When the renovated Ashmolean Museum reopened in November 2010, a small corner on the ground floor housing the museum shop and Egyptian galleries remained unchanged.
This space has now been remodelled, with the shop moving downstairs and the Ancient Egypt and Nubia Galleries expanded and redeveloped.
The museum’s website proudly announces that the new galleries provide enough space to “more than double” the number of mummies and coffins on display.
This may be an appeal to the more popular aspects of ancient Egyptian culture, but this exhibition is far from a mummy-fest. Indeed, it shows that there is far more to ancient Egyptian history and culture than embalmed bodies. There is so much, in fact, that the exhibition struggles to cover it.
Opened at the end of last year, the Ancient Egypt and Nubia exhibition completes the ancient world galleries on the Ashmolean’s ground floor.
The scale of the exhibition is ambitious: its six rooms cover 685 sq m and present a broad chronology of over 5,000 years of history, from pre-dynastic Egypt to its fall to the Greek and Roman empires.
The new galleries form a circular loop at the end of the Randolph gallery of Greek and Roman sculpture. The junction of the two seems a little awkward on the way in, but makes better sense on the way out, when the themes of the two galleries merge.
Dramatic entrance
Two colossal statues of the god of fertility, Min, confront visitors as they enter the first room of the exhibition, Egypt at its Origins, creating a dramatic start to the galleries.
Wall text explains that this room explores the development of towns, religious beliefs and the idea of kingship, which led to the unification of Egypt under one king in about 3100 BC.
But it doesn’t really do this in great depth, and the lack of a political narrative becomes problematic later in the exhibition. However, this first room does do something more interesting: it begins to show how archaeologists have constructed a picture of the ancient world.
One case shows how William Flinders Petrie developed a system for dating finds based on the size and shape of pottery vessels uncovered at archaeological sites.
This kind of display enables visitors to learn about the assumptions used in interpreting finds, and adds extra depth to the information provided in the exhibition’s texts.
After the first room, archaeological methodology and pre-dynastic Egypt are left behind and the exhibition concentrates on ancient Egyptian culture. It is here that the narrative becomes complicated.
A panel at the entrance to the second room announces that by about 3100 BC Egypt was united and ruled by a single leader. But how did this happen? Egypt is a vast country, so its unification must have been a significant event.
Greater context needed
If this was the only reference to the politics of ancient Egypt it might not matter. However, a large wall text states that ancient Egyptian history is divided into kingdoms (periods of strong government) and intermediate eras (periods with no single ruler), and the transformation from one era to another is often referred to in the exhibition.
It would be useful to know more about these changes so that their effect on the ancient Egyptian culture on display is made clearer.
Also, although the galleries are entitled Ancient Egypt and Nubia, the latter hardly gets a look in. A panel in the second room explains that Nubia (present-day Sudan) was raided for its gold by Egyptian kings, but Nubia’s role in the fall of ancient Egypt is rather hazy, as are the reasons why Egypt became dominated by a succession of empires.
This is frustrating, because the snippets of information that are given indicate that there is clearly plenty to say on these subjects. Tackling this in more depth would make the exhibition richer and would give visitors a greater understanding of how this ancient world segued into the Greek and Roman empires, which would be in keeping with the new Ashmolean’s overarching theme.
That said, there is more than enough to keep visitors occupied. The exhibition contains remarkable objects, from beautiful pieces of pottery to the carved sandstone shrine of King Taharqa.
The latter is a prelude to the display of coffins, mummies and other artefacts relating to ancient Egyptians’ beliefs in life after death, which includes some interesting social commentary, such as on the role of women in ancient Egyptian society.
Further on in the exhibition there is vibrantly coloured pottery made during the extraordinary rule of Akhenaten, who ripped up the rulebook on political and religious tradition and whose reign saw the introduction of new styles of painting and pottery.
Throughout the exhibition the cases are packed with exhibits, and one needs to put aside several hours to really take it all in. It is sometimes hard to believe that the objects are thousands of years old, and special mention must be given to the museum’s conservation team, which spent a year caring for the objects before they were redisplayed.
The Ashmolean has an extensive and important collection of ancient Egyptian artefacts. It is also part of University of Oxford, a leading centre for the study of ancient history.
Perhaps this makes the task of creating an exhibition in a relatively small space all the more challenging: there are just too many possibilities, too much information to hand.
The Ancient Egypt and Nubia Galleries are fascinating, but the glimpses of additional contextual material also make them a little tantalising.
Rachel Souhami is a museum consultant and lecturer in museum studies
This space has now been remodelled, with the shop moving downstairs and the Ancient Egypt and Nubia Galleries expanded and redeveloped.
