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The unexpected Orientalists
Thursday 15 October, 18.00
Professor Janet Soskice, Jesus College, Cambridge, tells the fascinating story of Agnes and Margaret Smith who journeyed to St Catherine's monastery at Mount Sinai in 1892, and found a priceless Gospel manuscript. RGS-IBG Collections Showcase
Yemeni Showcase
The Royal Geographical Society' (with IBG), 1 Kensington Gore, London SW7 has a collection of over 2 million items in its Collections which have been designated status as a UK Collection of National Importance. Whether for personal or academic research, pre-travel planning or simply for pleasure, the Society’s Collections together illustrate the world’s people and places, the history of exploration and the development of geography as a discipline. On the 9th October, the Society is holding an afternoon showcase focusing on a display of rare books, maps, photographs and artefacts relating to the geography of the Yemen in the Society’s Foyle Reading Room, the display will include many items unique to the Society. Places are limited to a maximum of 30 people. If you would like to book a ticket, the cost (including refreshments) is £5.00 per person for non-members and free for Fellows and Members of the Society. To book, please contact Julie Cole on 020 7591 3044 or e-mail showcase@rgs.org to reserve a place. My sincere thanks to the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG): The Head of Enterprise and Resources; the Foyle Reading Room: Librarians, Archivists; Map Librarians; Picture Librarians and so many others for their friendly and marvellous support and very much including Julie Cole above. Leila Ingrams ANGLO-ISRAEL ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY REPORT FROM JERUSALEM 12 - APRIL 2009 The Ancient Canaanite gate at Tel Dan has been extensively restored by the National Parks Authority of Israel. It was reopened to the public at the end of March and presented as 'Abraham's Gate', a name that was chosen against the advice of the archaeologists. The 7 m high gate was first uncovered in 1979 as part of the excavations at Tel Dan directed by the late Avraham Biran, so in that sense it is Avraham's Gate, but the publicists are trying to link it to the biblical patriarch, who rode as far as Dan to rescue his nephew Lot (Gen. 14:14). Be that as it may, the gate consists of a triple mud-brick arch, the earliest known arch in Israel, and is dated to about 1750 BCE, though some claim that the parabolic entry arch at Ashkelon, also of mud-brick, may be earlier. The view of the gate and the steps leading up to it is most impressive and the whole complex is covered by a huge, fan-shaped structure of steel and transparent sheeting, very necessary to give protection from the weather but which rather overshadows the object it has been built to protect, which is a pity. Preceding work on the new railway line from Ashkelon to Netivot, in southern Israel, a massive (20 x 20 m) Byzantine bath-house was uncovered in a rescue dig by the IAA, directed by Gregory Serai, at Kibbutz Gevim, near to Sderot, the town that was under fire from Gaza for some years. The bathing complex consisted of six rooms, including a frigidarium and caldarium, with changing rooms, heated by an underground hypocaust system on the Roman model. It served an ancient village on the road from Beersheba to Gaza, which was a busy trade route in the Roman and Byzantine period. It seems that the bath-house suffered from subsidence, fell out of use and became an easy target for stone robbers. The excavation started in January and is still ongoing. The 'Jesus Ossuary Forgery Trial', which started in the Jerusalem District Court in September 2005, has recommenced after a recess of several months. The IAA and police case has been presented and is now being refuted by the chief defendants, Robert Deutsch and Oded Golan, against charges of forging, among other items, the inscriptions on the James-brother-of-Jesus Ossuary and the Jehoash Tablet. The prosecution has alleged that some of the forgeries were perpetrated by an expert Egyptian craftsman, but he has refused to come to Israel to attend the court and the prosecution are having difficulty proving their case to the judge, who presides over the court on one day a week. Stephen Rosenberg,
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"Banks of the Nile" by Sayed Mahmoud.
