Skip to main content

Distributed for UCL Press

Scattered Finds

Archaeology, Egyptology and Museums

Distributed for UCL Press

Scattered Finds

Archaeology, Egyptology and Museums

Between the 1880s and 1980s, British excavations at locations across Egypt resulted in the discovery of hundreds of thousands of ancient objects that were subsequently sent to some 350 institutions worldwide. These finds included unique discoveries at iconic sites such as the tombs of ancient Egypt’s first rulers at Abydos, Akhenaten, and Nefertiti’s city of Tell el-Amarna and rich Roman Era burials in the Fayum. This book explores the politics, personalities, and social histories that linked fieldwork in Egypt with the varied organizations around the world that received finds. Case studies range from Victorian municipal museums and women’s suffrage campaigns in the United Kingdom to the development of some of the United States’s largest institutions, and from university museums in Japan to new institutions in post-independence Ghana. By juxtaposing a diversity of sites for the reception of Egyptian cultural heritage over the period of a century, this book presents new ideas about the development of archaeology, museums and the construction of Egyptian heritage. It also addresses the legacy of these practices, raises questions about the nature of the authority over such heritage today and argues for a stronger ethical commitment to its stewardship.
 

270 pages | 6.14 x 9.21 | © 2018

Free digital open access editions are available to download from UCL Press.


UCL Press image

View all books from UCL Press

Table of Contents

"Introduction 1
Chapter 1: Trinkets, Trifles and Oddments: The Material Facts of
History (1880–1914)
Chapter 2: Collecting in America’s Progressive and Gilded Eras
(1880–1919)
Chapter 3: International, Colonial and Transnational Connections
(1880–1950)
Chapter 4: A Golden Age? (1922–1939):
Collecting in the Shadow of Tutankhamun
Chapter 5: Ghosts, Orphans and the Dispossessed:
Post-war Object Habits (1945–1969)
Chapter 6: Legacies and Futures (1970–)
Conclusion
Appendix A: Legislation relating to the excavation and
export of Egyptian antiquities 259
Appendix B: Ancient Egyptian chronology"

Be the first to know

Get the latest updates on new releases, special offers, and media highlights when you subscribe to our email lists!

Sign up here for updates about the Press