The Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection of Berlin () is home to one of the world's most important collections of

ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

ian artefacts, including the

Nefertiti Bust The Nefertiti Bust is a painted stucco-coated limestone bust of Nefertiti, the Great Royal Wife of Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten. It is on display in the Egyptian Museum of Berlin. The work is believed to have been crafted in 1345 BC by Thutmo ...

. Since 1855, the collection is a part of the

Neues Museum The Neues Museum (, ''New Museum'') is a listed building on the Museum Island in the historic centre of Berlin, Germany. Built from 1843 to 1855 by order of King Frederick William IV of Prussia in Neoclassical and Renaissance Revival styles, ...

on Berlin's

Museum Island The Museum Island (, ) is a museum complex on the northern part of Spree (river), Spree Island in the Mitte (locality), historic heart of Berlin, Germany. It is one of the capital's most visited sights and one of the most important museum sites ...

, which reopened after renovations in 2009.

History

The museum originated in the 18th century from the royal art collection of the

Hohenzollern The House of Hohenzollern (, ; , ; ) is a formerly royal (and from 1871 to 1918, imperial) German dynasty whose members were variously princes, electors, kings and emperors of Hohenzollern, Brandenburg, Prussia, the German Empire, and Romania. ...

kings of

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

Alexander von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 1769 – 6 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, natural history, naturalist, List of explorers, explorer, and proponent of Romanticism, Romantic philosophy and Romanticism ...

had recommended that an Egyptian section be created, and the first objects were brought to Berlin in 1828 under King

Friedrich Wilhelm III Frederick William III (; 3 August 1770 – 7 June 1840) was King of Prussia from 16 November 1797 until his death in 1840. He was concurrently Elector of Brandenburg in the Holy Roman Empire until 6 August 1806, when the empire was dissolved ...

. Initially housed in Monbijou Palace, the department was headed by the

Trieste Trieste ( , ; ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital and largest city of the Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as of the Province of Trieste, ...

merchant Giuseppe Passalacqua (1797–1865), whose extensive collections formed the basis. A Prussian expedition to Egypt and Nubia led by

Karl Richard Lepsius Karl Richard Lepsius (; 23 December 181010 July 1884) was a German people, Prussian Egyptology, Egyptologist, Linguistics, linguist and modern archaeology, modern archaeologist. He is widely known for his opus magnum ''Denkmäler aus Ägypten ...

in 1842–45 brought additional pieces to Berlin. In 1850, the collections moved to its present-day home in the Neues Museum, built according to plans designed by

Friedrich August Stüler Friedrich August Stüler (28 January 1800 – 18 March 1865) was an influential Prussian architect and builder. His masterpiece is the Neues Museum in Berlin, as well as the dome of the triumphal arch of the main portal of the Berliner Schloss. ...

. The Nefertiti Bust, discovered during the excavations by

Ludwig Borchardt Ludwig Borchardt (5 October 1863 – 12 August 1938) was a German Egyptologist. He is best known for finding a famous bust of Nefertiti at Amarna. __NOTOC__ Life Born in Berlin in 1863 into a well-established Jewish family, Borchardt was t ...

Amarna Amarna (; ) is an extensive ancient Egyptian archaeological site containing the ruins of Akhetaten, the capital city during the late Eighteenth Dynasty. The city was established in 1346 BC, built at the direction of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, and a ...

, was donated to the museum by the entrepreneur Henri James Simon in 1920; it quickly became its best-known exhibit. After World War II, during which the Neues Museum was heavily damaged by

strategic bombing Strategic bombing is a systematically organized and executed military attack from the air which can utilize strategic bombers, long- or medium-range missiles, or nuclear-armed fighter-bomber aircraft to attack targets deemed vital to the enemy' ...

, the collections were divided between

East East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that ea ...

and

West Berlin West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...

. The main part remained in East Berlin and was displayed at the

Bode Museum The Bode Museum (), formerly called the Emperor Frederick Museum (), is a listed building on the Museum Island in the historic centre of Berlin. It was built from 1898 to 1904 by order of German Emperor William II according to plans by Ernst ...

, while those artifacts evacuated to

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

, including the Nefertiti Bust, returned to West Berlin. From 1967 to 2005, these items were housed vis-à-vis

Charlottenburg Palace Schloss Charlottenburg (Charlottenburg Palace) is a Baroque palace in Berlin, located in Charlottenburg, a district of the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf borough, and is among the largest palaces in the world. The palace was built at the end of th ...

