From Egypt’s Sands to Northern Hills

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The North-West of England is rich in archaeological treasures from ancient Egypt. Some of these treasures are displayed in large, well-known collections like the Manchester Museum or World Museum Liverpool, but equally important artefacts are also in the care of local museums, such as Kendal.

The Egyptology collections of these four museums mainly come from the work of Professor John Garstang of Liverpool University, who was active in Egypt from 1900-1914. The aim of the project is to help us understand these collections better by bringing the objects which Garstang excavated together with the archives of the excavations, including an important and remarkable series of early photographs of archaeological excavation in Egypt.

Each of the partner museums has an important local story to tell connected with John Garstang and his work in Egypt. Kendall’s Egyptology collection is mainly a gift from John Rankin, who was a supporter and funder of Garstang’s work.

Because John Garstang mainly excavated in cemeteries in Egypt, the objects he sent back to England were often well-preserved and of high-quality. Some of these are on show in the exhibition, spanning a range of over 3,000 years. They include beautiful decorated vessels from the very beginnings of Egyptian history, stone statuettes which commemorate ordinary soldiers, and an impressive collection of wooden masks from coffins.

Alongside the objects, a display of photographs from Garstang’s work give an astonishing insight into what life was like on an expedition to Egypt before the First World War.

A series of educational activities have been designed to complement the exhibition and a play, based on Egyptian myths, has been commissioned from the well-known Egyptology author Joyce Tyldesley.

This project, and the exhibition, has been made possibly by the financial support of Renaissance North-West.

 The North-West region is one of the richest in Britain for collections of ancient Egyptian material in public museums.  Some of these collections are of international importance and have specialist egyptological curatorial staff  – National Museums Liverpool, Manchester Museum,  Bolton Museum, and the Garstang Museum of Archaeology at the University of Liverpool. The latter museum is housed within the largest research and teaching centre of Egyptology in the UK. Beyond these major centres  there are other egyptological collections of national importance but whose levels of documentation and use reflect the lack of specialist curatorial knowledge.

This is not to say that these museums have a reluctance to use their collections, indeed that there is  a real enthusiasm on the part of staff in regional museums to develop the use of their  egyptological  collections, especially in terms of their documentation, display and educational offer.
One of the aims of the Garstang Project has been to establish sustainable links of knowledge transfer between the Egyptological expertise at Liverpool University and regional Egyptology collections in the North-West. Liverpool University is particularly relevant here because a significant portion of Egyptian material in the North-west comes from the excavations of John Garstang who excavated for Liverpool University in Egypt and the Sudan in the period from 1900 until the First World War.  Much of the material excavated by Garstang was distributed  to the financial sponsors of the excavations, most of whom were based in the North-west – wealthy landowners, ship-owners and industrialists. The subsequent dispersal  of this material included significant gifts to local museums, although usually with little  documentation. Fortunately Garstang’s original excavation records (including an important photographic archive) are housed at Liverpool University.

For the Garstang Project three regional museums were identified which were known to hold egyptological collections derived from Garstang’s work – Blackburn Museum, Kendal Museum and Towneley Hall Museum Burnley. Each responded enthusiastically and each was assigned a postgraduate Egyptology student at Liverpool University whose task was to go through the collection and reconcile the objects/records at each centre with the documentation at Liverpool. In addition, they were able to make further identifications of significant Egyptian objects held in each museum. Each of the postgraduates had existing personal connections with the three towns and this provided an additional emphasis to an important aspect of the Project, which was to make clear the particular local histories of the acquisition of these Egyptian collections, especially given their links to significant local figures (and industries) from the early 20th century.

In addition to the improved documentation of these collections, and current plans for enhanced permanent displays and educational projects, the most obviously visible outcome of this Project will be a touring exhibition of material from each of the four participating museums (including the Garstang Museum of Archaeology), focusing  on the links between North-west museums, Garstang’s fieldwork and Egyptological themes for which the  material is particularly suitable,  which will tour between the four museums in 2011-2012, after which it will be made available to other museums in the North-west (and beyond).