Tim Scott Bolton Exhibition: Travels in the Middle East
9 26 June 2009 To be opened by HH Princess Lalla Joumala Alaoui, Moroccan Ambassador
to the United Kingdom Please
click here to see paintings from the exhibition. Victoria & Albert Museum, 28 March22 November 2009. This year the V&A is celebrating the centenary of one of the most influential, but lesser known, decorative artists of the Victorian period. Owen Jones was born in 1809 and following a student tour through Europe, Egypt, Turkey and Spain, became a pioneering advocate of Islamic design. Trained as an architect, Jones rose to fame with his controversial scheme to paint the interior of the 1851 Great Exhibition building in the primary colours, based on his observation of ancient Egyptian tomb paintings and the interiors of the Alhambra. Jones reputation now rests on a book, The Grammar of Ornament, continuously in print since 1856. Considered a classic of its type, the Grammar also betrays Jones unusual bias in favour of Islamic ornament. This and other elements of his busy career is the subject of the V&A exhibition, which runs until November; admission is free. In recognition of his role in the founding of the museum, there will be a Study Day on Saturday, 12 June, at which ASTENE members Charles Newton and Kathryn Ferry will be speaking. The fee is £45, and bookings can be made online at http://www.vam.ac.uk/activ_events/courses/courses/study_days_seminars/study_days/index.html or by phone on +44 (0)20 7942 2211. Unearthing the Truth: Egypts Pagan and Coptic Sculpture, Brooklyn Museum, New York, until 10 May. The Brooklyn Museum boasts the second largest North American collection of Coptic art but is it? The Museum suspects that about one-third of its pieces (dated from the fourth to seventh century AD) may be forgeries, with other pieces recarved and repainted. The genuine and the fakes are shown together in this intriguing exhibition. Those who have read A Thousand Miles up the Nile will remember Amelia Edwards visit to the forgers at Luxor. By a curious coincidence it is suggested that the fakes seem to have originated near Sheik Ibada (ancient Antinopolis), founded by the Emperor Hadrian in AD 117. This all brings Coptic art into the arena of exciting new research and many of the dealers were, of course, travellers. Shah Abbas: The Remaking of Iran, London, British Museum, until 14 June. The third in the British Museums series of four major exhibitions on great rulers of the past opened in mid-February and continues until 14 June. The exhibition is in partnership with the National Museum of Iran and the Iran Heritage Foundation. Although strictly outside the ASTENE area, it will be of interest to many of us. The exhibition is open daily from 10 am to 5:30 pm, and until 8 pm on Thursdays and Fridays. Admission is £12, and the museum recommends advance booking: see http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/all_current_exhibitions/shah_abbas/shah_abbas-2.aspx, telephone +44 (0)20 7323 8181. Constantinople: Views of Nineteenth-century Istanbul and Russian Orientalism: Central Asia and the Caucasus, both London, Sphinx Fine Art Gallery, until 25 June. Both exhibitions of Orientalist paintings are being held at the gallery premises at 125 Kensington Church Stree, London W8 7LP. Online catalogues may be viewed at www.sphinxfineart.com, or ordered from the gallery (tel. +44 (0)20 7313 8040). David Roberts: Lithographs of Egypt and the Holy Land, London, Mathaf Gallery, 15 April1 May 2009. This exhibition of Roberts lithographs (which range in price from £250 to £1250) will be of great interest to ASTENE members, as Roberts ranged across so much of the area covered by the Association. Who among us has not recognised where we stood at Sinai or Baalbec or in Cairo and known that Roberts had stood there before us? The gallery is located at 24 Motcomb Street, London SW1X 8JU, and is open weekdays and Saturdays by appointment (tel. +44 (0)20 7823 1378; www.mathafgallery.com). Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs. Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas, until 17 May. This exhibition includes 130 works from the Egyptian National Museum in Cairo, including 50 spectacular objects from Tutankhamuns tomb. The exhibition is more than twice the size of the 1979 King Tut exhibition. Booking recommended on 877-888 8587. For more information, see http://www.dm-art.org/Dallas_Museum_of_Art/View/Tut/ID_198987. Wonderful Things: The Harry Burton Photographs and the Discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamun. Carlos Museum, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, until 25 May 2009. An exhibition of 50 of Harry Burtons photographs explained. For more information, see www.carlos.emory.edu/wonderful-things. The V&A travels to Damascus and Istanbul. An exhibition of 160 ceramic masterpieces from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London has been travelling. It started in Damascus, opening from late November to early January at the Khas Asad Pasha in the wonderful souk. It then travels on to the Pera Museum in Istanbul from May to July, before returning to the newly refurbished V&A ceramic gallery in London. The exhibition reflects the cross-currents of trade between Asia, the
