischal Museum inAberdeen (see above). The lives of Wilson and Grant wereclosely intertwined with the history of this museum, andmuch of the material in its wide-ranging ancient Egyptiandisplays originated in the private collections of those twomen. As the two most significant Aberdonian figures inthe history of Egyptology, their lives are surely worthy ofstudy, both because they are fascinating in themselves,and because of their important contribution to ourknowledge of ancient Egyptian material culture.

Firstly, we shall look at the life of Robert Wilson (picturedbelow). Wilson was born in Banffshire, a former county innortheastern Scotland, in 1787; he entered the Universityof Aberdeen in 1802 at the age of 15, and spent a year inthe Faculty of Arts there. In 1805, at the age of 18, heworked as a surgeon on board the ship Glory on a two-yearvoyage to and from the Indian subcontinent; he was inthe employ of the Honourable East India Company dur-ing this time, and he was present at the British recaptureof Cape Colony (now South Africa) from the DutchBatavian Republic in January 1806 (Hargreaves 1970:375).Subsequently, he made three more voyages in the serv-

ice of the Honourable East India Company, documentinghis medical activities in some detail (Hargreaves 1970:375). After having spent nine years as a surgeon in theservice of the Company, Wilson retired from there in1814 at the age of 27. He graduated from the Universityof Aberdeen in the following year, and then embarkedupon a remarkable series of travels which lasted for thesubsequent nine years. Firstly, Wilson went on the Grand

THE ABERDONIAN EGYPTOLOGISTSMax Stocker recounts the lives and legacies of

James Grant and Robert Wilson

12 ANCIENT EGYPT December 2014/January 2015

The entrance to the Marischal Museum, Aberdeen.Photo: Bob Embleton, Wikimedia Creative Commons.

A portrait of Robert Wilson.Photo: University of Aberdeen

Tour of Europe. He travelled through France shortly afterthe House of Bourbon had been reinstated on the throneof the Kingdom of France, following the defeat ofNapoleon Bonaparte and the end of the short-lived FirstFrench Empire. Then Wilson travelled through Italy, theBalkans, and extensively across northern Europe(Hargreaves 1970: 375).He subsequently journeyed through the Near East,North Africa, and the Indian subcontinent. Along theway, he wrote journals in a series of notebooks, each onecorresponding to the country he was visiting at the time.Wilsons notebook documenting his antiquarian andarchaeological activities in Egypt is currently curated bythe Special Libraries and Archives collection of theUniversity of Aberdeen. Wilson acquired an extraordi-nary variety of antiquities from lands across the OldWorld on his travels, and was amongst the first Brits tobring back artefacts from Egypt personally. At the time hefirst visited Egypt, Lake Victoria had not yet been discov-ered; much of the interior of sub-Saharan Africa hadnever been explored, and was unknown to Westerners.The ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic script had not yetbeen deciphered, and few Europeans had even set foot insouthern Egypt or in the Sudan.After a successful second career in imperial diplomacyand administration, Wilson returned to Scotland, and leftinstructions, in his will, that all of his Egyptian antiquitiesshould be donated to the Marischal Museum. Theseinclude some highly interesting pieces, such as threeextracts from the Books of Breathing (see above), and at leasttwo manuscripts of the Book of the Dead (see right), whichare described in essays, written in extremely elegant hand,and kept in the archives of the Marischal Museum. TheBooks of Breathing are funerary texts from the first millen-nium BC, which were influenced, in many ways, by thepre-existing Book of the Dead. The Book of the Dead was avery common Egyptian funerary text, mostly written onpapyrus, which was included in Egyptian burials for overfifteen hundredyears continuously. Its purpose was to helpthe deceased to gain access to the next world. Much ofhuman culture is centred around death, and the Book ofthe Dead gives us a remarkable insight into the Egyptiancultural response to death, and into the Egyptians beliefs

concerning law, justice, how we ought to live, and how weought to die. The Book of the Dead was a very powerful def-inition of a culture and a worldview, and its truly aston-ishing longevity attests to its great importance and its pri-macy in Egyptian mortuary practice.Since our earliest days of exploration and discovery inEgypt, papyri have been amongst the artefacts transport-ed back to the West, and have since become criticallyimportant components of collections of Egyptian antiq-uities in museums and universities internationally. Evenprior to the decipherment of hieroglyphs in the earlynineteenth century, papyri were valued as artefacts in andof themselves, but the ways in which they were stored andtreated in the nineteenth century often left much to bedesired. Papyri were frequently damaged by careless han-dling, inappropriate methods of storage, applicance ofglue, and exposure to sunshine.Secondly, we shall look at the life of James Grant (see

