Katarzyna (Kasia) Kapiec stayed at the Trust’s house in Hornton Street, Kensington for the month of July 2018.

Kasia outside the Trust’s Kensington house, July 2018

“During my visit in London in July 2018 I spent my time mainly in the library of the Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum. The rich collection of this library as well as the very friendly work atmosphere there made my writing process very effective.

I also visited the Egypt Exploration Society (EES) archives and library, where I was able to look through the early correspondence of Edouard Naville and his colleagues, concerning their work at Deir el-Bahari. Moreover, Stephanie Boonstra put me in contact with Dr Brigitte Balanda, who is working on the early correspondence from the EES archives and kindly shared some new materials with me.

The founder, Dr Anderson during a visit to the temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari early on in his career

I visited the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, where Dr Helen Strudwick kindly enabled me to study of Hatshepsut’s objects from the museum’s collection.

Thanks to the Trust’s library collection I was able to look through the original edition of Lepsius’s Denkmaeler aus Aegypten und Aethiopien and find details which are not observable in the digital or recently reprinted versions. Furthermore, during my stay I attended several Egyptological events including lectures by Prof. Jean Revez (on the ‘Latest Research from Karnak’), Heba Abd el Gawad (‘Multiculturalism in Ancient Egypt’) and the annual British Museum Colloquium (for the last one I was kindly invited by the British Museum staff).

To sum up, my stay in London was very fruitful and beneficial for my thesis as I was able to move forward thanks to obtaining the essential publications unavailable in Poland. Visiting the EES archives and adding to my contacts has brought interesting information to the chapter about the history of works in the Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari. My study of the objects in the Fitzwilliam museum will contribute to the Hatshepsut’s database project, which is being developed in my Institute (the Department of Ancient Egyptian and Near East Cultures, Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Culture Polish Academy of Sciences).

All this work during past month was possible only because of the great support of the Trust and its Director Dr Chris Naunton, to whom I am very grateful. I also would like to thank other residents of the house in Kensington for the great atmosphere at home.”