British Museum Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan facts for kids
The Department of Ancient Egypt at the British Museum is like a giant treasure chest filled with amazing objects from ancient Egypt. It has over 100,000 items, making it the biggest collection of Egyptian treasures anywhere outside of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Egypt.
A Journey Through Time: How the Collection Grew
The British Museum has had Egyptian treasures since it first opened in 1753. Back then, a man named Sir Hans Sloane gave them about 160 Egyptian objects.
A big boost to the collection happened in 1803. After Napoleon's French army was defeated in Egypt, the British army took many Egyptian artifacts they had collected. These were then given to the British Museum. This included the super famous Rosetta Stone! These were the first really big sculptures the museum got.
Later, a British consul (like an ambassador) in Egypt named Henry Salt gathered a huge number of ancient items. An Italian explorer, Giovanni Belzoni, helped move these heavy objects with clever methods. Most of what Salt collected was bought by the British Museum and the Musée du Louvre in Paris.
By 1866, the collection had grown to about 10,000 objects. More items started arriving from archaeological digs in the late 1800s. Groups like the Egypt Exploration Fund, led by E.A. Wallis Budge, sent over 11,000 objects. These came from places like Amarna and Deir el-Bahari. Other explorers and universities also donated items, including finds from Sudan.
The museum kept supporting digs in Egypt throughout the 1900s. This brought in many important new pieces. Eventually, Egypt changed its laws, making it harder to export finds. However, the museum still gets items from digs in Sudan. The British Museum even did its own excavations in places like Asyut and Ashmunein in Egypt, and Soba and Kawa in Sudan. Today, the Egyptian collection has over 110,000 objects!
In 2001, the museum's collection grew even more. Professor Fred Wendorf from the US donated six million objects from his digs in the Sahara Desert. These items show us about prehistoric Egypt and Sudan from 1963 to 1997.
The British Museum has seven permanent galleries dedicated to ancient Egypt. Even though these galleries are huge, they can only show about 4% of the museum's Egyptian collection! The second-floor galleries have a selection of the museum's 140 mummies and coffins. This is the largest collection of mummies outside of Cairo. Many items in the collection come from tombs or are linked to beliefs about death and the afterlife. These pieces, especially the mummies, are very popular with visitors.
Amazing Collections
Here are some of the most important and interesting items in the collection, organized by time period:
Predynastic and Early Dynastic Period (around 6000 BC – 2690 BC)
- Mummy of Ginger: This is a very old mummy from Gebelein, dating back to about 3400 BC.
- Flint knife with an ivory handle: Known as the Pit-Rivers Knife, this beautiful knife is from Sheikh Hamada (around 3100 BC).
- The Battlefield Palette and Hunters Palette: These are two special cosmetic palettes with detailed pictures (around 3100 BC).
- Ivory statuette of a king: A small statue of a king from an early temple at Abydos (around 3000 BC).
- King Den's sandal label: A small label from the time of King Den, found at Abydos (around 2985 BC).
Old Kingdom (2690–2181 BC)
- Artefacts from the tomb of King Khasekhemwy: Objects from the tomb of King Khasekhemwy (2690 BC).
- Granite statue of Ankhwa: A statue of a shipbuilder from Saqqara (around 2650 BC).
- Casing stones from the Great Pyramid of Giza: Some of the original outer stones from the Great Pyramid of Giza, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (around 2570 BC).
- Limestone false door of Ptahshepses: A decorative false door from a tomb (2380 BC).
Middle Kingdom (2134–1690 BC)
- Coffin of Sebekhetepi: The inner and outer coffin of Sebekhetepi from Beni Hasan (around 2125–1795 BC).
- Granite statue of Senwosret III: A powerful statue of Pharaoh Senwosret III (1850 BC).
- Block statue and stela of Sahathor: A unique block-shaped statue and stone slab from the time of Amenemhat II (around 1922–1878 BC).
New Kingdom (1549–1069 BC)
- Schist head of Pharaoh Hatshepsut or Tuthmosis III: A stone head of a famous pharaoh (1480 BC).