Middle East and Europe. Among the highlights is a two-metre high turquoise-glazed
sceptre from dynastic Egypt, a life-sized porcelain goat from Dresden,
Sevres busts of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, and Picassos famed
1954 vase, Artist at His Easel. If you are in Istanbul this
summer, try not to miss these masterpieces at the Pera Museum. Shrunken Treasures: Miniaturisation in Books and Art highlights small-scale manuscripts and rare books, ranging from Books of Hours and copies of the Koran to almanacs and books of poetry, and explores the many reasons for minituarising art. Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland, until October 2009. Evet: I do! German and Turkish Wedding Culture and Fashion, 1800 to
Today Wonderful Things: The Harry Burton Photographs and the Discovery of
the Tomb of Tutankhamun Beyond Boundaries: Islamic Art across Cultures National Museum, Athens: the Egyptian Collection Although small, the NMA collection is choice. Its majority stems from
the donations of two discerning expatriate Greek collectors: Ioannis Demetriou
of Alexandria in 1880 and Alexandras Rostovich of Cairo in 1904, supplemented
by several Ptolemaic coffins presented by the Egyptian government in 1894
and other smaller donations over the years. Many artefacts are virtually unknown in the literature and some are unique:
a nearly half-metre long Predynastic granite statue of a hippopotamus,
an almost metre-long Dynasty V wooden statue of a servant-woman grinding
grain (a single piece of sycamore), a pair of Middle Kingdom copper-alloy
ships, mast finials, and solid sheet-gold Ptolemaic mummy trappings. The
Greek press' favourite is a bread-loaf dating to the New Kingdom - with
a single bite gone. Whilst many objects have no provenance beyond 'Egypt',
others derive from specific and sometimes well-known locations such as
the Dynasty 19 tomb of the artist Sennedjem at Deir el-Medineh. ASTENE members will be interested also in the related biographical research of Vassilis Chrysokopoulos documenting the lives and travels of some 80 early Greek collectors and Egyptologists , most previously unrecorded. I am trying to persuade him to present a paper on Demetriou and Rostovich at next year's ASTENE conference in Durham. Jacke Phillips The Ancient Egyptian Gallery, Kelvingrove Museum, Glasgow re-opened
last year after extensive restoration and redisplay. Much of the material
was excavated in the 1890s. Zagreb Archaeological Museum, Croatia has a newly opened Egyptian collection including the renowned 'Zagreb mummy'. Babylon A fascinating interpretation of the history and legend
of the ancient city in about 2300BC and to evaluate its influence on later
ages. Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin from late June. Ancient Cyprus a new permanent display at the A.G. Leventis Gallery
of the Danish National Museum, Copenhagen. Three Faces of Monotheism considers the similarities and contrasts
of the shared symbols of Christianity, Islam and Judaism represented in
antiquities and the development of monotheism in the ancient world. Bible
Lands Museum, Jerusalem. The Archaeological Museum, Bologna has reorganised the Greek section of its collections. Among much else part of the collection was assembled by the artist Pelagio Pelagi (1755-1860). Roman Ships In 1989 Roman ships were discovered almost intact
near Pisa. Following restoration they can now be visited by appointment
three days a week at the Centro del Restauro del Legno Bagnato. See www.navipisa.it. Pearls to Pyramids: British Visual Culture and the Levant, 1600-1830.
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut, Delicacies from Cairo! The Egyptian collection of the confectioner
and coffee house owner Achille Groppi (1890-1949). In 1890 the Swiss Patissier and Chocolatier Giacomo Groppi (1863-1947) opened his first private business in Alexandria. Although Groppi soon made enough money to retire, he lost much of his fortune in the financial crash of 1907. So, in 1909, the company was re-established in Cairo under the name Maison Groppi. In 1925 Giacomo and his son Achille Groppi (1890- 1949) opened the famous shop and coffee house on Soliman Pasha Square (today Midan Talat Harb) in the middle of Cairo. The House and parts of the former interior of the cafe in the Art Deco style have been preserved and are nodoubt well-known to ASTENE visitors to Cairo. From the early 1920ies Achille Groppi acquired a considerable number of ancient Egyptian objects, many of mosaic glass from the Ptolemaic Period (4th-1st Centuries BC). Although some important pieces were sold as the Per-Neb Collection during the 1990ies at Christies in London, the Groppi Collection is still an outstanding collection of Egyptian small objects. Many of the 160 objects in this exhibition have never been shown in public previously. There is an exhibition catalogue by Christian E. Loeben and André Wiese, Köstlichkeiten aus Kairo! Die ägyptische Sammlung des Konditorei- und Kaffee-haus-Besitzers Achille Groppi (1890-1949). 179pp; 262 plates; price: 30.00 Euros. Objects of Instruction: Treasures of the School of Oriental
