Egyptology curators don't have an easy time of it: large stored collections, unknown provenance, tricky conservation issues, human remains, contested interpretation - they face a long list of challenges.
But before we feel too sorry for them, the one problem they don't have is public indifference. Indeed, for many, the trick is coping with hordes of visitors and balancing the demands of everyone from academics to schoolchildren.
This popularity means that Egyptian collections are often further ahead in the queue when it comes to gallery refurbishments. This has led to a number of Egyptology gallery openings in recent years such as the ones at the Fitzwilliam in Cambridge and at Bristol's Museum and Art Gallery.
These will be followed this year by a revamped Egyptology space at World Museum Liverpool, an Ancient Worlds gallery at the redeveloped Leeds City Museum and a new Egyptology room at the British Museum (see box).
But the popularity of Egypt is not without problems. Many visitors come with misconceptions about the subject and a narrow view of what they want to see in displays.
"People have a vision of Egypt that they feel comfortable and cosy with and that will draw them into galleries," says Stephanie Moser, a professor of archaeology at the University of Southampton and author of Wondrous Curiosities, a book about the history of the British Museum's Egyptology collection.
Moser says many UK curators are trying to do new things, but it's difficult when the public has such strong views, focused on areas such as mummies and pyramids, which are often reinforced in the media.
The fascination of ancient Egypt
As an Egyptology curator working on plans for a new gallery at Manchester Museum, Karen Exell is at the sharp end of this: "I find myself completely baffled by the level of people's fascination: they are very emotional about it and make a personal connection.
"It is not just a general interest like the Romans or dinosaurs, it's much stronger than that. People have a very fixed idea about Egypt, and they come into a gallery and don't want their ideas challenged."
Many people have analysed this fascination with ancient Egypt, including Sally MacDonald, the director of University College London's Museums and Collections, which features the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology. Her book Consuming Ancient Egypt examines the influence of the subject on people throughout the world.
The chapter on museums concludes that: "The challenge is to exploit the subject's popularity while questioning some of the assumptions on which that popularity is based."
But MacDonald says that the conservative approach to the subject apparent in some museums is not just down to the public's expectations; the archaeology profession also plays a part.
"Something that preoccupies me working in a university establishment is the extent to which the people involved in the study of Egyptian archaeology are very undiverse and unrepresentative of London's population," she says.
"Archaeology is a very white middle-class subject so when you are talking about the kinds of people who will be curators of Egyptian collections, the potential distance they might have from their audience is a real issue."
A conservative discipline
Moser agrees that the essential conservatism of the discipline can be a problem, even if individual curators are trying to be innovative. "The curators have a hard time and work in a field that is quite traditional, unlike some others that are more into contemporary analysis, and use approaches from other areas. Egyptology has some big walls around it and they don't experiment as much as others."
But there are some interesting areas of Egyptology that could be pursued, such as the growing focus on an African-centred approach to the subject, and the perspectives of modern Egyptians. "Egyptology has not tended to be where radical stuff has gone on, but as a subject it has the potential to be very radical," says MacDonald.
Which is not to say nothing is happening to UK Egyptology collections. The Fitzwilliam's Egyptian galleries had a £1.5m revamp in May 2006. As a university museum that is sensitive to accusations of dumbing down, a fairly conventional approach has been taken to the displays.
But it is also doing educational outreach work with prisons. These projects are led by Sally-Ann Ashton, a senior assistant keeper in the antiquities department, who is using the Egyptian collection to develop a virtual gallery, work on African-centred Egyptology, improve literacy skills and to enhance art classes.
Other museums are looking to contemporary art to give new perspectives on their collections. Bolton Museum has about 10,000 Egyptian artefacts and its galleries have not been redeveloped since the 1980s.
But temporary exhibitions give it the chance to do new things and in 2007 it staged From a Modern Land, which featured the work of Ros Ford, a Bristol-based artist who has lived and worked in Egypt.
The show focused on Bolton's textile collection and Ford used her paintings, drawings and prints to juxtapose past and present Egypt. Bristol's Museum and Art Gallery's Egypt Gallery, which reopened earlier this year after a £500,000 revamp, uses contemporary art as well.
The colonial legacy
The galleries opening in the next few years should also give a good indication of how Egyptology collections can be interpreted in new ways. One of the issues they will address is how these hundreds of thousands of objects ended up in UK museums, and the links with the UK's colonial past.
