The Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology at UC Berkeley will display rare artifacts from its vast Egyptian collection in a fascinating exhibition that will explore the conservation of our cultural past. We are pleased to announce this highly anticipated look into how museums blend technology and the humanities to conserve and understand ancient objects. Included are crocodile mummies that recently underwent CT scans at Stanford Medical School as well as statuary, mummy portraits, amulets, and one of only 30 known "reserve heads" used in Egyptian burial practices. Of the 3.8 million objects in the Hearst’s collection, the Egyptian artifacts represent some of the most important.
Supported in part by the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE), the exhibition is a memorial to Egyptologist and Berkeley Professor Cathleen "Candy" Keller, who passed away last year and was originally lead curator for the show. Carol Redmount, Associate Professor and Curator of Egyptian Archaeology, says "I was thrilled to pick up Candy’s mantel to highlight the conservator’s contribution to cultural heritage preservation using the lens of the Hearst’s Egyptian collection."The Egyptian collection was formed when Phoebe Hearst met archaeologist George A. Reisner on her first trip to Egypt in early 1899. Between 1899 and 1905, he collected approximately 17,000 objects, ranging from the Predynastic to Coptic times (over 4,000 years). Almost all of his finds were impeccably documented in notes, maps, plans, and photographs, some of which will appear in the exhibition.
In addition to Reisner, Mrs. Hearst also commissioned British archaeologists Bernard P. Grenfell and Arthur S. Hunt to collect at the Greek and Roman site of Tebtunis during the1899–1900 season. Many of the artifacts featured in the exhibition are from these excavations.
"We hope that this exhibition will demystify the work of archaeologists and conservators and facilitate a dialogue between the public and these professionals about what they do and how they do it," says Redmount.
Conservators at the Museum have been heavily involved in the exhibition and will share their knowledge by working on smaller objects in the gallery at various times during the exhibition run. A blog regarding their conservation interventions is maintained on the museum website: http://hearstmuseum.berkeley.edu.
Source: Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology [April 29, 2010]
