The History of Egypt Podcast

Meet Petamenope, the Ancient Egyptian Antiquarian ft.

My one pick of a gem in GEM would be amidst all the other late period sculpture in gallery ten. The standing statue of a man called Petamenope who was the chief lector priest in the seventh century BCE. It comes from the Karnak cachette and it shows him with his hands flat on his kilt. A very unusual, position for the seventh century BCE. And the hieroglyphic text on the front says the statue was given as a gift, as hesut of the king, a throwback to people like Senenmut, Amenhotep son of Habu and Middle Kingdom guys. So it's an illustration perhaps pf Petamenope who is buried in the massive TT33, on the West Bank at Luxor, that he was something of an antiquarian in ancient Egypt.

The Headless Statue of Pharaoh Twosret ft. Aidan Dodson

The piece I would like to present from the Grand Egyptian Museum is a headless statue of the female pharaoh, Twosret This is an important piece, as the only three dimensional representation of this particular woman, who is also the latest known example of a female pharaoh. She is wearing clothing which is more appropriate to a male pharaoh. For example, the nemes headdress, which is visible on her shoulder, and also the way that the sporran element of the front part of her body has been arranged.

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King Tut’s Unknown Treasure ft.

When Dominic asked me to describe my favorite pieces of the Grand Egyptian Museum, I didn't know what to say. I'm going to describe two pieces, both from the galleries of Tutankhamun. The first one is, wooden chest painted in white with black strips bearing hieroglyphic inscriptions with the name of the king. It's a timeless piece. It could be almost a modern design, and I think it's extremely elegant. the other piece I want to mention is the fragment of the wall that was hiding the entrance to the tomb of Tutankhamun, and it still shows the necropolis seals. It really makes me feel close to the ancient Egyptians.

My Favorite Ancient Egyptian Figure ft.

Hi, my name is Hassan el-Zawy, I used to work at the GEM and I'm currently an egyptology PHD student at Yale University, and my favorite pieces have to be the Tell el-Farkha figurines. These beautiful artifacts were found at Tell el-Farkha a prominent pre-dynastic site in the eastern Delta, and they date to around 3200 BCE. The figurines are 60 and 30cm in height, and we're not necessarily sure if they depict the same person or two different rulers, and apart from their distinctive artistic style, what makes these pieces really unique is that their eyes were outlined with lapis lazuli, which was only sourced from modern day Afghanistan, and this shows how foreign trade relations stretched in the ancient world.

Image Credit: Heidi Kontkanen Wikimedia

Queen Hetepheres’ Carrying Chair ft. Peter Lacovara

Hi, I'm Peter Lacovara and I'm here at the Albany Institute of History and Art in Albany, New York, and the exhibition From the Hudson to the Nile: Dows Dunham and the Archaeology of Egypt and Sudan. Dows Dunham discovered one of the most important objects in the Grand Egyptian Museum. This carrying chair. And it was found actually quite by accident. They had been setting up a camera tripod to take a picture of the great Pyramid and one of the legs of the tripod sunk into the ground. And when they looked closer, they discovered it was a patch of plaster sealing a tomb shaft that went 90ft down straight into the bedrock. When they opened up the tomb, they discovered a massive decayed furniture covered with gold leaf and inlays, and all of the wood had turned to dust. And so everything was an incredible jumble. And it took them many years to, record the material in the tomb. And they had no idea who it belonged to until they saw the carrying chair had decayed, but all the, gold hieroglyphs that were inlaid, it had fallen in order in the floor of the tomb. And right there they could read that it belonged to, Queen Hetepheres, the wife of King Senefru, and the mother of Khufu, the builder of the Great Pyramid. It took many years to reconstruct it. First, on paper. And then in real life, with the aid of Ahmed Youssef, the conservator who put together the Khufu boat many years later, and finally a set was made. The originals were made for the catalog and see, and a copy was made for the Boston Museum.

Pharaoh Akhenaten’s Interesting Stela ft.

Hey, Briana Jackson here, and I am here to tell you about one of my favorite artifacts from the GEM. And it's this one right here. It's the colossal stela dating to the reign of Akhenaten. And you would think that it was erected somewhere in Amarna. But no, it was actually erected at a temple in Heliopolis, which is in the delta, and it belonged to a temple that was called he raises Ra in Heliopolis. And it's interesting because Ra is actually listed as the primary god on this stela rather than the Aten which you would expect. It also shows the king worshiping at an offering table, and he is in a really interesting position. He's actually on his knees followed by Nefertiti and somebody else a daughter. And you would think that this was Meritaten, his firstborn, because she appears all over the place. But this is actually Meketaten, the second born. So next time you go to the gym, I hope you take a look at this colossal stela of Akhenaten.

Proof that the Ancient Egyptians Where Just Like Us!

Choosing one single object from the entire collection of the Grand Egyptian Museum is almost impossible. But if I had to choose just one, I would choose this. And this is my favorite ostracon from the wall of ostraca from Deir el-Medina. And I love this one specifically because it makes me laugh every time I see it. And it's a beautiful example of how ancient Egyptian artisans were just like us.
Everybody had to start somewhere. You don't start as a master artist right away. You have to practice. You have to learn. And everybody does indeed have to start somewhere. And while this may have been a color test, a brush test, or just a warmup sketch before getting to work, I also like to think that it's possible that this was just a silly doodle that someone made, and it made them laugh, and it maybe made their coworkers laugh too.

King Tutankhamun’s New Home

The big headliner is the full display of King Tutankhamun's treasures. Discovered in 1922 and slowly excavated by Howard Carter over the course of ten years. Many of Tutankhamun's items did make their way to the Old Egyptian Museum. But there they suffered the same issues: poor lighting, old and dusty display cases, vandalism during the Arab Spring, and the perennial problem a lack of space from the ever-growing crowds. What's more, the old museum only displayed a tiny portion of Tutankhamun's goods. His tomb contained several thousand items. But if you went to the museum in Tahrir Square, you could see maybe 200. All of the rest were in storage facilities and conservation labs. Apart from special exhibitions, the public never got to see them. Now things are better. The Grand Egyptian Museum presents the full assemblage of King Tutankhamun's treasures. They are displayed in modern cases with soft artificial lighting, so visitors can get excellent photographs and the items themselves will last better without sunlight damaging them.

Egypt’s Billion Dollar Grand Museum

The Grand Egyptian Museum is open. What's so special about this billion dollar mega project? Why does Egypt need yet another museum of antiquities? The GEM’s history goes back into the early 1990s, when academics, conservators, and government ministers began discussing the need for new museums in Cairo. The Egyptian Museum in the heart of downtown Cairo was really showing its age. Now, this is a lovely building with a venerable history, but it opened in 1902 and its design, display cases and conservation facilities left a lot to be desired. Plans developed through the 1990s, and in 2002, the Egyptian government was finally ready to announce the Grand Egyptian Museum project. Officials marked the start of work with a foundation ceremony at the chosen site near Giza. Interestingly, they buried a special stone at the site to formally inaugurate the process. In doing that, they partially replicated the practice that the ancient pharaohs had undertaken. Whenever rulers like Hatshepsut or Ramesses the Great inaugurated a new building project, they would mark the occasion and demarcate the sacred boundary by burying special objects underneath the foundations. Archeologists have found many of those, and they are on display in the Old Egyptian Museum. So it was a fitting beginning for this kind of project.