The Petrie Museum, which will be reborn in 2012 as part of the Institute of Cultural Heritage, is developing a section called Rescued or Stolen, which will look at collecting Egyptian antiquities. Stephen Quirke, the curator of the Petrie Museum, is aware that this might ruffle some feathers, but he is keen to use the collection to contest some traditional viewpoints.
"I find colonialism is an almost taboo subject - people get cross if you mention it," says Quirke. "When the Rescued or Stolen idea was presented to the Friends of the museum, a lot of them were very uncomfortable."
There is also a move to get more information about the lives of ordinary people into displays. In December, the British Museum (BM) will open a gallery dedicated to the painted tomb-chapel of Nebamun, an accountant in Luxor, who died in about 1350 BC.
The paintings, which have not been on display since the Great Court opened, are remarkable for their naturalistic appearance and are useful for discussions about daily life.
"We are trying to show the lives of the workers, not just the lives of the wealthy," says Richard Parkinson, an assistant keeper in the department of ancient Egypt and Sudan at the BM. "We will be reminding people that there is another story. It's a move away from the myths, mummies and magic that draws people in."
People will also have a prominent role at National Museum Liverpool's (NML) Ancient Egypt gallery, which will open in the autumn after a £600,000 redevelopment.
"We will be placing the cult of death within life and trying to get people to understand a bit more about Egyptian people's attitude towards the dead," says Ashley Cooke, NML's Egyptology curator. "And in the life area we are going to go for a more holistic approach, looking at personal beliefs of everyone, not just the rich."
Many Egyptology displays also reflect a wider trend to give visitors more information about how museums work and what goes on behind the scenes. So, Liverpool will have explanations about the history of the collection, while the Fitzwilliam's displays place a strong emphasis on the conservation of its Egyptian objects.
What the public response to this will be is difficult to gauge, but one thing is for sure, they will have an opinion. This has been borne out in Manchester Museum's consultation on the redevelopment of its Egyptology galleries. As part of this, the museum announced in May that it was covering three partially unwrapped mummies with cotton sheets, which provoked a strong response (see box).
Manchester Museum wants to present Egypt as part of the ancient world and integrate it into a wider set of developments. It also hopes to emphasise the cultural continuity between then and now and show its archaeological links.
"It is a very challenging subject because Egypt exists in the popular imagination in a way that is completely different to academic research," says Exell at Manchester. "People are often not interested in the archaeology of Egypt, but in the colourful highlights. But I think it is important not just to give people what they already know."
One way of doing this is by using new technology to offer multiple interpretations, which can allow museums to cater for different audiences. Museums are also making use of their websites to allow further research.
Seeing the light of day
Another challenge is stored collections. There are 375,000 Egyptian and Sudanese objects in UK museums, according to a survey carried out in 2006 by the Association of Curators for Collections from Egypt and Sudan (Acces).
The subject specialist network estimates that 93 per cent of ancient Egyptian and Sudanese artefacts are concentrated in 17 collections, while the remaining 7 per cent are spread across 178 collections.
Supporting those responsible for smaller collections is a concern for Acces members. Its mapping exercise showed there was reliance on British Museum expertise, even when other specialists were closer.
And 25 per cent of respondents to the Acces survey said they don't currently display their collections and have no plans to, meaning some 50 collections will never see the light of day, which seems a shame given the popularity of the subject.
This popularity shows no signs of abating and is being fed by blockbuster shows such as Tutankhamun, which will have attracted about 1.7 million people by the time it closes in London at the end of the month.
But it is the permanent galleries planned for the next few years that will hopefully offer a more nuanced approach to the subject. If they do they could change people's perceptions and deepen their understanding rather than peddle the same old cliches that many people associate with ancient Egypt.
But before we feel too sorry for them, the one problem they don't have is public indifference. Indeed, for many, the trick is coping with hordes of visitors and balancing the demands of everyone from academics to schoolchildren.
This popularity means that Egyptian collections are often further ahead in the queue when it comes to gallery refurbishments. This has led to a number of Egyptology gallery openings in recent years such as the ones at the Fitzwilliam in Cambridge and at Bristol's Museum and Art Gallery.
These will be followed this year by a revamped Egyptology space at World Museum Liverpool, an Ancient Worlds gallery at the redeveloped Leeds City Museum and a new Egyptology room at the British Museum (see box).
But the popularity of Egypt is not without problems. Many visitors come with misconceptions about the subject and a narrow view of what they want to see in displays.