- Fragment of the beard of the Great Sphinx of Giza: A piece of the famous Great Sphinx of Giza's beard (14th century BC).
- Colossal head from a statue of Amenhotep III: A huge head from a statue of Pharaoh Amenhotep III (1350 BC).
- Amarna Tablets: 99 clay tablets that are ancient letters, giving us a peek into diplomacy of the time (1350 BC).
- List of the kings of Egypt: A list of pharaohs from the Temple of Ramesses II (1250 BC).
Third Intermediate Period (1069–664 BC)
- Statue of the Nile god Hapy: A statue of the god of the Nile River from Karnak (around 900 BC).
- Mummy case and coffin of Nesperennub: The decorated case and coffin of Nesperennub from Thebes (around 800 BC).
- Shabaka Stone: A stone slab from Memphis with an important religious text (around 700 BC).
- Statue of Amun protecting King Taharqa: A statue showing the god Amun protecting King Taharqa (683 BC).
Late Period (664–332 BC)
- Saite Sarcophagus of Sasobek: The stone coffin of Sasobek, a powerful official (664–610 BC).
- Bronze figure of Isis and Horus: A small bronze statue of the goddess Isis and her son Horus (600 BC).
- Sarcophagus of Ankhnesneferibre: The stone coffin of a queen (525 BC).
- Obelisks and sarcophagus of Pharaoh Nectanebo II: Large stone pillars and a coffin from Pharaoh Nectanebo II (360–343 BC).
Ptolemaic Dynasty (305–30 BC)
- The famous Rosetta Stone: This amazing stone has the same text written in three different scripts, which helped us understand ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs (196 BC).
- Giant sculpture of a scarab beetle: A very large statue of a scarab beetle, an important symbol in ancient Egypt (32–30 BC).
- Mummy of Hornedjitef: The inner coffin of Hornedjitef from Thebes (3rd century BC).
Roman Period (30 BC-641 AD)
- The Meriotic Hamadab Stela: A stone slab from the Kingdom of Kush in Sudan (24 BC).
- Mummy of a youth with a portrait: A mummy with a painted portrait of the person it contains, from Hawara (100–200 AD).
- Coptic wall painting of the martyrdom of saints: A painting from a church showing saints (6th century AD).
Gallery
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Room 64 - Fragmentary ceremonial palette known as the Hunters Palette, from the late predynastic period, Naqada III, c. 3250-3100 BC
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Room 4 – Three black granite statues of the pharaoh Senusret III, c. 1850 BC
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Room 68 - Part of the el-Amarna hoard, Egypt, c. 1850-1800 BC (18th dynasty)
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Room 63 - Wooden coffin of pharaoh Nubkheperre Intef of Egypt's 17th dynasty, 1600 BC
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Room 4 – Three black granite statues of the goddess Sakhmet, c. 1400 BC
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Room 4 – Colossal statue of Amenhotep III, c. 1370 BC
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Great Court – Colossal quartzite statue of Amenhotep III, c. 1350 BC
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Room 61 – The famous false fresco 'Pond in a Garden' from the Tomb of Nebamun, c. 1350 BC
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Room 4 - Limestone statue of Horemheb and Amenia, 1300-1250 BC
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Room 63 - Gilded outer coffins from the tomb of Henutmehyt, Thebes, Egypt, 19th Dynasty, 1250 BC
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Book of the Dead of Hunefer, sheet 5, 19th Dynasty, 1250 BC
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Room 4 - Ancient Egyptian bronze statue of a cat from the Late Period, about 664–332 BC
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Room 4 - Green siltstone head of a Pharaoh, 26th-30th Dynasty, 600-340 BC
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Room 4 - Sarcophagus of Ankhnesneferibre, 26th dynasty, about 530 BC
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Great Court - Black siltstone obelisk of King Nectanebo II of Egypt, Thirtieth dynasty, about 350 BC
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Room 4 – The Rosetta Stone, key to the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs, 196 BC
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Room 62 - Detail from the mummy case of Artemidorus the Younger, a Greek who had settled in Thebes, Egypt, during Roman times, 100-200 AD
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