The museum’s website proudly announces that the new galleries provide enough space to “more than double” the number of mummies and coffins on display.
This may be an appeal to the more popular aspects of ancient Egyptian culture, but this exhibition is far from a mummy-fest. Indeed, it shows that there is far more to ancient Egyptian history and culture than embalmed bodies. There is so much, in fact, that the exhibition struggles to cover it.
Opened at the end of last year, the Ancient Egypt and Nubia exhibition completes the ancient world galleries on the Ashmolean’s ground floor.
The scale of the exhibition is ambitious: its six rooms cover 685 sq m and present a broad chronology of over 5,000 years of history, from pre-dynastic Egypt to its fall to the Greek and Roman empires.
The new galleries form a circular loop at the end of the Randolph gallery of Greek and Roman sculpture. The junction of the two seems a little awkward on the way in, but makes better sense on the way out, when the themes of the two galleries merge.
Dramatic entrance
Two colossal statues of the god of fertility, Min, confront visitors as they enter the first room of the exhibition, Egypt at its Origins, creating a dramatic start to the galleries.
Wall text explains that this room explores the development of towns, religious beliefs and the idea of kingship, which led to the unification of Egypt under one king in about 3100 BC.
But it doesn’t really do this in great depth, and the lack of a political narrative becomes problematic later in the exhibition. However, this first room does do something more interesting: it begins to show how archaeologists have constructed a picture of the ancient world.
One case shows how William Flinders Petrie developed a system for dating finds based on the size and shape of pottery vessels uncovered at archaeological sites.
This kind of display enables visitors to learn about the assumptions used in interpreting finds, and adds extra depth to the information provided in the exhibition’s texts.
After the first room, archaeological methodology and pre-dynastic Egypt are left behind and the exhibition concentrates on ancient Egyptian culture. It is here that the narrative becomes complicated.
A panel at the entrance to the second room announces that by about 3100 BC Egypt was united and ruled by a single leader. But how did this happen? Egypt is a vast country, so its unification must have been a significant event.
Greater context needed
If this was the only reference to the politics of ancient Egypt it might not matter. However, a large wall text states that ancient Egyptian history is divided into kingdoms (periods of strong government) and intermediate eras (periods with no single ruler), and the transformation from one era to another is often referred to in the exhibition.
It would be useful to know more about these changes so that their effect on the ancient Egyptian culture on display is made clearer.
Also, although the galleries are entitled Ancient Egypt and Nubia, the latter hardly gets a look in. A panel in the second room explains that Nubia (present-day Sudan) was raided for its gold by Egyptian kings, but Nubia’s role in the fall of ancient Egypt is rather hazy, as are the reasons why Egypt became dominated by a succession of empires.
This is frustrating, because the snippets of information that are given indicate that there is clearly plenty to say on these subjects. Tackling this in more depth would make the exhibition richer and would give visitors a greater understanding of how this ancient world segued into the Greek and Roman empires, which would be in keeping with the new Ashmolean’s overarching theme.
That said, there is more than enough to keep visitors occupied. The exhibition contains remarkable objects, from beautiful pieces of pottery to the carved sandstone shrine of King Taharqa.
The latter is a prelude to the display of coffins, mummies and other artefacts relating to ancient Egyptians’ beliefs in life after death, which includes some interesting social commentary, such as on the role of women in ancient Egyptian society.
Further on in the exhibition there is vibrantly coloured pottery made during the extraordinary rule of Akhenaten, who ripped up the rulebook on political and religious tradition and whose reign saw the introduction of new styles of painting and pottery.
Throughout the exhibition the cases are packed with exhibits, and one needs to put aside several hours to really take it all in. It is sometimes hard to believe that the objects are thousands of years old, and special mention must be given to the museum’s conservation team, which spent a year caring for the objects before they were redisplayed.
The Ashmolean has an extensive and important collection of ancient Egyptian artefacts. It is also part of University of Oxford, a leading centre for the study of ancient history.
Perhaps this makes the task of creating an exhibition in a relatively small space all the more challenging: there are just too many possibilities, too much information to hand.
The Ancient Egypt and Nubia Galleries are fascinating, but the glimpses of additional contextual material also make them a little tantalising.
Rachel Souhami is a museum consultant and lecturer in museum studies
Project data
- Cost £5m
- Main funders Linbury Trust; Selz Foundation
- Architect Rick Mather Architects
- Exhibition design Rick Mather Architects; Ashmolean design department
- Interior design Rick Mather Architects
- Construction Beard
- Structural engineer Price & Myers
- Services engineer Hoare Lea
- Lighting DHA Design
- Interpretation Ashmolean Museum
- Display cases Meyvaert Glass Engineering
