Reham outside the British Museum, July 2024
My name is Reham Zaky, and I work for the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. It was such a pleasure to be one of the scholars of the Anderson Trust in 2024 to continue working on my Post-doc research. My research is titled: “Egyptian Antiquities Protection before the Current Legalization through Scattered Archives” and focuses on the administrative frame of the antiquities service before law no. 117 of 1983 and its amendments. It is a sequential step after I participated in the ICE XIII 2023 in Leiden when I delivered a presentation entitled ‘The previous legalization of Egyptian antiquities protection before the current law’. In my work, I focused on the paper archives that represent the legal appliances such as permissions, licenses, and correspondence related to the different legal procedures based on Egyptian laws issued before 1983.
During my stay in July 2024, I benefited from the archives of the Egypt Exploration Society (EES) especially the archives related to Abydos focusing on the correspondences and the relationship between the working expeditions and the antiquities service, and how the work was organized. In addition, I looked at Armant’s archives, specifically Myers’s work there during the 1930s. Also, it was a great opportunity to use the EES library where I met old friends like Dr. Carl Graves as I was an EES scholar in 2014. I couldn’t believe it had been 10 years already since I came to London for the first time as a MA student, and I was now doing post-doc research.
At the EES
One of the great points is that I met Dr. Stephanie Boonstra, the collection manager of the EES who generously help me to reach out to some private collections, as a result I have further examples of archives that enable me for further understanding about how the administrative system worked, especially in the late 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.
It was also my pleasure to meet Dr. Alice Stevenson, Professor of Museum Archaeology at UCL Institute of Archaeology who provided me with more resources, specifically about the research methods and ethics of using the materials from the web in such a research project.
With Professor Alice Stevenson
As I am a member in Abusir project working in the pyramid complex of king Sahura since 2019, another of my objectives was to study some objects out of Abusir, including a royal Egyptian Alabaster vessel from the funerary temple of King Sahura, a sycamore wooden pot and a wooden tree flank were found inside Sahura Pyramid where the project is currently working, and now kept in the British Museum.
In the study room in the Department of Egypt and Sudan, British Museum
In this regard, I want to extend my gratitude to the team of the study room, and the library in the Egypt and Sudan department as they helped facilitate my mission. It was great opportunity to meet again with Marcel Maree, assistant keeper in the British museum who cooperates with the repatriation department (where I worked from 2013- 2017) in the case of several objects that were recovered successfully to Egypt.
With Marcel Marée at the British Museum
Naturally, you cannot be in London without visiting remarkable museums such as: the Museum of Natural History, Victoria and Albert Museum, Science Museum, National Gallery, and Tate Modern. It was a great experience, thanks to the Robert Anderson Trust which generously supported my visit. This will be a valuable addition to the case studies that will be discussed with the participants during the training program of Enhancing management of Egyptian cultural heritage in the coming batches that I am participating in as a trainer.
About Abusir project, see:
About the training program of enhancing management of Egyptian cultural heritage:
https://www.ees.ac.uk/resource/enhancing-management-of-egyptian-cultural-heritage.html
For more information about the other students in the 2024 cohort please see here.
The Robert Anderson Trust 