"People have a vision of Egypt that they feel comfortable and cosy with and that will draw them into galleries," says Stephanie Moser, a professor of archaeology at the University of Southampton and author of Wondrous Curiosities, a book about the history of the British Museum's Egyptology collection.
Moser says many UK curators are trying to do new things, but it's difficult when the public has such strong views, focused on areas such as mummies and pyramids, which are often reinforced in the media.
The fascination of ancient Egypt
As an Egyptology curator working on plans for a new gallery at Manchester Museum, Karen Exell is at the sharp end of this: "I find myself completely baffled by the level of people's fascination: they are very emotional about it and make a personal connection.
"It is not just a general interest like the Romans or dinosaurs, it's much stronger than that. People have a very fixed idea about Egypt, and they come into a gallery and don't want their ideas challenged."
Many people have analysed this fascination with ancient Egypt, including Sally MacDonald, the director of University College London's Museums and Collections, which features the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology. Her book Consuming Ancient Egypt examines the influence of the subject on people throughout the world.
The chapter on museums concludes that: "The challenge is to exploit the subject's popularity while questioning some of the assumptions on which that popularity is based."
But MacDonald says that the conservative approach to the subject apparent in some museums is not just down to the public's expectations; the archaeology profession also plays a part.
"Something that preoccupies me working in a university establishment is the extent to which the people involved in the study of Egyptian archaeology are very undiverse and unrepresentative of London's population," she says.
"Archaeology is a very white middle-class subject so when you are talking about the kinds of people who will be curators of Egyptian collections, the potential distance they might have from their audience is a real issue."
A conservative discipline
Moser agrees that the essential conservatism of the discipline can be a problem, even if individual curators are trying to be innovative. "The curators have a hard time and work in a field that is quite traditional, unlike some others that are more into contemporary analysis, and use approaches from other areas. Egyptology has some big walls around it and they don't experiment as much as others."
But there are some interesting areas of Egyptology that could be pursued, such as the growing focus on an African-centred approach to the subject, and the perspectives of modern Egyptians. "Egyptology has not tended to be where radical stuff has gone on, but as a subject it has the potential to be very radical," says MacDonald.
Which is not to say nothing is happening to UK Egyptology collections. The Fitzwilliam's Egyptian galleries had a £1.5m revamp in May 2006. As a university museum that is sensitive to accusations of dumbing down, a fairly conventional approach has been taken to the displays.
But it is also doing educational outreach work with prisons. These projects are led by Sally-Ann Ashton, a senior assistant keeper in the antiquities department, who is using the Egyptian collection to develop a virtual gallery, work on African-centred Egyptology, improve literacy skills and to enhance art classes.
Other museums are looking to contemporary art to give new perspectives on their collections. Bolton Museum has about 10,000 Egyptian artefacts and its galleries have not been redeveloped since the 1980s.
But temporary exhibitions give it the chance to do new things and in 2007 it staged From a Modern Land, which featured the work of Ros Ford, a Bristol-based artist who has lived and worked in Egypt.
The show focused on Bolton's textile collection and Ford used her paintings, drawings and prints to juxtapose past and present Egypt. Bristol's Museum and Art Gallery's Egypt Gallery, which reopened earlier this year after a £500,000 revamp, uses contemporary art as well.
The colonial legacy
The galleries opening in the next few years should also give a good indication of how Egyptology collections can be interpreted in new ways. One of the issues they will address is how these hundreds of thousands of objects ended up in UK museums, and the links with the UK's colonial past.
The Petrie Museum, which will be reborn in 2012 as part of the Institute of Cultural Heritage, is developing a section called Rescued or Stolen, which will look at collecting Egyptian antiquities. Stephen Quirke, the curator of the Petrie Museum, is aware that this might ruffle some feathers, but he is keen to use the collection to contest some traditional viewpoints.
"I find colonialism is an almost taboo subject - people get cross if you mention it," says Quirke. "When the Rescued or Stolen idea was presented to the Friends of the museum, a lot of them were very uncomfortable."
There is also a move to get more information about the lives of ordinary people into displays. In December, the British Museum (BM) will open a gallery dedicated to the painted tomb-chapel of Nebamun, an accountant in Luxor, who died in about 1350 BC.
The paintings, which have not been on display since the Great Court opened, are remarkable for their naturalistic appearance and are useful for discussions about daily life.
