The Egyptian Museum in Tahrir is hosting in its Hall 44 on the ground floor an exhibition titled “Qantir – Pi-Ramesseses: A Century of Excavations and Research in the Ramesside Residence”. The exhibition opened on 16 July and runs till 16 October.
The ancient city of Pi-Ramesses, present-day village of Qantir in the eastern Nile Delta, served as capital during the time of King Ramesses II (also written Ramses II) who reigned in 1279 -1213BC, and was one of the greatest pharaohs of ancient Egypt.
Mustafa Waziri, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) opened the exhibition, together with Frank Hartmann, Germany’s Ambassador to Cairo. Attending were senior officials from the SCA and the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir; also Dietrich Rau, Director of the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo; senior embassy staff; directors of non-Egyptian archaeological expeditions in Egypt; and professors of archaeology in Egyptian universities.
The exhibition is held in cooperation between the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and Roemer Museum in Hildesheim, Germany.
Mr Waziri expressed his enthusiasm about the exhibition, highlighting the strong and long collaboration between Egypt and Germany in the field of archaeology. He said that cooperation between Egypt and Germany was not solely restricted to excavations, but extended to exchange of experience, capacity building, and other aspects.
Some 250 archaeological expeditions from 25 countries, Mr Waziri said, are currently working in a number of regions in Egypt.
Referring to the exhibition, he said that besides the Qantir collection, it an includes a number of pieces from the antiquities warehouses in Sharqiya, east of the Nile Delta. He said that once the exhibition is over, the Egyptian Museum will arrange for a permanent exhibit of the pieces.
For his part, Mr Hartmann expressed gratitude to all who worked hard to make the exhibition a reality, from the officials in the Egyptian Museum down to the diggers and workers in the archaeological site. He reviewed the history of German excavation in Qantir, which started in by 1980 by the Roemer Museum in collaboration with the SCA.
The exhibition displays a collection of some 250 artefacts discovered over the 20th century in the vicinity of Qantir. Work in the sites began at the hands of renowned Egyptian archaeologists Mahmoud Hamza (1890 – 1976) and Labib Habachi (1906 – 1994), and in 1980 continued by German archaeologists from the Roemer Museum in collaboration with the SCA.
Among the objects on display are statues and inscriptions for earlier kings in the 19th Dynasty (1292-1189 BC), including Seti I and Ramesses II. Also on display are architectural elements and items that depict ancient Egyptians’ daily life during that period.
Watani International
20 July 2023