EGYPTIAN archaeology is one of the most spectacular, and complex, in the world The Ancient Egypt exhibition running at the National Museum in Dublin and drawing mainly on artefacts dating from the Dynastic period (circa 3000 BC to the Christian period) offers an exciting thematic introduction to its many mysteries.
Professional archaeologists agree it is an extremely complicated, multi layered story of a sophisticated culture. Because of the limitations of our collection by the standards of other larger national European museums, we have approached the exhibition from a thematic rather than strictly chronological point of view," says Mary Cahill, assistant keeper at the National Museum and exhibition co ordinator.
More than 30 political dynasties flourished during a period spanning 5,000 years which includes the three great periods of Egyptian history - the Old, Middle and New Kingdoms - and it is difficult to offer a complete picture because of the uneven preservation of evidence chronicling some periods. Nor does the history of Pharaonic Egypt lend itself easily to presentation in map form as the ancient world view was rather like a medieval Mappa Mundi, with Pharaoh taking the place of Jerusalem at the centre of the earth.
It is important to note that the Egyptians left no maps of their own. As for origins - we know the earliest Egyptians were farmers who settled near the Nile circa 5000 BC. A picture has emerged of a country whose political and economic integrity achieved a definite cohesion but whose geographic and cultural diversity remains incompletely chronicled.
Public demand certainly played a part in the mounting of the National Museum's current exhibition. Mummies, pyramids and hieroglyphs fascinate even those with only a passing interest in archaeology. The British Museum in London holds the largest collection of Egyptian archaeological artefacts in the world, extending to more than 88,000 pieces - not all of which are on permanent display. The collection, its most popular attracts more than six million visitors a year.
In Dublin the story is different. Pressure of display space has kept much of the museum's Egyptian collection of 3,000 objects, acquired from donations dating from excavations carried out between 1890 and 1920, in storage, and relatively few have been exhibited during the past 20 years.
This, combined with international cutbacks in government spending on archaeology, makes the Irish exhibition - although a small one displaying only 550 objects, including four female mummies and a mummified cat - all the more exciting. The emphasis in Ireland tends to be on Irish archaeology so the exhibition was devised by Egyptologists Stephen Quirke and John Taylor of the British Museum.
Designed by Patrick Gannon, it is dramatically presented in a dimly lit, atmospheric dark blue and terracotta setting intended to evoke a sense of the mysterious Nile Valley, effectively the home of Egyptian archaeolgy. The formal Adams fireplaces have been concealed behind structures reminiscent of pyramids. A striking decorated sandstone siela (a flat block or tablet) bears the figures of an administrator and his wife and is inscribed with hieroglyphics, some depicting religious texts and intended to help them on their way in the afterlife.
Hieroglyphic writing was used in the monumental temples and tombs, the texts are spiritual, weighty and were mainly composed by priests, usually in consultation with the king of the time. Hieroglyphs are among the most interesting objects and Egyptian writing as an art is well covered in the exhibition. The Egyptian language, now dead, claims a longer written history than any other. Ancient and modern Middle Eastern languages such as Akkadian Hebrew and Arabic are related to it, as are, possibly even more closely, North and East African languages including Amharic, Hausa and Tuareg. For the less exalted matters of daily life, the cursive script was used.
CENTRAL to the National Museum's display spanning the middle to Coptic (Christian) periods are the mummies, dignified and strangely aloof, one of which dates from the 22nd Dynasty, and is believed to be from Thebes. The surface is decorated with text and religious images in vibrant colour. A young woman's face stares oiit at the viewer. Her expression is noncommittal. Dating from the first century AD, the encaustic portrait bears an unsettlingly lifelike quality. There is also an elegant limestone statue of Senemiah dating from the 18th Dynasty, when the Egyptian empire was at the height of its power and its art at its most beautiful. One of the most unique pieces is a wooden sculpture of a kneeling figure belonging to the 26th Dynasty. There are many fine pieces of elegant pottery.
Young visitors will be impressed by the wonderful early 12th Dynasty painted wooden model of a Nile long boat complete with rowers and armed guard.
The collection's emphasis is on grave art, and the burial of the dead was invariably concerned with the rich and powerful. Yet some of the pottery is more modest and a pair of sandals made of papyrus reed dating from the Roman period could have belonged neither to an aristocrat nor a high ranking official, but to an ordinary citizen.
Modern study of ancient Egypt developed out of the colonial warfare after Napoleon's invasion of Egypt in 1798. The dictator became personally and politically obsessed with Egypt, having travelled there with his army in a vast company which included an entourage of scholars.
In 1822 a French scholar, Jean Francois Champollion (1790-1832), deciphered the hieroglyphics from the Rosetta Stone which had been discovered by Napoleon's troops in Rosetta, northern Egypt, at the Nile Delta, in July 1799.
After the French capitulation, the stone was handed over to the British, arriving in England in 1802, and was then formally presented to the British Museum in July of that year. Champollion's study marks the beginning of modern Egyptology which quickly became a specialist interest.
Excavation tended to concentrate on the well preserved temples and tombs of the Nile valley, in preference to settlement sites which are inaccessible, lying buried beneath modern towns. The Nile delta is wet and often waterlogged and is therefore difficult to study for archaeological purposes. Much of Egypt's archaeological wealth, statues and monuments, was above ground. Also, it is worth commenting that in the context of Egypt in particular, excavation came to be seen in relation to the pillage of the great tombs.
Following the success of the recent Irish exhibitions - including the Treasury, the Bronze Age gold exhibition, Prehistoric Ireland and last year's Viking exhibition, the National Museum decided to mount a display based on a foreign collection.
"We decided it was time to show our Egyptian pieces to a new generation," says Ms Cahill. As the study of Egyptology is not included in archaeology degree courses in Ireland - and only five or six universities in Britain offer specialist courses in it - it has been traditionally associated with classics and continues to be.
Indeed, prior to the advent of Egyptology, the main sources for the study of ancient Egypt were classical authors such as the Greek writer Herodotus who, visited Egypt in the mid-5th century BC and pointed out that even its wildlife was a unique combination of the erotic and fantastical. The classics connection continues, corralling it away from mainstream archaeology.
This exhibition could help stimulate the establishment of an extremely important belated overview in the contextualising and understanding of international archaeology.
