Preserving Ancient Egyptian cultural heritage: an examination of the role of egyptological archives

ABSTRACT

Egyptological archives preserve evidence of Ancient Egyptian cultures, and historic Egyptian participation in archaeological fieldwork. This paper grew out of conversations with Egyptological archivists, who expressed concerns that their archives were under-used by both archaeological and Egyptian researchers. It provides an overview of current use and users, supported by evidence from literature and by a survey of a representative selection of institutions. Online research and interviews contribute further to the analysis of current Egyptological archive practice. As these archives are largely colonial in origin, this includes investigation of the effects of their formation, location and description. While most chose to remain anonymous, Egyptian interview subjects made an invaluable contribution to this research. Findings confirmed that, while Egyptological archives are increasingly used for original research, they are under-used both for research preparatory to fieldwork, and by Egyptian researchers. Survey respondents indicated a belief that the best way to address under-use and inclusivity was by providing scanned resources online. However, interviews and online research revealed that raising visibility and knowledge of these archives may be more effective.

KEYWORDS:

• Egyptology
• archives
• (post) colonialism
• cultural heritage

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Weber, “First Report,” 60.

2. Stevenson, “Between the Field and the Museum,” 117; Personal communication Carl Graves, Director, EES, numerous occasions.

3. Hassan, “Introduction,” 3; Tawfik, “Afterword from Cairo,” 314–5; Ikram, “Cultural Heritage,” 368–9; El Sawy et al., “Stealing from History.”

4. Hemeda, “Geotechnical Modelling,” 3–4; Samir, “Extreme Heat.”

5. In order to conduct fieldwork in Egypt, an archaeological concession (a specified area of land, in which an institution has permission to conduct excavations) must be granted by the Ministry of Antiquities.

6. Stevenson, Scattered Finds, 239.

7. El Sawy et al., “Stealing from History.”

8. Colla, Conflicted Antiquities, 17; Carruthers, Histories of Egyptology, 1. Significantly, both of these writers use the word “ancient” in their definitions, referring to a specific period in Egypt”s past.

9. Reid, Whose Pharaohs?, xvii. Reid”s 1914 map shows the area referred to here.

10. Historic England website, “Archaeological archives consist of the records and finds made during an archaeological project.”

11. Stevenson, Scattered Finds, 259–60. It is currently illegal to export any archaeological finds from Egypt.

12. The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology and the Metropolitan Museum both have searchable object catalogues but not archive catalogues available online.

13. Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (1853–1942); Serpico, “Introduction,” 5.

14. The Boston Museum of Fine Arts holds a series of field diaries written in Arabic, by Egyptian reises, or excavation foremen.

15. Stevenson, Scattered Finds, 238.

16. Survey results indicate that this is still a common method of deposition.

17. Griffith Institute, Tutankhamun.

18. Riggs, Photographing Tutankhamun, 51–2; quoting a letter from Edward Thurlow Leeds to Sir John Forsdyke: GI/Carter 1945–6.

19. Carruthers, “Permeable Records,” 10. Documentation from Egypt is held by the Centre de Documentation sur l”Égypte Ancienne (CEDAE) in the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, while documentation from Sudan is held by the Sudan Archaeological Research Society (SARS) in the British Museum.

20. Carruthers, Histories of Egyptology, 2–3.

21. Ward, “Archaeological Potential,” 1. Only around a third of the excavations recorded in Durham University”s Sudan archive are published, for example.

22. pencer, Amara West I.

23. Thomas and Villing, “Naukratis revisited,” 82–4.

24. Stevenson, Scattered Finds, 238–9.

25. Stevenson, “Between the Field and the Museum,” 117–8.

26. Weber, “First Report,” 62–9.

27. Galán and Menéndez, “The Funerary Banquet of Hery,” 164–5.

28. Stevenson, “Egyptian Archaeology and the Museum,” 4.

29. Colla, Conflicted Antiquities, 20.

30. Serpico, “Re-excavating Egypt.”

31. Griffith Institute, Artefacts of Excavation.

32. Tawfik, “Challenges and Dangers,” 192.

33. Rashed and Bdr-El-Din, “Documentation,” 47.

34. Greshko, “Fire Devastates Brazil”s Oldest Science Museum.”

35. National Museum of Brazil Call for Photographs and Photograph Wiki.

36. Stevenson, Scattered Finds, 227. Stevenson further contends that the sale of these museum objects increases demand for Egyptian antiquities, while providing the appearance of legitimacy for auction house sales which include unprovenanced objects, resulting in an increase in looting.

