Work conducted by the Supreme Council of Antiquities to restore, preserve and manage the pharaonic, islamist and other monuments and museums in Egypt.

A summary of the efforts conducted by the Supreme Council of Antiquities to restore, preserve and manage the monuments and museums across Egypt.

Conservators at the British Museum preparing an ancient Egyptian coffin for display in the exhibition Journey through the afterlife: ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead

The ushabti (also called shabti or shawabti, with a number of variant spellings) is an ancient Egyptian funerary figurine placed in tombs among the grave goods. Ushabtis (ushabtiu in ancient Egyptian) were intended to act as substitutes for the deceased, should he/she be called upon to do manual labor in the afterlife. They were used from the Middle Kingdom (around 1900 BC) until the end of the Ptolemaic Period nearly 2000 years later.

The term shabti applies to these figures prior to the Twenty-first dynasty of Egypt but after the end of the First Intermediate Period, and really only to figurines inscribed with Chapter Six of the Book of the Dead:

“Illumine the Osiris (name of the deceased), whose word is truth. Hail, Shabti Figure! If the Osiris (name of the deceased) be decreed to do any of the work which is to be done in Khert-Neter, let everything which stands in the way be removed from him – whether it be to plough the fields, or to fill the channels with water, or to carry sand from the East to the West. The Shabti Figure replies: “I will do it, truly I am here when you call”.

Source: Wikipedia

The Mummy Chamber, long term installation, opens May 5, 2010. This installation of more than 170 objects from the Brooklyn Museums world-famous holdings of ancient Egyptian material explores the complex rituals related to the practice of mummification and the Egyptian belief that the body must be preserved in order to ensure eternal life.

Encompassing more than one hundred objects drawn from the Brooklyn Museums world-renowned holdings of ancient Egyptian art, including some of the greatest masterworks of the Egyptian artistic heritage, To Live Forever explores the Egyptians beliefs about life, death, and the afterlife; the process of mummification; the conduct of a funeral; and the different types of tombs—answering questions at the core of the publics fascination with ancient Egypt.

The Egyptian Museum of Turin (the second in the world after the Cairo Museum) was established in 1824. In the early 19th century, Carlo Felice, influenced by the interest in Egyptian culture which had been spreading all over Europe following Napoleon’s campaigns in Egypt, acquired a substantial number of the finds collected by the Piedmontese Bernardino Drovetti, French consul general in Egypt. Between 1903 and 1920 the Italian Archaeological Mission launched a number of excavation campaigns along the Nile, thus acquiring additional material; new pieces were also added to the museum between 1930 and 1969. In 1988 the museum was entirely renovated.

The Drovetti Collection, original nucleus of the Egyptian Museum, gathers 98 statues, as well as an extraordinary collection of papyri which can be considered as the most important set of Egyptian written documents in the world. Included in the collection are the Royal Papyrus, also known as the Papyrus from Turin, with the list of all the kings from 3,00 to 1,600 BC; paintings from the tomb of It, discovered in 1911, representing religious scenes as well as agricultural and artisan activities; and the extraordinary cloth, discovered in 1930 in a prehistorically tomb at Gebelein, which is the most ancient painted in the world (3,500 BC); it depicts boats, hunting scenes and ritual dances.

Source: http://www.italiantourism.com/egizio.html

In the galleries of the Brooklyn Museum, curator Edward Bleiberg discusses Bird Lady.

Female Figurine (“Bird Lady”). Egypt, from Ma’mariyah. Predynastic Period, Naqada II, circa 3650-3300 b.c. Terracotta, painted, 11 1/2 in. (29.3 cm) high. Brooklyn Museum, Museum Collection Fund, 07.447.505

In the galleries of the Brooklyn Museum, curator Edward Bleiberg discusses Group Statue of Nebsen and Nebet-ta, probably from Sumenu. New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, early in the reign of Amunhotep III, circa 1390-1353 b.c. Limestone, 15 3/4 x 8 9/16 x 9 1/4 in. (40 x 21.8 x 23.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 40.523

Amateur video of the bust of Nefertiti from all angles and close-ups.