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21 Science in Egyptology: the scientific study of Egyptian mummies, initial phase, 1973–79 Alan Curry Ancient Egypt and its highly developed civilisation often captivate us. However, the scientific study of ancient Egyptian artefacts and mummies was uncommon before 1970. Enter Dr Rosalie David, who was appointed as Assistant Keeper of Archaeogy at the Manchester Museum in 1972. The Manchester Museum has been closely associated with the University of Manchester since the university’s inception in 1824 (Rothwell 2012: 6). Shortly after her appointment, it was
Combining approaches to ancient Egyptian religious expression, medical practice and the modern scientific study of human and material remains from Egypt and Sudan, this volume celebrates the multidisciplinary career of Prof Rosalie David OBE. The UK’s first female Professor in Egyptology, Rosalie David’s pioneering work at the University of Manchester on Egyptian mummies, magic and medicine has attracted international attention.
This volume presents research by a number of leading experts in their fields: recent archaeological fieldwork, new research on Egyptian human remains and unpublished museum objects along with reassessments of ancient Egyptian texts concerned with healing and the study of technology through experimental archaeology. Papers try to answer some of Egyptology’s biggest questions - How did Tutankhamun die? How were the Pyramids built? How were mummies made? – along with less well-known puzzles.
Rather than address these areas separately, the volume adopts the so-called ‘Manchester method’ instigated by Rosalie David and attempts to integrate perspectives from both traditional Egyptology and scientific analytical techniques. Much of this research has never appeared in print before, particularly that resulting from the Manchester Egyptian Mummy Project, set up in the 1970s. The resulting overview illustrates how Egyptology has developed over the last 40 years, and how many of the same big questions still remain.
This book will be of use to researchers and students of archaeology or related disciplines with an interest in multidisciplinary approaches to understanding life and death in ancient Egypt and Sudan.
Tea on the terrace takes readers on a journey up and down the Nile with archaeologists and Egyptologists. Travellers such as Americans Theodore Davis, Emma Andrews, and James Breasted, as well as Britons Wallace Budge, Maggie Benson, and Howard Carter arrived in Alexandria, moved on to Cairo, travelled up the Nile by boat and train, and visited Luxor. Throughout the journey, readers spend some time with them at their hotels and on their boats. We listen in on their conversations, watch their activities, and begin to understand that much archaeological work was not done at the field site or in the university museum, as many historians have argued. Instead, understanding the politics of conversation in the social studies of science, the book shows that hotels in Egypt on the way to and from home institutions and excavation sites were liminal, but powerful and central, spaces which became foundations for establishing careers, building and strengthening scientific networks, and generating and experimenting with new ideas. These are familiar stories to readers, but Tea on the terrace presents them in a new framework to show Egyptologists’ activities in a seemingly familiar but unknown space. A mix of archaeological tourism and the history of Egyptology, the book is based on original archival research, using letters, diaries, biographies, and travel guides as well as secondary sources.
work back in their home institutions. These activities not only reflected the ever-changing environment in which they took place, but they also shaped the way in which science was conducted in that relatively uncontrolled environment, and beyond. As the sites of such activities, Egyptian hotels, I argue, functioned as Egyptological think-tanks. Egyptology began and operated under the umbrella of a European colonial system, and for the time period in this book, specifically British colonial power. In that context, I analyse the influence of ephemeral hotel spaces in
Museum’s Egyptology collection – particularly its especially rich Graeco-Roman funerary material from Hawara – it is desirable to begin by sketching out the broader context of acquisition of Egyptian material in Manchester, one which is all too often overlooked or given only token acknowledgement. The Museum is part of Manchester’s largest and oldest University ( Fig 10 ), but functions in the same way as a major civic museum typical of many other cities in the UK and elsewhere, combining both natural history and human
So began Amelia Edwards’ first and only trip up the Nile on the rented dahabeah Philae in 1874, a journey that would create not only an Egyptologist of her, but also would be a catalyst to bring about the creation of Egyptology as a university-taught subject and the professionalisation of the discipline in the UK. 2 The archaeologists and travellers from the previous chapters needed to go up the Nile for their work, and many did so for pleasure as well. The situation was
30 Education, innovation and preservation: the lasting legacy of Sir Grafton Elliot Smith Jenefer Cockitt Sir Grafton Elliot Smith (1871–1937) is known to many in Egyptology and palaeopathology as an early pioneer in these fields. His work on ancient Egyptian mummification and the Archaeological Survey of Nubia (ASN) during the early twentieth century is extensively referenced and quoted. While it is recognised that his methods were not always perfect by modern standards, there are few who would deny that Elliot Smith played a pivotal role in the development of
Egyptology, in the roles of teaching and j 158 J A r c h a eol ogy, an t h ro p o l o g y an d w o me n i n m us eum s lecturing, recording, documenting, fundraising and museum work.8 His prolific excavation of archaeological artefacts from digs allowed a number of women to take up roles ‘museumifying’ these artefacts in various ways, as I will explore in this chapter. Women had experience of fieldwork in British archaeology. This goes back to the eighteenth century; a small number of women corresponded with the Society of Antiquaries about buildings, burials and
Golden Mummies of Egypt presents new insights and a rich perspective on beliefs about the afterlife during an era when Egypt was part of the Greek and Roman worlds (c. 300 BCE–200 CE). This beautifully illustrated book, featuring photography by Julia Thorne, accompanies Manchester Museum’s first-ever international touring exhibition. Golden Mummies of Egypt is a visually spectacular exhibition that offers visitors unparalleled access to the museum’s outstanding collection of Egyptian and Sudanese objects – one of the largest in the UK.
‘And we who stand merely on the threshold of knowledge are only dimly aware of the value of our work as the foundation of the splendour of knowledge which is the heritage of those who are yet to come’ Margaret Murray 1910 , 8 Mummified human remains are synonymous with ancient Egypt and with Manchester Egyptology; their apparently extraordinary preservation results from a combination of environmental factors, coupled with the cultural attitudes and religious