and African Studies: Islamic manuscripts, ceramics, African textiles,
and archaeological finds. Brunei Gallery, SOAS, London.. Lear's View of Jerusalem at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. In 1858 the writer and artist, Edward Lear (1813-88) visited Palestine - achieving a lifetime ambition. There he made careful studies of Jerusalem from the surrounding hills. These were the basis of five paintings of which the largest and most magnificent (1865) was allocated by H.M. Government in 2006 to the Museum from the estates of Captain and Mrs Walthall. The Jameel Gallery of Islamic Art: If you have not yet
seen the newly opened gallery at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London,
try to be sure you make time for it. Treasures from Olana opens at Princeton (New Jersey) University
Art Museum on 27 January. Ancient Egyptians is an ongoing free exhibition featuring mummies and treasures at the New Walk Museum and Art Gallery, Leicester. Egypt Reborn: Art for Eternity at the Brooklyn Museum,
New York is wide ranging in time and themes, and considers Egypt and its
relationship to the rest of Africa. The Tradescant Collection goes home: During the redevelopment of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, the original objects from the Museum Tradescantianum, which formed the core of the Ashmolean in 1683, returns to its original home, in the present Museum of the History of Science. Items in that wildly eclectic collection were gathered in the Near East. Nubian Gallery is a new permanent installation of artefacts
including never-before exhibited works and 2000-year-old textiles. Oriental
Institute Museum, Chicago. The Louvre Theme Tours, Paris are organised around 10 subjects, considering period, artefact or location. "The Palaces of the Ancient Near East" was offered on Monday afternoons in November. Other cycles look at Egyptian antiquities, society and nature or the arts of Islam. There is a very reasonable charge. THE OTHER TUTANKHAMUN EXHIBITION Peta Rée The Tutankhamun Exhibition is on High West Street, Dorchester; all the others are nearby. All are open seven days a week, 10 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. June 05 The Ancient Egyptians (and The Mighty Dinosaurs)
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STUDY DAYS, LECTURES & CONFERENCES Bloomsbury Summer School, University College London. During the summer a number of five-day courses (mainly focused on Egyptology) are held at University College in Bloomsbury. Courses of interest to ASTENE members this summer include: 1317 July Hieroglyphics for Beginners 2024 July Ancient Egypt and Nubia: A Dynamic Relationship (led by Robert Morkot, of ASTENE) 2731 July Flinders Petrie and His Heritage: Exploring the Petrie Museum. For further information and booking, telephone 0207 679 3622 or e-mail bloomsbury@egyptology-uk.com. Study Courses in Cambridge. The Institute of Continuing Public Education has a new programme of residential courses at Madingley Hall near Cambridge. Residential weekends cost about £350; non-residential, about £215. Courses of interest to ASTENE members include: 1820 September Egypt from Alexander the Great to Cleopatra (33230 BC) 57 February 2010 The Architecture of Islam: The First 1000 Years 1921 February 2010 Cities of the Eastern Adriatic. For further details visit www.cont-ed.cam.ac.uk. Melville and the Mediterranean. Ecole Biblique, East Jerusalem, 1721 June 2009. This conference is devoted to understanding the place of the Mediterranean and the Holy Land in Western consciousness. While one focus is concerned with Herman Melvilles epic Clearel: A Poem and Pilgrimage to the Holy Land, the conference aims to open up discussions related to travel, literature, other humanities and the sciences, aesthetics, anthropology, archaeology, ethnography, and religion. Papers and panels are welcome on a range of international writing about the region. There is a particular interest in a panel or panels from ASTENE members on travel writing and other fields relating to knowledge of the region and its significance in the 19th and 20th centuries. For further details of the conference, see www.unc.edu/~marr/jerusalem/. British Museum Study Programme
For information and booking, see Egypt Exploration Society Cairo Lectures and field visits. The International Qajar Studies Assocation - IQSA Membership of IQSA is open to scholars, institutions and the general
public ($60). There are annual conferences (most recently in Paris on
Diplomats and Travellers in the Qajar Era and a journal, Qajar Studies.