. The whole collection was reunited again after the

Reunification of Germany German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the German Democratic Republic and the integration of i ...

, when it returned to Museum Island.

Collection

The collection contains artefacts dating from between 4000 BC (the Predynastic era) to the period of Roman rule, though most date from the rule of

Akhenaten Akhenaten (pronounced ), also spelled Akhenaton or Echnaton ( ''ʾŪḫə-nə-yātəy'', , meaning 'Effective for the Aten'), was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh reigning or 1351–1334 BC, the tenth ruler of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Eig ...

(around 1340BC). The most famous piece on display is the exceptionally well preserved and vividly coloured bust of Queen Nefertiti. The collection was moved from

Charlottenburg Charlottenburg () is a Boroughs and localities of Berlin, locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Established as a German town law, town in 1705 and named after Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, Queen consort of Kingdom ...

to the

Altes Museum The Altes Museum (English: ''Old Museum'') is a List of World Heritage Sites in Germany, listed building on the Museum Island in the Mitte (locality), historic centre of Berlin, Germany. Built between 1825 and 1830 by order of King Frederick Will ...

in 2005 and was rehoused within the newly reconstructed

on Berlin's

in October 2009. The museum is home to at least 23 mummified ancient Egyptians. In the 2020s the CT scans were performed on the mummies as part of a study into the mummification of hearts. At the same time the CT scans were examined to try and establish the mummified individuals sex and the age at which they died.

Gallery

File:Kalabsha Gate, ca. 30 BCE, Scharf-Gerstenberg Museum, Berlin (2) (40205520311).jpg, Kalabsha Gate, from the

Temple of Kalabsha The Temple of Kalabsha (also Temple of Mandulis) is an ancient Egyptian temple that was originally located at Bab al-Kalabsha (Gate of Kalabsha), approximately 50 km south of Aswan. In the 1960s the temple was relocated under the International ...

, donated as part of the

International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia The International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia was the effort to relocate 22 monuments in Lower Nubia, in Southern Egypt and northern Sudan, between 1960 and 1980. This was done in order to make way for the building of the Aswan Dam, a ...

File:Girl with a cat.jpg, Figure of a girl with a cat and standing figure of a young woman, 18th Dynasty, and 19. Dynasty, Abusir el Meleq and Thebes File:Head of Ptolemy X, from Egypt, Ptolemaic period, 2nd century BCE. Neues Museum, Germany.jpg, Head of a statue of king Ptolemaios X (reign 110–88 BC) File:Nefertiti Standing-striding Berlin.jpg, Standing Figure of Nefertiti File:Portrait head of one of the daughters of Akhenaton and Nefertiti from a composite statue 09.jpg, File:ReliefPortraitOfAkhenaten02.png, File:Tai-tai, the priest.jpg, Tai-tai, the Priest.

New Kingdom New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 1 ...

Eighteenth Dynasty The Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XVIII, alternatively 18th Dynasty or Dynasty 18) is classified as the first dynasty of the New Kingdom of Egypt, the era in which ancient Egypt achieved the peak of its power. The Eighteenth Dynasty ...

, 1380 BC File:Akhenaten, Nefertiti and their children.jpg,

and

Nefertiti Nefertiti () () was a queen of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, 18th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, the Great Royal Wife, great royal wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten. Nefertiti and her husband were known for their radical overhaul of state religious poli ...

with their children. Amarna Period, 1350 BC File:QueenTiy01-AltesMuseum-Berlin.png, Queen

Tiye Tiye (c. 1398 BC – 1338 BC, also spelled Tye, Taia, Tiy and Tiyi) was the Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III, mother of pharaoh Akhenaten and grandmother of pharaoh Tutankhamun; her parents were Yuya and Thuya. In 2010 ...

, Amarna Period, 1355 BC File:Berlin Green Head - Neues Museum - Berlin - Germany 2017 (2).jpg, Berlin Green Head, 100-50 BC File:Amenemhat III Berlin 01.JPG, Statue of Amenemhat III (Berlin)

References

External links

Staatliche Museen zu Berlin: Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection

Society for the Promotion of the Egyptian Museum Berlin
(archived)
Flickr – Photos taken in the Egyptian Museum
{{Authority control 1828 establishments in Prussia Egyptological collections in Germany Archaeological museums in Germany Museum Island Museums established in 1828 Staatliche Museen zu Berlin Museums in Berlin Frederick William III of Prussia

History

Collection

Gallery

See also

References

External links