As their countrymen prepared for national elections, Polish archaeologists celebrated 70 years of excavation and restoration in Egypt. Nevine El-Aref attended the opening of a special exhibition to mark the event Last Sunday, the strains of classical music wafted on the evening air through the Egyptian Museum garden. Softly lit trees, their leaves ruffled by a light breeze, added to the enchantment of the occasion: the celebration of 70 years of Polish excavation and restoration in Egypt. Foreign and Egyptian archaeologists and museologists gathered as homage was paid to the great Polish archaeologist Kazimierz Michalowski, who led the first polish archaeological mission to Egypt in 1937 and 20 years later founded the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology (PCMA) at Warsaw University, as well as a branch in Cairo in 1959. A bronze bust of Michalowski was installed among those of the most prominent foreign and Egyptian scholars who devoted their lives to protect and preserve Egypt's archaeological heritage. The idea of installing a bust commemorating Michalowski's work was offered by Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA). The bust took less than eight months to make. "We created this beautiful bronze of Michalowski in a very short time," Zbigniew E Szafrañski, director of the University of Warsaw PCMA Cairo branch, told Al-Ahram Weekly. The Polish ambassador to Egypt, Jan Natkanski, told the Weekly that preparations for the event began in February. The aim was to highlight Polish archaeological activities in Egypt over the past 70 years, as well as the mutual cooperation. "This cooperation means that it is one of the pillars of cultural exchange between the two countries," Natkanski said, adding that this was demonstrated not only through the exhibition and the unveiling of the bronze bust of Michalowski, but also through an archaeological conference at the SCA premises to introduce in detail the excavations and restoration carried out by Polish missions in Egypt. "Polish archaeologists have shared in promoting Egypt in Poland," Natkanski said. He added that the publication of the activities carried out in Egypt by Polish archaeological teams in the Polish media had increased the number of Polish tourists to Egypt. Some 200,000 Polish visitors came to Egypt last year, and the number is set to increase to 300,000 this year. Following the unveiling, guests moved inside the museum for the inauguration of an exhibition to display the work of the Polish missions at sites in Egypt since 1937. This achievement was illustrated through 168 artefacts of various sizes and époques. The objects were carefully selected from museums in Cairo and Alexandria and from 10 archaeological sites, and cover all eras in Egypt from the prehistoric right through the Pharaonic, Graeco-Roman, Coptic and Byzantine, and Fatimid and Mameluke periods. "These objects reflect not only the ability of Egyptian artisans and fine artists but the thoughts of ancient Egyptians, which enriches people's understanding of the Egyptian civilisation," Wafaa El-Sediq, general director of the Egyptian Museum, told the Weekly. Sediq described the event as a celebration of the long and distinguished history of Polish activity in Egypt. She considers the exhibition an expression of appreciation of the countless scientists and researchers from Poland who have worked closely with their Egyptian counterparts within the framework of the cooperation between the SCA and the PCMA. This work covers a time span of more than 5,000 years, and some of the artefacts presented are true masterpieces of art. The objects discovered by missions attached to the PCMA during its long years of activity come from sites that extend from the Nile Delta in Lower Egypt through Saqqara and Fayoum Oasis to Edfu and West Thebes in Upper Egypt. Their cultural and historical background is presented in this catalogue, prepared by the present field directors of particular Polish missions, leading Egyptologists and photographers. The texts and illustrations are well worth the interest of all who appreciate art and historical monuments. "The exhibition is also a tribute to individuals whose contributions to the field have been truly invaluable to Egypt and Poland alike," Sediq said. "After all, ancient Egypt's legacy is a gift not merely to modern Egypt, but to all the world." She said the close cooperation and trust of all the institutions participating in bringing the exhibition to a successful opening have been truly exemplary. "It is a mark of the intellectual exchange that has and always will be the foundation of all international scientific achievement," she added. Among the most remarkable objects on display are two sheet gold