overleaf). Grant was born to a Scottish banker in Methlick,Aberdeenshire, in 1840. He studied at the University ofAberdeen, and graduated with a Masters degree inMedicine in 1864. He went to Alexandria in April 1866at the age of 26, where he played an important role infighting an epidemic of cholera which had beset northernEgypt at that time. In recognition of his efforts, SultanAbdlaziz of the Ottoman Empire conferred upon Grantthe title of Chevalier of the Imperial Order of theMedjidieh.


An extract from the Books of Breathing collected by Wilson.Photo: University of Aberdeen

An extract from the Book of the Dead collected by Wilson.Photo: University of Aberdeen

The historical background to Grants arrival in Egyptwas dominated by the declining and fracturing OttomanEmpire (see map below) under Sultan Abdlaziz, by theincreasing economic and political influence of the West inthe Near East, and by the rapid growth of the British andEuropean Empires throughout the African continent, at atime when the imperial power of Western civilisation wasapproaching its zenith. Since the early sixteenth century,

Egypt had been a province of the Ottoman Empire,which had been one of the greatest powers in the worldfor much of the second millennium AD. Over the yearswhich Grant spent in Egypt, the country became moreand more independent, and increasingly devolved fromthe Ottoman Empire in many aspects of domestic andforeign policy.By 1868, James Grant was permanently employed in

the service of the state of the Khedivate of Egypt, andlived in Cairo. In 1880, at the age of 40, the governmentof the Khedivate granted him the title of Bey, a high-ranking, honour-laden Turkish title which had been usedsince the earliest years of the Ottoman Empire. Grantspent most of his adult life in Egypt, and, over the yearsof his residence there, he became a knowledgeableEgyptologist and an avid collector of Egyptian antiqui-ties. He also befriended the so-called father of Egyptianarchaeology William Flinders Petrie, then in his thirties,and moved at the pinnacle of society, both expatriate andEgyptian. Moreover, the Reverend James Smith, anenthusiastic traveller, was a guest and acquaintance ofGrant in Cairo, and he wrote that Grant was held in greatrespect and renown both as a physician and as anEgyptologist. Smith recorded that Grant decorated hishouse in Cairo with Egyptian antiquities, and that he wasin the habit of inviting audiences to his home, and deliv-ering weekly lectures on varying aspects of ancientEgyptian civilisation (Smith 1897: 114).Grant acquired a huge number of Egyptian antiquities

during his time in the country. After his death at age of 56at Bridge of Allan in 1896, his widow and daughterdonated over two thousand items from his collection,including a number of papyri, to the Marischal Museum.The Museums Egyptological corpus was transformed bythis gift, and Grant was responsible for the original acqui-sition of the majority of the papyri currently held there.

14 ANCIENT EGYPT December 2014/January 2015

A photograph of James Grant. University of Aberdeen

The Ottoman Empire in the mid-nineteenth century. Map; Peter Robinson

Grants widow and daughter also donated a large col-lection of scarabs to the Museum, many of them in excel-lent condition. Scarabs are an extremely common form ofamulet, and they were practically ubiquitous in ancientEgypt for most of its history as a unified, independentstate. The scarab symbolised the god Khepri, who wasassociated with the scarab-beetle, which rolls animal dunginto balls in the manner in which the sun rolls into the skyat dawn, on its eternal cyclical journey. Khepri was oftenrepresented as a man with a scarab beetle in place of hishead (see above); he was associated with regeneration andrenewal, and, through him, the sun came into being againeach morning, and gave light and life to the world.Both Wilson and Grant also aquired a wide variety of

statuary and funerary stelae, many of which await spe-cialist study.In conclusion, the primary contribution of Robert

Wilson and James Grant to Egyptology their amassingof Scotlands second-largest collection of Egyptian antiq-uities remains invaluable, and has the potential to addto our knowledge of various aspects of ancient Egyptianmaterial culture. However, much of their joint contribu-tion to the field remains to be discovered, as many of theartefacts which they acquired and bequeathed to the

Marischal Museum await further study and analysis. It isto be hoped that further work will be done on those antiq-uities in the future, and that the legacies of these men andof their fascinating lives will thereby be more fully under-stood by present-day Egyptologists.

