The Museo Egizio or Eyptian Museum of Turin
is the world’s oldest Egyptian museum; founded in 1824, it ranks second
only to Cairo. Dedicated exclusively to ancient Egyptian culture and
art, the museum's collection has been the subject of interest for some
of history’s most important scholars, for instance Jean-François Champollion,
decipherer of the Rosetta Stone. To such is attributed the fact that
Turin is considered to be the city where Egyptology began.
The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities is composed of objects obtained throughout the centuries, as well as in the Italian Archaeological Mission’s excavation sites between 1900 and 1935.
Collecting
Egyptian antiques was all the rage in the 19th Century: in 1824, King
Charles Felix of Sardinia united the collection of Paduan Egyptologist,
Vitaliano Donati, to the finds owned by the House of Savoy - thus
inaugurating the first Egyptian Museum in the world. Just a few years
before that, and consequent to the Napoleonic Campaigns in Egypt,
Bernardino Drovetti (Piedmontese that served as Consul General of France
during the Egyptian occupation), collected 8,000 items: sarcophagi,
mummies, papyri, jewels and statues. Then, the Museum’s first director, Ernesto Schiaparelli,
led archaeologists in new excavations in Egypt, resulting in the
discovery of 30,000 more pieces (artistic, and domestic quotidian tools)
to add to its collection.
Today the Museum is expanding even
further. Mummies and sacred animals have always been on display, but
ornaments and furnishings are highlighted to capture – with great
precision – the life of both people and Pharaoh. Museum curators and
personnel are leaving no stone unturned in making sure Jean-François
Champollion’s quip, that "the road to Memphis and Thebes passes through
Turin," holds true.
Among the most significant of vestiges found are the intact tomb of Kha and Merit, along with the rupestrian temple of Ellesija. However, perhaps the most important from an historical perspective is the Turin Royal Canon
or Turin King List, one of the most informative sources of Egyptian
royal succession. In Hieratic scripts, it contains the names of the 15th
Dynasty kings and their years of reign. Also highly astounding are the
statues of the gods Isis and Sekhmet, and the statue of Ramses II, found
by Vitaliano Donati in the Temple of Mut in Karnak.
(Quoted from : http://www.italia.it/en/travel-ideas/culture-and-entertainment/the-egyptian-museum-of-turin.html)
The first visit since the museum is renovated and we couldn't finished all the exhibition rooms, will have to go back again some other time.
1 comment:
That I would love to see.
Post a Comment