figures discovered in 2006 in Tel Al-Farkha in the Nile Delta, the latest in a series of the Polish excavations to determine the foundations of civilisation in the Nile Valley on a number of sites in Egypt and Sudan. Aleksandra Majewska, keeper of the Egyptian collection of the National Museum in Warsaw and curator of the exhibition, said these male statuettes were from the late pre-dynastic period. A deposit of early dynastic date comprising 62 small votive figurines of bone, faience and stone hint at the riches that the excavation of the site yields on a regular basis. More importantly, this is the first time that this exquisite assemblage has been placed on public display. Its discovery has already brought new light to bear on the processes accompanying the emergence of the ancient Egyptian empire. Also from this site comes a unique wine jar inscribed with the name of Narmer, the king who united Lower and Upper Egypt. The Old Kingdom period is represented by objects from Tel Edfu and Saqqara, the site where the initial Polish participation in Egyptological work was conducted. These objects include a number of calcite vessels in an excellent state of preservation, along with a unique ritual wooden harpoon with a serpent decoration carved on its back. Also important are the three wooden figures of Nipepy found in his mastaba. Bowls from Meidum come from a ritual shaft that also contained utensils used in the Opening of the Mouth ceremony. Majewska said the objects on exhibition that merited special attention were those found in the previously unknown temple of Tuthmosis III discovered during restoration work at the Hatshepsut Temple complex. Foremost were the thousands of limestone wall blocks recovered from the rubble, which featured well-preserved relief decoration covered with fine polychromy. Absent from the current exhibition is a monumental statue of the enthroned Pharaoh, completely preserved, which was found in the rubble with other statues. This masterpiece of the sculptor's art can be seen on permanent display in the Luxor Museum. Central in the presentation is a bust of Tuthmosis III. "[This is] unusual in that the king's countenance was discovered while the bust, with the back of the head, is a cast of a piece held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York," Majewska said. Carttonnage fragments and examples of grave furnishings from recent excavations, also on display, constitute an important contribution to studies on the Third Intermediate Period and the significance of the Deir Al-Bahari necropolis at that time. The Ptolemaic period is represented by a richly polychromed canopic chest and figure of god Ptah-Sokaris-Osiris, which came from burials discovered in the upper layers of the Old Kingdom necropolis at Saqqara. The male herm (a squared pillar with a head) unearthed at the entrance of a Roman bath at the Tel Edfu site is an excellent example of the style of Roman provincial art with Hellenistic roots that developed in Egypt is also on display. The exhibition displays a statue of Aphrodite and an extensive set of terracotta figurines and ceramic relief vessels from Tel Atrib in the Delta. These feature the fine artistic workmanship produced in the local workshop district, and testify to the high quality of indigenous arts and crafts and the obviously strong ties with the Alexandrian metropolis. A number of fine portrait heads, including a representation of the founder of Alexandria, Alexander the Great, is also shown, along with small bone plaque with a relief carving of Dionysus from the Byzantine period. "This piece of Coptic art illustrates the vitality of ancient tradition in the Egypt of later ages," Majewska said. These objects are from the Kom Al-Dikka site, which thanks to the hard work of the Polish mission has now become a great archaeological complex of Roman and Byzantine monuments. The theatre building, the Roman baths, the unique set of lecture halls and the residential area have yielded all kinds of small finds, mostly originating in the Hellenistic-Roman artistic circle. The region of ancient Marea, west of Alexandria, is represented at the exhibition by only one extremely rare find from the Late Period; a special coinage weight used to check the weight of coins. The last section of the exhibition is devoted to a presentation of objects of Coptic art discovered at the monastic complex in Deir Al-Naqlun and at the hermitage in Sheikh Abdel-Gurna area in Luxor. Coptic and Arabic manuscripts, among them the codex of the Gospel of St John found in the mediaeval cemetery at Naqlun, are also exhibited, as are textiles with fine and colourful border decoration and glass vessels testifying to the high standard of craftsmanship of the