After
seven years of closure the Aswan Museum Annex on Elephantine Island has
reopened to the public. Written By/ Nevine El-Aref.
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Khalil explaining the content of a pharaonic marriage contract |
On
a rocky hill on the south-eastern side of Elephantine Island at Aswan in Upper
Egypt stands the white clapboard building of the Aswan Museum, waiting for
restoration. The
edifice was originally built in 1898 as the villa of the Old Aswan Dam’s
British designer, Sir William Willcocks.
In
1912, the house was converted into a museum displaying antiquities that had
been discovered in Aswan and Nubia. Nearby, a modern 220 square metre annex was
built and inaugurated in 1998 to house artefacts unearthed on Elephantine
Island.
Both
buildings were closed for restoration in 2010. A month ago the annex was
reopened, but the main building is still closed and will be reopened after the
completion of its restoration. The
restoration work is funded by the German Foreign Ministry and carried out in
collaboration with restorers from the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo.
Museum
director Mustafa Khalil told Al-Ahram Weekly that the restoration work included
the installation of new lighting and state-of-the-art security systems
connected to a closed-circuit TV that was self-operating. New showcases have
been installed and the walls painted.
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Decorative clay elements found in ancient Egyptian houses |
Khalil
said that the annex put on display a selection of 1,788 artefacts considered to
be the finest and most important discoveries by the German-Swiss archaeological
mission in Elephantine from 1969 until the present day.
Among
the objects on display are a collection of small baboon statues unearthed from
the Satet Temple and children’s toys made of fired clay and faience including
dolls and chess pieces. Offerings are also on show, as well as jewellery such
as necklaces, rings, amulets and scarabs. Domestic
pots, pans, spoons and knives and utensils are also exhibited, shedding light
on the island’s inhabitants’ daily lives, as well as the economy and trade with
neighbouring countries.
Hunting,
fishing and farming tools as well as weapons are also exhibited, along with
tools used in the construction of houses such as stone plumb lines, wooden
mallets, sanding stones and tools for polishing hard stone, smoothing wall
plaster and decorating temple walls. Copper axes from the Second Intermediate
Period are exhibited along with moulds used to make oil lamps.
Middle
Kingdom statuettes depicting dignitaries of status are exhibited, as well as a
colossus of the Pharaoh Thutmose II and coins from the Ptolemaic period. “The
marriage contract papyrus from the reign of Nectanebo II is the most
distinguished object on display in the annex,” Khalil told the Weekly.
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statuettes showing love scenes |
He
said that the contract dated to the eighth year of the king’s reign and the
first month of the inundation season. It mentions the names of the married
couple, the gifts the bride gave to the groom, and the furniture she came with
to his house. The contract also mentions the marital rules they agreed upon
during their daily lives and in case of divorce.
“Although
it is a small annex museum, it shows the history of Elephantine Island, which
is a unique archaeological park in Aswan,” Khalil said, explaining that the
island’s southern end was dominated by the remains of an ancient town.
This
settlement was inhabited from late prehistory to the Middle Ages, and the
modern Nubian village to the north of the ancient site continues this tradition
to the present day.
Ancient
Elephantine was the capital of the region situated just below the first
cataract of the Nile, and it was for long the southern border town of Egypt.
“From here, expeditions for war and trade were sent far into Nubia and the
adjacent deserts, today parts of the northern Sudan,” Khalil said.... READ MORE.
