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 .

From the Pre-

Dynastic to

the Coptic

Period...

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...

Bronzes and the udjat at the entrance of the Egyptian Room...

Lithics...and a sandal

The Ram, shabtis, and

some amulet’s

moulds...

Canopic vases and Osiris in his many forms: the

realm of the dead

Roman and Coptic

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

face of MNA

E540

4,4 cm

3,2 cm

verso of

MNA E540

4.4 cm

3.2 cm

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

Other Collections

Lisboa thanks you!

MNA