period. A hoard of golden Fatimid dinars discovered in the monastic buildings in a casket with an Arabic inscription on its front also displayed. Coptic manuscripts written on parchment and papyrus, found discarded in the hermitage's rubbish dump accumulated from the sixth through to the eighth centuries at Sheikh Abdel-Gurna, are also on show. Closing the display is a funerary stela with a Kufic inscription, one of many from the Islamic burial ground that occupied the mound slowly accreting over the ruins of Kom Al-Dikka from the eighth to the 12th centuries. The collection on exhibition is accompanied by coloured plates with text and photographs, providing additional information about each archaeological site from which the objects were unearthed. Although not all the sites where Polish missions have worked in the past or present are presented, many of these are illustrated in photographs hung on the outside of the screens that set the exhibition area apart in the museum hall. Among the sites and projects presented are the Abu Simbel salvage operation of the 1960s, the French-Polish excavation at the Temple of Hathor in Dendera, the excavations of the Hellenistic and Roman town and cemetery at Marina Al-Alamein, the archaeological research and restoration at the funerary complex of Amir Qurqumas and Sultan Inal in Cairo, and the restoration of the Hatshepsut Temple at Deir Al-Bahari in Luxor. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Kazimierz Michalowski WHEN he was appointed to the chair of Classical Archaeology in 1930, Kazimierz Michalowski, then only 29 years old, had completed the customary tour of the great museums and universities of Europe and had returned to Warsaw filled with enthusiasm. He resolved to project Poland into the international archaeological arena. In 1936, Michalowski was invited to join a French- Polish excavation in Egypt. He opted for a Graeco- Roman site and the choice fell on Edfu. Around the temple of Horus, which was built in Ptolemaic times, there were mounds concealing the ruins of the ancient city of Apollinopolis Magna. Michalowski's excavation was interrupted three years later by the outbreak of World War II, but his archaeological activities in Egypt resumed in 1957. Michalowski used the intervening years to study and teach hieroglyphics and Egyptology to fellow archaeologists. After the war, however, he threw himself into the task of rebuilding the National Museum of Poland and took his chair at the Warsaw University. Few of his pre-war pupils were still around, and Egypt seemed as unattainable as the moon. The opportunity for a comeback presented itself in 1957 when Egypt was looking for new partners after the Suez War and the political atmosphere in Poland had eased considerably. A site was chosen in the Nile Delta, at Tel Atrib, now within the town of Benha, on which a Polish mission is still working today. There, foundations of an Egyptian temple were found, as well as a Roman bath and a poorly- preserved Christian basilica. The most interesting results on the site did not come until the last few seasons, when the team found the remains of what is thought to have been a Greek military settlement of the early Ptolemaic period, including a number of terra-cotta figurines that inspired their discoverer Karol Mysliwiec to write a book entitled Eros on the Nile. The next landmark in Michalowski's career was the Kom Al-Dikka site in downtown Alexandria. The break came when, as a visiting professor at Alexandria University, he was asked to have a look at the underground parts of the Nabi Daniel Mosque in the very heart of the city -- several people had claimed this was where the tomb of Alexander the Great was to be found. While he was inspecting the site, the neighbouring mound of Kom Al-Dikka captured his heart and interest. Forty years later the Polish mission is still at Kom Al-Dikka, excavating at the very heart of ancient Alexandria and restoring its remarkable Roman buildings. With the growth of the Polish archaeological activities in Egypt, Michalowski recognised the necessity of establishing a permanent house for archaeological missions. First he chose an edifice in Alexandria. However, as the Egyptian authorities preferred to have all scientific institutes and centre in Cairo, Michalowski chose in 1959 a 1920s villa in Heliopolis built by the famous Heliopolis architect Habib Ayrout. Since then Polish archaeology has had a permanent foothold in Egypt, for many years the only such institution from Eastern Europe to do so. Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology from Warsaw University is lodged in two elegant villas in Heliopolis, where public lectures are given and where scholars and students can stay and work.