See the IQSA website: www.qajarstudies.org The Frontiers of the Ottoman World: fortifications, trade, pilgrimage
and slavery The longer-term project aims to bring together the research findings of the different schools and institutes that relates to the subject, and to relate archaeological work to the textual evidence. Institute of Continuing Education, Cambridge We list a few briefly: And there are many more fascinating courses on other subjects. British Travellers and Equestrian Enthusiasts in Great Syria and Arabia
Conference The papers and the discussion ranged through Anglo-Arab and Anglo-Ottoman relations of trade, diplomacy and artistic reciprocity. The historic range covered early pilgrimage to present day travel - on horseback. Professor Donna Landry reported to us that "Many unexpected and useful connections were made and exchanges begun across disciplines, specializations, livelihoods, and areas of interest. Many of those attending remarked that it was the most enjoyable and the most multi-disciplinary conference they had ever attended . and hoped that this will be the first of a series of related events on East-West relations, travel and re-enactment, animal studies and other multi-disciplinary perspectives on the long 18thcentury. A volume of essays based on the conference papers will be forthcoming and will be reviewed in these pages. Contact D.E.Landry@kent.ac.uk
for further information. EXHIBITION REVIEW To complement the exhibition at the Getty Centre, Los Angeles, 'Holy
Image, Hallowed Ground: Icons from Sinai, on 6 February, Father Justin
Sinaites, Librarian of the monastery, used another work of art, a 12th
century manuscript, to illustrate St John's theme. Each sin was pictured
simply and lucidly, in sumptuous gold leaf and tints of red and blue. Father Justin also spoke of the decision taken by the last two Abbots of Sinai that the wonderful sacred art of the monastery, previously unseen by any but those who penetrated to this remote place, should be opened up to the world. Of the greatest advantage to the survival of the art at Sinai was this very inaccessibility, for it was spared not only the early iconoclasts, but also the work of the early restorers. Now, new, less invasive techniques and more humble attitudes prevail among restorers. The unique collection of manuscripts is to be recorded in high resolution digital photography, so that scholars need not handle (and slowly destroy) the originals, the most fragile of which can be sealed away in boxes from light and (in contrast to most places) the lack of humidity at Sinai. An inevitable result of the new open attitude is the influx not only of pilgrims but of more tourists like us. Even the three hours a day the monastery opens its doors to them - and its new gallery of sacred art - has to compromise the calm and solitude the monks have sought. We must indeed be grateful to their generosity. April 06 Interior and Backdrop, 1865 by E.H. Palmer ASTENE members tend to collect books on their subject, and many may know of the Provincial Booksellers Fairs Association (PBFA) Calendar of Book Fairs. This is an annual list of book fairs throughout the country, which you can receive free from the PBFA, The Old Coach House, 16 Melbourn Street, Royston, Herts SG8 7BZ; tel. 01763 248921, email info@pbfa.org. The PBFA website (www.pbfa.org) carries up-to-date information on fairs, plus lists of exhibitors and an online directory of members. Some of the book fairs this year will be:
A new fair site this year is at the traveller W.J. Bankes home, Kingston Lacy House near Wimborne in Dorset, to be held from 10:30 to 4 on Sunday, 5 June. Normal fee for National Trust entry, fair free. The largest book fair of the year is on Friday and Saturday, 1112 September, in the Knavesmire Suite, York Racecourse. Hours are Friday from noon to 7 pm, and Saturday from 10 to 5. For details see www.yorkbookfair.com. Of interest to Scottish members will be the book fair in the Assembly Rooms, George Street, Edinburgh, on Saturday 13 June, from 10 am to 5 pm. For Irish members there is the Dublin Book Fair at Freemasons Hall, Molesworth Street, on Friday and Saturday, 1819 September, noon to 7 (Friday) and 105 (Saturday). |
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BANEA December 05
Fiona Orde has been travelling throughout Egypt, Syria, Morocco, Oman, Iran and the Yemen for several years. While learning Arabic, she has been recording in watercolour buildings of architectural merit that are representative. Her collection demonstrates the wisdom, talent and charm of these peoples, in deliberate comparison with their vengeful image published in the West. This is a study without politics, where design interprets manners and customs with bricks. Each building tells a story; each painting tells a story. Together they relate the domestic values at the core of a community. see www.homepage.mac.com/fionaorde/PhotoAlbum5.html,
or
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THE ASSOCIATION OF
MALTESE COMMUNITIES OF EGYPT When in 1956 the Maltese, as British subjects, left Egypt, they transferred
their welfare and social activities to England and joined into the continuing
Association of Maltese Communities in Egypt. The Association continues
its work and has a regular AMCOE Newsletter. April 04 |
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