"We are trying to show the lives of the workers, not just the lives of the wealthy," says Richard Parkinson, an assistant keeper in the department of ancient Egypt and Sudan at the BM. "We will be reminding people that there is another story. It's a move away from the myths, mummies and magic that draws people in."
People will also have a prominent role at National Museum Liverpool's (NML) Ancient Egypt gallery, which will open in the autumn after a £600,000 redevelopment.
"We will be placing the cult of death within life and trying to get people to understand a bit more about Egyptian people's attitude towards the dead," says Ashley Cooke, NML's Egyptology curator. "And in the life area we are going to go for a more holistic approach, looking at personal beliefs of everyone, not just the rich."
Many Egyptology displays also reflect a wider trend to give visitors more information about how museums work and what goes on behind the scenes. So, Liverpool will have explanations about the history of the collection, while the Fitzwilliam's displays place a strong emphasis on the conservation of its Egyptian objects.
What the public response to this will be is difficult to gauge, but one thing is for sure, they will have an opinion. This has been borne out in Manchester Museum's consultation on the redevelopment of its Egyptology galleries. As part of this, the museum announced in May that it was covering three partially unwrapped mummies with cotton sheets, which provoked a strong response (see box).
Manchester Museum wants to present Egypt as part of the ancient world and integrate it into a wider set of developments. It also hopes to emphasise the cultural continuity between then and now and show its archaeological links.
"It is a very challenging subject because Egypt exists in the popular imagination in a way that is completely different to academic research," says Exell at Manchester. "People are often not interested in the archaeology of Egypt, but in the colourful highlights. But I think it is important not just to give people what they already know."
One way of doing this is by using new technology to offer multiple interpretations, which can allow museums to cater for different audiences. Museums are also making use of their websites to allow further research.
Seeing the light of day
Another challenge is stored collections. There are 375,000 Egyptian and Sudanese objects in UK museums, according to a survey carried out in 2006 by the Association of Curators for Collections from Egypt and Sudan (Acces).
The subject specialist network estimates that 93 per cent of ancient Egyptian and Sudanese artefacts are concentrated in 17 collections, while the remaining 7 per cent are spread across 178 collections.
Supporting those responsible for smaller collections is a concern for Acces members. Its mapping exercise showed there was reliance on British Museum expertise, even when other specialists were closer.
And 25 per cent of respondents to the Acces survey said they don't currently display their collections and have no plans to, meaning some 50 collections will never see the light of day, which seems a shame given the popularity of the subject.
This popularity shows no signs of abating and is being fed by blockbuster shows such as Tutankhamun, which will have attracted about 1.7 million people by the time it closes in London at the end of the month.
But it is the permanent galleries planned for the next few years that will hopefully offer a more nuanced approach to the subject. If they do they could change people's perceptions and deepen their understanding rather than peddle the same old cliches that many people associate with ancient Egypt.
Displaying human remains
Mummies are a major attraction for visitors to Egyptology galleries, but their inclusion in displays is controversial. Most UK museums have chosen to display their Egyptology human remains, with curators arguing that they follow DCMS guidelines and the public want to see the mummies.
John Taylor, an assistant keeper in the department of ancient Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum, says mummies are what most people come to see and museums have to reflect that.
"Museum policy is that we display human remains as long as we follow DCMS guidelines. The only human remains we display either came like it or are used to show specific points. We rarely have objections and the general impression is that people want to see it."
The Egypt Centre at the University of Wales Swansea is one of the few museums that has chosen not to show its human remains. But curator Carolyn Graves-Brown admits that as a smaller museum it has more freedom.
Manchester Museum is consulting the public and other stakeholders over the redevelopment of its Egypt galleries. As part of this, the museum announced in May that it was covering three partially unwrapped mummies with cotton sheets. This provoked a widespread and largely negative response in the press and among the public. As a result it decided last month to take another approach.
A statement from the museum says: "It is clear from public reactions that the total covering of the museum's unwrapped mummies is not the most appropriate long-term solution. We are now experimenting with a range of approaches. One of the mummies will be left partially unwrapped in its original display state, whilst another will be partially covered leaving the head, hands and feet exposed."
Mummies are a major attraction for visitors to Egyptology galleries, but their inclusion in displays is controversial. Most UK museums have chosen to display their Egyptology human remains, with curators arguing that they follow DCMS guidelines and the public want to see the mummies.