Max StockerVery many thanks to Mr. Neil Curtis, Senior Curatorat the Marischal Museum, for his kind permission touse the archival material of the Marischal Museum inthe writing of this article. I also acknowledgeUniversity of Aberdeen Museums with regard to theabove copyrighted and credited images. M.S.

Max has a degree in Egyptology and Assyriology fromUniversity College, Oxford and is a regular contributor

to AE.

BibliographyCurtis, N.G.W., Kockelmann, H. & Munro, I. The

Collection of the Book of the Dead Manuscripts in MarischalMuseum, University of Aberdeen, Scotland: A ComprehensiveOverview (Aberdeen 2005).

Hargreaves, H., Dr. Robert Wilson Alumnus andBenefactor of Marischal College: The Man and hisPapers, in Aberdeen University Review 43 (1970).

Smith, J. A pilgrimage to Egypt: An account of a visit to LowerEgypt (Aberdeen 1897).


The god Khepri depicted as a man with a scarab beetle as ahead, on a wall of the Tomb of Nefertari. Valley of the

Queens, on the West Bank at Luxor. Photo: RBP

February 14th, 2015

Egyptology Online @ Manchester in association with

The Manchester Museum and the KNH Centre

From Amulets to Golden Flies:

Understanding Egyptian Jewellery

A series of presentations by

Roger Forshaw, Glenn Godenho, Campbell Price, Denys Stocks,

Taneash Sidpura and Joyce Tyldesley

For further details please visit our website: www.egyptologyonline.ls.manchester.ac.uk

In 1862, Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (later KingEdward VII), was sent on an educational tour of theMiddle East which would take him to Egypt, the HolyLand, Syria, Lebanon, Turkeyand Greece. His smallentourage included FrancisBedford (1815-94), the firstphotographer to join a royaltour, who produced aroundtwo hundred photographsduring the four-month jour-ney, and it is an extensiveselection of these photographsthat form the nucleus of thelatest exhibition at theQueens Gallery. The gallery, in the grounds

of Buckingham Palace, housesThe Royal Collection, one ofthe largest and most importantart collections in the world,and one of the last greatEuropean royal collections toremain intact. It comprisesalmost all aspects of the fineand decorative arts, and isspread among some thirteenroyal residences and formerresidences across the UK,most of which are regularly

open to the public. The Royal Collection is held in trustby the Sovereign for her successors and the nation, and isnot owned by The Queen as a private individual.

The Cairo to Constantinopleexhibition follows the journeytaken by the Prince of Walesin 1862, on his four-monthtour around the Middle Eastmeeting rulers, politicians andother notable figures, andtravelling in a manner notassociated with royalty byhorse and camping out intents. Seen through Bedfordsphotographs, the exhibitionexplores the cultural and polit-ical significance VictorianBritain attached to the region,which was then as complexand contested as it remainstoday.One of photographs shows

some of the antiquitiesacquired by the Prince on theisland of Rhodes (above right).The photograph representedthe starting point for meticu-lous research which allowedthe retracing of many of theantiquities acquired by the

CAIRO TO CONSTANTINOPLE: EARLY PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE MIDDLE EAST

Alessandro Nasini discusses the new photography exhibition at the Queens Gallery,Buckingham Palace.


Francis Bedfords photograph of the naos of theTemple of Horus at Edfu.

Photo: Royal Collection Trust

Francis Bedfords photograph of the Hathor-headed columns beside the mammisi of the Temple of Isis at Philae.


Francis Bedfords photograph of the collection of antiquitiesbought by the Prince of Wales in Rhodes.

Photo: Royal Collection Trust.

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TOPLEFT: Jemima Blackburns water-colour The Prince of Wales at Thebes,

18 March 1862 shows the prince visiting an excavation.


TOPRIGHT: Ancient scarabs set in nineteenth century jewellery,

a wedding present for PrincessAlexandria from the prince.

Photos: top, SG; centre and bottom, JPP.

RIGHT: A bust of the princess wearingthe brooch shown in the bottom photo

top right. Photo: SG.

CENTRERIGHT: The funerary stela ofNakhtmontu bought by the prince.


LEFT: The Prince of Wales.Photo: Royal Collection Trust

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Ancient Egypt December 2014 January 2015