Corroboree: 25 Years of Cooperation between Egyptians and Australians in the Field of Egyptology

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1 Corroboree: 25 Years of Cooperation between Egyptians and Australians in the Field of Egyptology Jane Smythe Over the past 25 years Australian Universities have conducted epigraphic and archaeological field projects in Egypt with the support from the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA). Throughout this period, Australians have welcomed the opportunity to participate and contribute to the field of Egyptian archaeology. During 2006, the Australian Ambassador, His Excellency Dr Robert Bowker proposed a formal celebration to celebrate the quarter century of Australian archaeological projects in Egypt. Dr Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities was quite enthusiastic about this project. Dr Zahi gave permission and support for an exhibition to be held at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and suggested that a one day conference also take place at the SCA Zamalek, Ahmed Pasha Kamal Hall to commemorate the event was a very busy year for temporary exhibitions at the Egyptian Museum, so the Australian exhibition and conference was scheduled for early The Australian Embassy in Cairo furthermore, took the opportunity to make this event the culmination of an Australia Week Festival that included traditional and contemporary Australian culture, dance, cuisine and art. The title Corroboree was settled upon for the exhibition and conference as the Ambassador felt it to be a fitting title for a celebration of the achievements and friendships formed by Australians and our Egyptian counterparts. My participation in the organisation of the project started in late January As a resident of Cairo and having worked with many of the curators at the Egyptian Museum in connection with the Helwan Project since 1997, I was contracted by the Australian Embassy to organise Corroboree. Organising Corroboree By the second week in February 2007 I found myself flying into Assiut in middle Egypt with the Ambassador and his wife Jenny to meet the Embassy car that was to drive us all to Dakhleh Oasis. The Ambassador, Jenny and I spent two nights at the invitation of Associate Professor Colin Hope in order to tour the archaeological sites of the Oasis and discuss the Corroboree project. Dakhleh Oasis Dig House and sherd yard.

2 My next step was to put together a proposal and launch discussions as to the best date for the event. The only window of opportunity would be the first week of February as Associate Professor Colin Hope and the Dakhleh Oasis team would be in Cairo waiting for their return flights to Melbourne. All of the Macquarie University projects would be active in the Cairo region from mid January to late February. Professor Kanawati and his team would be working at the Teti Cemetery in Saqqara, as would Associate Professor Boyo Ockinga and his team. Dr Christiana Köhler, at this stage would be two thirds of the way through her season at the Helwan Cemetery. February 4 was finally scheduled as the inauguration date and discussions began with the SCA with regard to logistics. The exhibition was to be held in room 48 on the ground floor of the Egyptian Museum, located where the Narmer Palette is usually on display just as you enter through the front doors. Each of the four major archaeological projects was to have their own area of the floor space available. The Ambassador secured funding from Centamin, a company founded by an Egyptian / Australian family who have gold mining interests in both countries. Dr Zahi Hawass and the SCA very generously offered to publish our catalogue and posters for the exhibition through their printing department. Dr Zbigniew Szafrański from the Polish Institute in Cairo supplied us with a considerable amount of logistical support and material for the exhibition. On a personal note, I would also like to thank Nadine Cherpion from the Institut français d archéologie orientale (IFAO) and Michael Neska from the Polish Institute in Cairo for sharing their experience in putting together such an exhibition, their advice was invaluable. Much of 2007 was spent in communication with the participating Australian academics that were to contribute information for the catalogue, identifying artefacts to be included within the exhibition and finalising the speaker list for the one day conference. By the first week in January the manuscript for the catalogue was delivered to the SCA printing office. The final formatting and proofreading for the catalogue was completed with the help of Leonie Donovan. A pdf file of the Corroboree catalogue has been made available and can be viewed on the ACE web site. Catalogue for the Corroboree exhibition. During this period a plan was made of the exhibition space with regard to the objects to be displayed as well as information panels that were to be designed and printed. All of the project directors kindly provided information and photographs