John Taylor, an assistant keeper in the department of ancient Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum, says mummies are what most people come to see and museums have to reflect that.
"Museum policy is that we display human remains as long as we follow DCMS guidelines. The only human remains we display either came like it or are used to show specific points. We rarely have objections and the general impression is that people want to see it."
The Egypt Centre at the University of Wales Swansea is one of the few museums that has chosen not to show its human remains. But curator Carolyn Graves-Brown admits that as a smaller museum it has more freedom.
Manchester Museum is consulting the public and other stakeholders over the redevelopment of its Egypt galleries. As part of this, the museum announced in May that it was covering three partially unwrapped mummies with cotton sheets. This provoked a widespread and largely negative response in the press and among the public. As a result it decided last month to take another approach.
A statement from the museum says: "It is clear from public reactions that the total covering of the museum's unwrapped mummies is not the most appropriate long-term solution. We are now experimenting with a range of approaches. One of the mummies will be left partially unwrapped in its original display state, whilst another will be partially covered leaving the head, hands and feet exposed."
Forthcoming Egyptology galleries
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
The Ashmolean is in the early stages of planning a revamp of its Egyptian galleries, which will take place after the current £61m redevelopment of the museum is completed in 2009. A new gallery about death and the afterlife will be put into the space that is currently the shop.
Brighton Museum and Art Gallery
Brighton is developing two small spaces for its Egyptology artefacts. The museum service has 1,300 Egyptian items and it will focus on the town's strong connections to Egyptologist Francis Llewellyn Griffith, who lived in Brighton and went on excavations in Egypt with William Flinders Petrie. It will open in early 2009.
British Museum, London
In December the Nebamun tomb paintings will go on display for the first time in ten years after major conservation. They show Nebamun, an accountant who died in about 1350 BC, at work and leisure.
Leeds City Museum
The £23m museum is to open in September and the city's Egyptology collection will be included in the Ancient Worlds gallery, which will also include Greek and Roman material.
Manchester Museum
Manchester Museum is currently consulting on how to redisplay its 21-year-old Egyptology galleries. With a planned opening in 2012, the aim is to make stronger links between archaeology and Egyptology and put it into the context of the ancient world.
Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London
University College London's Petrie Museum is to be rehoused in the Institute of Cultural Heritage, which is to open in 2012. The aim is to show all of the Petrie's 80,000 objects through a mixture of displays and visible storage. The institute is costing £36m and the Petrie will occupy three of the eight floors.
World Museum Liverpool
Liverpool's Ancient Egypt gallery will open in the autumn and will feature 1,500 objects from its collection of 15,000 artefacts. It's a largely thematic approach with topics covered including mummification, the myth of the mummy's curse and tomb building. It is costing £600,000 and replaces a gallery built in the mid-1970s.
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
The Ashmolean is in the early stages of planning a revamp of its Egyptian galleries, which will take place after the current £61m redevelopment of the museum is completed in 2009. A new gallery about death and the afterlife will be put into the space that is currently the shop.
Brighton Museum and Art Gallery
Brighton is developing two small spaces for its Egyptology artefacts. The museum service has 1,300 Egyptian items and it will focus on the town's strong connections to Egyptologist Francis Llewellyn Griffith, who lived in Brighton and went on excavations in Egypt with William Flinders Petrie. It will open in early 2009.
British Museum, London
In December the Nebamun tomb paintings will go on display for the first time in ten years after major conservation. They show Nebamun, an accountant who died in about 1350 BC, at work and leisure.
Leeds City Museum
The £23m museum is to open in September and the city's Egyptology collection will be included in the Ancient Worlds gallery, which will also include Greek and Roman material.
Manchester Museum
Manchester Museum is currently consulting on how to redisplay its 21-year-old Egyptology galleries. With a planned opening in 2012, the aim is to make stronger links between archaeology and Egyptology and put it into the context of the ancient world.
Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London
University College London's Petrie Museum is to be rehoused in the Institute of Cultural Heritage, which is to open in 2012. The aim is to show all of the Petrie's 80,000 objects through a mixture of displays and visible storage. The institute is costing £36m and the Petrie will occupy three of the eight floors.
World Museum Liverpool
Liverpool's Ancient Egypt gallery will open in the autumn and will feature 1,500 objects from its collection of 15,000 artefacts. It's a largely thematic approach with topics covered including mummification, the myth of the mummy's curse and tomb building. It is costing £600,000 and replaces a gallery built in the mid-1970s.