37. Booth, “Excavating Paper Squeezes,” 51.

38. Omar, “The State of the Archive,” 177; Personal Communication, Source A2.

39. Di Capua, Gatekeepers of the Arab Past.

40. Shalaby, “Tewfik Boulos,” 77; Abydos Temple Paper Archive.

41. Riggs, Photographing Tutankhamun; Quirke, Hidden Hands.

42. Riggs, Photographing Tutankhamun, 7; Doyon, “On Archaeological Labor”, 142.

43. Said, Orientalism, 42.

44. Cuno, Whose Culture?, 28; Geismar, “Cultural Property,” 110.

45. Riggs, “Colonial Visions,” 66–7. Quoting a statement by the International Council of Museums (ICOM).

46. Reid, “Indigenous Egyptology,” 237.

47. Carruthers, “Multilateral Possibilities,” 6.

48. Ikram, “Collecting and Repatriating Egypt”s Past,” 141–2.

49. Meskell, “Practice and Politics,” 150–1.

50. Meskell, “Practice and Politics,” 147–8.

51. Carruthers, “Permeable Records,” 3–5. The planning stage of this project began in 1953, and the work itself ran from 1960–1980.

52. Krupa and Grimm, “Digital Repatriation,” 47.

53. Fraser and Todd, “Decolonial Sensibilities,” 33.

54. Ward, “Archaeological Potential,” 4.

55. Riggs, “Body in the Box,” 143–4.

56. Wood et al., “Mobilizing Records,” 402.

57. Yakel, “Archival Representation,” 16, 20.

58. Baird and McFadyen, “Archaeology of Archaeological Archives,” 16.

59. See above 52. 55.

60. Quirke, Hidden Hands, 308–10.

61. Survey results reveal that this information is frequently not recorded, resulting in reliance on estimates and the knowledge of archivists about researcher projects, e.g. qualitative results.

62. Matthews et al., “Disaster Management,” 3–5.

63. Keene et al., Collections for People.

64. Keene et al., Collections for People, 13.

65. Keene et al., Collections for People, 21–2.

66. IFAO list of Egyptological archives.

67. Matthews et al., “Disaster Management,” 7.

68. Personal Communication, Carl Graves, Director, and Stephanie Boonstra, Collections Manager, EES, 13/9/2019.

69. One of the remaining two said incentivize deposition of current fieldwork records, and the other, hire a professional archivist.

70. Personal communication, Keshk, 26/10/2019; Graves,11/10/2019.

71. Personal communication, Keshk, 26/10/2019.

72. Ibid.2019.

73. Personal communication, Ikram, 18/10/2019.

74. Archive search pages were tested using Safari, Firefox and Chrome browsers, on Sierra 10.12.6, Windows 7 and Windows 10 operating systems. French was used as a control language, since it does not re-format the pages to read right to left. English was used when testing French-language sites. The same problems occurred in all tests, with the only difference being that some items disappeared entirely due to the left to right reformatting.

75. Functionality of these sites was tested on Sierra 10.12.6 and Windows 10.

76. See note 17 above.

77. Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Giza Archive Project.

78. Egypt Exploration Society Flickr albums.

79. Chilcott, “Towards Protocols,” 360.

80. Stevenson, Scattered Finds, 238.

81. Personal communication, Graves, numerous occasions.

82. See note 25 above 8.

83. Spencer, Amara West I, 4–6.

84. Personal communication, Boonstra, 1/10/2019.

85. See note 71 above 2019.

86. Personal communication, Keshk, 26/10/2019; Graves, 11/10/2019.

87. See note 71 above 2019.

88. Howgill, “New Methods,” 179.

89. Riggs, Photographing Tutankhamun, 219–2.

90. Sources A2 and A4 both confirm that while technically open for research, in practice it is impossible to gain access to the archaeological archives at the Ministry of Antiquities.

91. Nicholas and Bell, “Intellectual Property and Archaeology,” 307, 312.

92. Boast and Enote, “Virtual Repatriation,” 109.

93. This is a growing area of discussion in archival studies; see for instance the recent symposium on Provenance in Place, and the forthcoming Disputed Archival Heritage, edited by James Lowrys.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alix Robinson

Alix Robinson is a recent Archives and Records Management graduate (University of Dundee, 2020.) She also holds an MSc in Archaeometallurgy. She has worked as a volunteer at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, and as a volunteer and intern at the Egypt Exploration Society. She is currently a project archivist at the Royal Institute of British Architects, working on cataloguing the archive of Colin St John Wilson and Partners.