3 to be used for the display panels. A pdf file of the Corroboree panels has been made available and can be viewed on the ACE web site. A collection of 48 photographs was also made, illustrating individual Australian professionals and students who come to work in Egypt. Half of these images document team members from the four major Australian funded projects, as well as the work done by Dr Anna Stevens and her Australian team at Amarna. The other half of this small photographic exhibition introduces a number of Australians who have, and are independently working on internationally funded projects. Many people are surprised to know, for instance, that both Arthur C. mace and Veronica Seton-Williams both originated from Australia. These photos can also be viewed on the ACE web site. Moving antiquities to the Egyptian Museum Once all of the antiquities were chosen, security forms signed, antiquity inspectors informed and police escorts organised; the process could then focus upon the movement of these objects to the Egyptian Museum. Thirty one objects in total were chosen for Corroboree and in order to make the process as easy as possible, most of them came from the Cairo region. Sixteen of those chosen are actually on display, or housed within the Egyptian Museum. Each object for Corroboree was received within the Egyptian Museum conservation department before display and I would like to extend my thanks to Dr Alba Abd el Salam and her staff for their help. Helwan objects Tuesday January 8 saw the start of the moving process. The first transfer was to come from the Helwan Project, a Predynastic cemetery site where Dr Christiana Köhler and her team have been working since A small, First Dynasty ivory commodity label (Catalogue no. 1), excavated in 2005 from Operation 4 / Tomb 91, was the first to be collected from the storage magazine FARAH at the Helwan site. The inspectors and I then travelled 60km further south to the Helwan Inspectorate s magazine in Atfih, to collect a Second Dynasty limestone stela (Cat. no. 2), excavated by the Macquarie University team in 2001 from Operation 4 / Tomb 19. Limestone stela and ivory plaque packed for transport.

4 Helwan Inspectors Madam Eisha Shams el-din, Mr Mohammed Badr el-din and Mr Mouafaq Maher deliver objects to Miss Sabah Abdel Razek of the Exhibition s Committee at the Egyptian Museum. The two objects from the Helwan Inspectorate were received at the Egyptian Museum by a committee, headed by Miss Sabah Abdel Razek and the Registrar s Department. The objects excavated by the Macquarie University team were to be joined in Corroboree by three objects that had been excavated from Helwan during the midtwentieth century by the Egyptian archaeologist Zaki Saad. The Saad objects included a NIIIB grey steatite cylinder seal (Cat. no. 4) usually on display in room 42 on the first floor of the Egyptian Museum; a large predynastic ceramic storage jar with an incised Serekh (Cat. no. 3) as well as an ivory plaque of Neith-hotep (Cat. no. 5), probably the wife of king Narmer, the first First Lady of Egypt. The two latter objects were taken from a collection of over 6000 artefacts stored in the basement of the Egyptian Museum since the late 1960s. Dr Köhler and her team have been systematically recording these objects in tandem with their archaeological investigation of the site since Saqqara objects The largest number of objects to be transferred at once happened on Tuesday January 15 from Professor Kanawati s work at Saqqara. The limestone statue of Meri and Bebyt, dated to thesixth Dynasty, and the wooden Ptah-Osiris statue, dated to the Twenty-sixth Dynasty (Cat. nos. 6 and 12 respectively), are on permanent display in the Imhotep Museum at Saqqara. These two pieces were made available for Corroboree, as well as four other objects from the Saqqara storage magazines. These included, a wooden door panel and drum (Cat. nos. 7 and 8) from the tomb of Awi, dated to the SixthDynasty; a mummy with wooden coffin and a small box containing mummification remains (Cat. nos. 11 and 13), both from the Twenty-sixth Dynasty. Statue of Meri and Bebyt arriving at the Egyptian Museum.

5 Preparing the mummy from the Saqqara Inspectorate for the journey to the Egyptian Museum. As before, the conservation department, together with the Exhibition s Committee and the Registrar s Department were at the Museum to receive the antiquities from the Saqqara Inspectors that had accompanied the pieces. These six antiquities were reunited with a group of gold jewellery objects (Cat. nos. 9 and 10) dating to the reign of Teti in the SixthDynasty that had been kept for safety in the Egyptian Museum. Arrival of the mummy at the Egyptian Museum. Miss Doha Fathy and Miss Marwa Abdel Razek from the Registrar s Department receiving the objects from Saqqara.

