Post on 15-May-2023
An overview of the Egyptian Collection of
the National Museum of Archaeology in
Lisboa, Portugal, (MNA), with a brief
reference to ongoing research projects
Paula Alexandra Veiga Lisboa - Portugal
Dr. Luis Raposo,
Director of the
Museum, and
President of the
ICOM’s Portuguese
National
Commission
Direction
At Oxford, June 2010, http://gamna.blogspot.com/
The founder of the Museum
Available online at: http://biblioteca.mnarqueologia-
ipmuseus.pt/bibliopac/bin/wxis.exe/bibliopac/?IsisScript=bi
bliopac/bin/bibliopac.xic&db=BIBLIO&lang=P&start=oap
Director of the MNA
1893-1929
History of the Collection The MNA was founded in 1893. Since
1903 it is housed in the exquisite
Jeronimos’ Monastery.
In 1909, the Museum director, Leite de
Vasconcelos, attended the World
Archaeological Congress in Cairo, and
returned with various artefacts – 70.
Queen Amelia of Portugal during
her visit to Egypt and Palestine in
1903 also brought Egyptian artefacts
as a gift from the English protectorate.
When Portugal became a republic, in
October 1910, the collection reverted
to the state, ending at the MNA. Gifts
from private collections such as the
last Duke of Palmela, Bustorff Silva
and Barros e Sá, added more objects
to the Museum’s collection of Egyptian
antiquities.
The collection consists now of 584
objects. Of these, around 309 are
exhibited in the Egyptian Rooms of the
Museum.
The Portuguese royal party at Giza, 1903
Other Collections in Portugal
Calouste
Gulbenkian
Pharmacy
Museum
At the end of this presentation a small movie will show you some
objects from other collections, including items of the MNA .
A boat with eight men, a wooden funerary model from the Middle Kingdom; a
mummy in its’ sarcophagus, and a canopic vase - Hapi which protected the lungs...
Human remains...
The Lisbon Mummy Project (2003), published in Current Research in Egyptology 2003 (2005), 29-40; available online at:http://www.mnarqueologia-
ipmuseus.pt/documentos/The%20Lisbon%20Mummy%20Project.pdf
Featuring from left to right: Anubis, Akephalos, Harpocrates, human figure and
Abraxas
The Nile pebble
Egyptian jasper -
brown gemstone
existing in the desert
between the Red
Sea and Cairo.
Published in: Current Research in Egyptology 2007: Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Symposium, Swansea 2007
Metternich Magical stela,
Late Period,
(c. 380-342 B.C.)
Metropolitan Museum, NY
and
Rosicrucian Museum, San
Jose, USA
Horus feet on crocodiles
A boy’s amulet ?
Alexandria
from the Hymnal prayer
(Gospel of the Egyptians) (…) the living water!
The child of the child!
(…)
A
EE
ĒĒĒ
I I I I
OOOOO
YYYYYY
ŌŌŌŌŌŌŌŌ
Eternal, eternal god of silence, I honor you completely.
(…) I have blended
it with water, (…) you who exist forever.
from The Gospel of the Egyptians
The Father of the great light who came forth from the silence, (…) in which the thrice- male child rests. (…) he
who came forth from the silence, while he rests in the silence, (…)
(…) the five seals in the spring-baptism, these will know their receivers as they are instructed about them, and
they will know them (or: be known) by them. These will by no means taste death. (…)
Nag Hammadi
Codices
c.50-150 AD