Британский музей Лондона

Chapter IV . Museum

Moving on to the Museum, let us point out, first of all, the collection of Egyptian antiquities, which occupies a large gallery 92 meters long and several small rooms. It was based on a collection of Egyptian rarities collected by the French scientist Devi and which fell into the hands of the British in 1801, after the capitulation of Alexandria; it was donated to the Museum by George III; Besides him, the Duke of Northumberland enriched this collection with his offerings. Its total number exceeds 10,000.

4.1 The museum's ancient Egyptian collection

One of the largest in the world (over 66 thousand exhibits). Chronologically covers the period 4–3 thousand BC. up to 7th century The richest section is the monumental sculpture of the New Kingdom (16th–11th centuries BC): Granite head of Thutmes III , two Figures of Amenhotep III made of black granite, a huge head from his statue (c. 1400 BC), Sculpture of Pharaoh Ramses II (c. 1250 BC), stone sarcophagi, statues of gods.

At the entrance to one of the halls, the Rosetta Stone (c. 196 BC) is displayed, with the carved text of a decree in honor of King Ptolemy V. The black basalt slab was found in 1799 by French soldiers near the city of Rosetta. Thanks to an inscription repeating the text twice in different Egyptian writing systems and a translation into Greek, Jean-François Champollion (1790–1832) deciphered Egyptian hieroglyphs in 1822.
The museum's Egyptian collection contains papyri (about 800 documents), introducing the world to literary works, theological works, religious hymns and myths, scientific treatises, records of historical events, as well as business and personal correspondence, and legal documents. The museum stores the so-called Books of the Dead , a collection of magical spells that included more than 180 chapters. The best examples were decorated with drawings, headpieces, miniatures: “Book of the Dead” by the priestess Anhai (c. 1100 BC), “Book of the Dead” by Hunefer (c. 1300 BC).
This department presents handicrafts, ceramics, glass and earthenware vases, jewelry, scarabs, paintings taken from the walls of Theban tombs and made using the tempera technique (15th century BC): Farmers with geese, Hunting for water birds , Singers and dancers , etc. - all dated 1425-1379 BC.
About a hundred wooden sarcophagi, well-preserved mummies, including mummies of sacred animals, Coptic textiles and Fayum portraits (1st–4th centuries) are also exhibited here. The collection contains 31 portraits: Sarcophagus with a portrait of Artemidorus from Fayum (early 2nd century), Portrait of a young women from Er-Rubaiyat (2nd century), Portrait of a man from Hawara (early 2nd century).