6 Theban objects The objects that were chosen by Associate Professor Boyo Ockinga were gathered from various locations. Three of the largest objects, certainly the heaviest of the exhibition, were fortunately already on display throughout the museum. The Eighteenth Dynasty limestone Sakmet block from the tomb of Amenemone (Cat. no. 14) is normally set into the wall near the eastern staircase located in room 10 on the ground floor of the museum. The second large piece, an Eighteenth Dynasty limestone Stele of Amenemone (Cat. no. 15), exhibited on the wall next to the western stairs in room 6 on the ground floor of the museum, was likewise prepared for the move to Corroboree exhibition space. The third piece to be added from the museum was the beautifully crafted NineteenthDynasty granite statue of Saroy (Cat. no. 16), usually hidden behind the entrance to room 14 on the ground floor. Positioning the stele of Amenemone. In contrast to the large objects that had only to be moved across the museum there were a group of smaller objects excavated by Dr Ockinga and his team that had to be transported from Thebes. Five of these smaller objects, comprising of an Eighteenth Dynasty funerary cone (Cat. no. 17) and four fragments of shabties from the Nineteenthand Twentieth Dynasties (Cat. nos. 19, 21, 22 and 23) were brought up to Cairo from the SCA Gerza Magazine at Thebes on Thursday January 23. These objects were later joined by a complete NineteenthDynasty Nile clay shabti (Cat. no. 18), found by Dr Ockinga s team in the tomb of Saroy. This shabti had been removed from Thebes and put into storage for the National Museum of Egyptian Culture (NMEC), currently under construction at Fustat in Old Cairo. Mr Fathy Hussain from the Gerza Instpectorate Thebes delivering a box of Shabties and a Funerary Cone to the Exhibition s Committee and Registrar s Department.

7 Dakhleh Oasis objects During June 2006 an exhibition and international conference for the Dakhleh Oasis Project was held in Cairo. As a result, a number of spectacular finds by Associate Professor Colin Hope were conveniently still held in the Egyptian Museum. From a group of c. Fourth century C.E. glass jugs, three were chosen for Corroboree; the most striking of which is the Gladiator Jug (Cat. no. 24). A head shaped glass bottle of a youth (Cat. no. 25) and a two handled glass flagon with fluted body (Cat. nos. 25 and 26) made up the three for display. Added to our list were three 3 rd century C.E. gold rings (Cat. nos. 27, 28 and 29) that had been held at the Egyptian Museum since they were excavated by Dr Hope during the 1990s. To this collection was added a very small Fourth century bronze statue of Hermes (Cat. no. 30), usually displayed in room 35 on the ground floor, as well as the Twenty-second/Twenty- Third Dynasty fragmented sandstone stele of Igai (Cat. no. 31) that had been in storage within the basement of the Egyptian Museum. Madam May Trad, Jane Smythe, Miss Sabah Abdel Razek and Ahmed Mousa setting up the glass bottle display. Setting up January 31 saw the first day of setting up Corroboree. All panels were brought into the museum and set out in their places, display cases moved into position awaiting the antiquities that were to be installed over the next couple of days.

8 The Launch I was able to finally finish setting up the exhibition on the January 4, just hours before the launch at 7pm of that evening. I would not have been able to do this without the help of my colleagues at the Egyptian Museum as well as Sarah Kirlew and Dagmar Emmery from the Australian Embassy in Cairo and Christian Knoblauch, Christiana Köhler, Amber Hood and Amanda Kiely from Macquarie University.

9 Corroboree ready to go. H.E. Dr Robert Bowker Australian Ambassador and Dr Wafaa El Saddik Director of the Egyptian Museum launching Corroboree. Freshwater performing at the Corroboree launch Bird s eye view of the Corroboree launch Freshwater and the staff of the Egyptian Museum. H.E. Dr Robert Bowker, Jenny Bowker and Professor Naguib Kanawati.

10 Egyptian media filming the launch. Professor Kanawati was kind enough to host a field trip the following day, January, 5, to his project at Saqqara.