The Egyptian Museum in Cairo, on Being the Elder Statesman

When the distinguished Egyptian museum in Cairo first opened its doors in 1902 it was designed to display around 35,000 objects.  The air circulation was thought to be adequate for the 500 estimated daily visitors and natural lighting sufficient to illuminate the exhibited objects.

 Little has changed over the last century, as far as the museum’s facilities are concerned, although its contents have exploded into a staggering 200,000 or so objects. This figure may or may not, include treasures in the basement which some say is worthy of excavation itself!

 Many of the objects acquired over the years are the result of continuous excavations, which have taken place throughout Egypt since the opening of the museum and with the increase in visitors to around six to seven thousand per day, floor space in the building has itself, become a treasured commodity.

 To accommodate these increases, Cairo is to have a Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), described in a government brochure as “a vision, a single source; faint yet filled with the strength to glow with the power of a thousand suns.” It is a majestic work in progress and will stand on the Giza Plateau in the shadow of one of the seven wonders of the ancient world – Khufu’s great pyramid.   Superlatives aside, this 480,000 square meter site will house one hundred thousand of Egypt’s most unique ancient treasures, fifty thousand of which have already been chosen, many from the present Egyptian museum.  

 The transportation of  one hundred thousand  irreplaceable ancient objects from one museum to the other  is positively ‘mind boggling’ and must surely pose a logistical nightmare for the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA).  The removal into storage of just one item in 2006, the eighty three ton, 3,200 year old statue of Rameses II, from the front of Cairo’s main railway station, took nine snail-paced hours to transit the city, during the dead of night, using military-style procedures which cost around $1 million.  The pink granite statue of Ramesses, in the meantime, remains protected, until he takes up his new commanding position in the Atrium of the Grand New Museum (GEM).  Other items destined for display at GEM, will be inspected, documented and issued with a health card.  If they require restoration treatment this will be carried out in one of Gem’s new underground conservation laboratories, after which they will be stored.

 A “vital link towards averting disaster” during the ‘big move’ has been the introduction of a new database, currently in progress.   The idea of a digitized database was first proposed by Gary Scott of the American Research Center in Egypt and Dr. Janice Kamrin, Egyptological Consultant to the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Cairo. The plan was approved by Dr. Zahi Hawass, the SCA’s head, along with museum curators, and funded by ARCE/USAID and put into action at the museum a couple of years ago by Dr. Kamrin.

 Before the database, there was no standardized approach to registration.  Any museum-based research was carried out via the ‘Object Register Books’ or reference library.  The handwritten register books, are, themselves historical catalogues containing information, such as the description of an object, where it was found and by whom. Some of the earliest entries date back to 1858 (around 7,000) with the very first entry marked as JE1,  a small standing statue of the goddess Isis with hands by her side and throne on her head - found at Saqqara.

According to Egyptologist Elina Nuutinen from the Registrars and Collections Department, the books have now been photographed, which means the copies can be handled for transcription purposes, rather than the extremely fragile originals.

 Apart from the small team of Egyptologists and registrars involved in the Database Project, there is also the Volunteer Project, overseen by Elina Nuutinen.  Volunteers from all over the world, including Egyptologists, students and egyptophiles whose work is connected to the subject, are attracted to the musty corridors of the Egyptian museum. It is hugely rewarding for those who are committed, although the fainthearted should not apply!

 According to Dr. Kamrin 134,000 transcriptions had already been transferred to the database by May of this year, just over half-way!  The project has received two more years of funding from the Andrew W. Mellor Foundation and has just taken on two more Egyptologists to help with the registering of artifacts.  Once collected, the information in the database will form the basis for a new standardized Collections Management System which, says Dr. Kamrin “will bring this pre-eminent institution into the new century.”

 The Grand Egyptian Museum “ is a decades-old dream’  linking ancient and modern Cairo,” but  let’s not forget the grandeur of the present Egyptian Museum in Cairo, it is not retiring yet It will still stand in Midan el Tahirir  looking just a  little more like the dignified elder statesman.