Following project focused on the detailed study of one of the museum collections. In this case, it were the artefacts from the Egyptian Museum of Leipzig University, sampled with kind permission granted by the collection curator, dr. Dietrich Raue. Project was lead in cooperation with Jiří Kmošek, a specialist in archeometallurgy.

In 2015, we have sampled a selection of objects from documented contexts, dated to the Early Dynastic period, Old Kingdom, First Intermediate period, Middle Kingdom, Second Intermediate period and New Kingdom. They were excavated mainly by the most important figure in the history of museum, Egyptologist Georg Steindorff.

Obtained samples underwent range of analyses, in order to learn more about the chemical composition of objects and their properties.  Synthesis of the results took rather long time and only in this year, we are publishing the final interpretation.

Project details

Title: Early copper metallurgy in Ancient Egypt – a case study of the material from Ägyptisches Museum der Universität Leipzig

Funding: Grant Agency of the Charles University, project no. 38715

Duration: 2015–2016

Cooperating institutions: Ägyptisches Museum – Georg Steindorff – der Universität Leipzig; University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague

Publications:

Conferences: