Accessing the ancient past

Ancient Egyptian antiquities in the Victorian State collections

02 March 2016

Associate Professor Colin Hope

The Victorian State collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities is housed at Museum Victoria and the National Gallery of Victoria. It is the second largest collection of such material in Australia and in many respects the most significant. It includes material ranging in date from the beginnings of the ancient state through to its demise in late antiquity, and illustrates most of the major categories of artefacts associated with that culture.

This lecture will outline the formation and development of the collection, illustrate its diversity and explore why it was formed, introducing some of the key players in this process, from notorious local personalities such as Redmond Barry to distinguished Egyptologists.

Speaker

Associate Professor Colin Hope is an Egyptologist with a particular interest in the archaeology of ancient Egypt, and especially the Western Desert, and cultural interaction between ancient Egyptians and their western neighbours; ancient Egyptian and western desert ceramics; Egyptianizing monuments in Australia; and collections of Egyptian antiquities in Australia. He is Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for Ancient Cultures in the Faculty of Arts at Monash University. Museum Victoria established a joint position with Monash University in 1990 and Colin was appointed the inaugural Curator of Mediterranean Antiquities, the association continuing to the present in his capacity as an Honorary Associate at the Museum.

Presented in association with the Centre for Ancient Cultures & the Egyptology Society of Victoria, Monash University.