EGYPTIAN MUSEUM OF TURIN
| In 1824 Bernardino Drovetti’s collection was bought, which was made by over 8000 objects with great statues, papyruses, steles, sarcophaguses and mummies, bronze objects, amulets and jewels and objects of daily life. The most ancient sculpture of the collection is the statue of princess Redi, sculptured in the diorite in the II dynasty. They belong to the Drovetti collection also two monumental statues of the Sphinx, which welcome the visitors in the Statuesque of the Museum. The statues of Thutmosi III and Amenhotep II, the group of statues of Tutankhamon, god Amon, Horemheb and queen Mutnegemet, the colossal statue of the pharaoh Sethi II, the sculpture group of Ramses II with god Amon and the goddess Mut and of Ramses II sitting on the throne, reveal to us the pharaohs’ greatness. Another important find is the “Isiaca Table”, a bronze tables with representations of religious ceremonies in honor to the goddess Iside. Equally important, are other documents in the Drovetti collection, which are the papyruses with exceptional examples, such as the “Royal Papyrus” or “Royal Canon”, which reports the list of the pharaohs of Egypt from the first kings up to the XVII dynasty, the papyrus that represents the Book of the Dead, the “Judicial Papyrus”, the Papyrus of the Mines with the map of the gold mines in Uadi Hammamat and the Papyrus from Ramses’s IV tomb, with the plan of the pharaoh’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings. Of great interest is also the “Satiric Papyrus” with figures of animals that imitate men’s actions; on the same document there are also erotic scenes. In the section of the sarcophaguses we find high-quality stone examples, such as the coffin and the cover from the judge Gemenefherbakh’s sarcophagus. The sarcophagus with the mummy of the child Petamenofi goes back to 124 BC. Very interesting is the section of mummies of the sacred animals, connected to the divinities’ cult: ibis and babbooms for god Thot, crocodiles for god Sobek, hawks for god Horus, bulls for god Hapi, fish for the goddess Neith, cats for the goddess Bastet. The exhibition is organized on three floors and the visit to the most important sections of the collection is at least 2 hours long. The Library is specialized in the Egyptologist section and has a property of over 6000 books. The photographic archive keep the property of the negatives, of the prints and of the slides of the antiques of the Museum and of the excavating campaigns in Egypt. The Museum, organizes guided visits to the exhibition. On request by schools and cultural associations it organizes Museum School didactic programs (conferences, lessons in the Museum, seminars for teachers, laboratories for the students, work forms for the teachers and students) and events (exhibitions, meetings, and conventions). |
