DOI Artikel:
Aksamit, Joanna: Stone Vessels from Edfu in the National Museum in Warsaw
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18950#0016
Joanna Aksamit
Stone Vessels from Edfu
in the National Museum
in Warsa w
The Franco-Polish excavations in Edfu (1937-1939), organized by the
Institut Franęais d'Archeologie Orientale (IFAO) and Warsaw University
represented by Prof. Kazimierz Michałowski, have assumed legendary status
for generations of Polish Egyptologists. During the three field campaigns,
the expedition, directed by the Professor, explored the remains of a town
dating back to the Ptolemaic period, as well as the necropolis, used sińce the
late Old Kingdom until the dawn of the New Kingdom. The excavations
were stopped by the Second World War never to be resumed, but Edfu to
the present day is widely regarded as the place where the Polish archaeology
of Egypt was born. The finds of the Franco-Polish expedition also occupy a
particular place in the Egyptian collection of the Gallery of Ancient Art of
the National Museum in Warsaw. The antiąuities law of the 193 Os permitted
the division of finds between Egypt and the institutions conducting the
excavations. Conseąuently, after each of the three campaigns of the Franco-
Polish expedition a partage took place. The finds regarded as the most
important remained in Egypt (they are to this day in the Egyptian Museum
in Cairo); the IFAO participated in the division of finds only in 1939 and as
a result a group of objects from the last campaign now belongs to the
Egyptian collection of the Louvre.' Poland received the most numerous
share of the finds of the Franco-Polish expedition, supplemented by a group
of antiąuities coming from earlier French works in Edfu and from the 1
1 About the division of finds see: K. Michałowski, “Wykopaliska w Edfu. Kampania R. 1937”,
Biuletyn Histoiii Sztuki i Kultury, 5, 1937, pp. 276-277; idem, “Wykopaliska w Edfu.
Kampania R. 1938”, Biuletyn Historii Sztuki i Kultury, 6, 1938, p. 206; idem, “Wykopaliska
w Edfu. Kampania Roku 1938-1939”, Biuletyn Historii Sztuki i Kultury, 7, 1939, p. 194; cf.
M.-H. Rutschowscaya, D. Benazeth, “Apports des fouilles d'Edfou au musee du Louvre”, in
Tell-Edfou soixante ans apres. Actes du colloąue franco-polonais, Le Caire - 15 octobre 1996,
(Fouilles franco-polonaises IV), Cairo 1999, p. 56 as well as A. Majewska, “L'importance de la
cooperation franco-polonaise pour 1'enrichissement de la galerie d'art antiąue du musee
national de Varsovie”, ibid., pp. 37-47.
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Stone Vessels from Edfu
in the National Museum
in Warsa w
The Franco-Polish excavations in Edfu (1937-1939), organized by the
Institut Franęais d'Archeologie Orientale (IFAO) and Warsaw University
represented by Prof. Kazimierz Michałowski, have assumed legendary status
for generations of Polish Egyptologists. During the three field campaigns,
the expedition, directed by the Professor, explored the remains of a town
dating back to the Ptolemaic period, as well as the necropolis, used sińce the
late Old Kingdom until the dawn of the New Kingdom. The excavations
were stopped by the Second World War never to be resumed, but Edfu to
the present day is widely regarded as the place where the Polish archaeology
of Egypt was born. The finds of the Franco-Polish expedition also occupy a
particular place in the Egyptian collection of the Gallery of Ancient Art of
the National Museum in Warsaw. The antiąuities law of the 193 Os permitted
the division of finds between Egypt and the institutions conducting the
excavations. Conseąuently, after each of the three campaigns of the Franco-
Polish expedition a partage took place. The finds regarded as the most
important remained in Egypt (they are to this day in the Egyptian Museum
in Cairo); the IFAO participated in the division of finds only in 1939 and as
a result a group of objects from the last campaign now belongs to the
Egyptian collection of the Louvre.' Poland received the most numerous
share of the finds of the Franco-Polish expedition, supplemented by a group
of antiąuities coming from earlier French works in Edfu and from the 1
1 About the division of finds see: K. Michałowski, “Wykopaliska w Edfu. Kampania R. 1937”,
Biuletyn Histoiii Sztuki i Kultury, 5, 1937, pp. 276-277; idem, “Wykopaliska w Edfu.
Kampania R. 1938”, Biuletyn Historii Sztuki i Kultury, 6, 1938, p. 206; idem, “Wykopaliska
w Edfu. Kampania Roku 1938-1939”, Biuletyn Historii Sztuki i Kultury, 7, 1939, p. 194; cf.
M.-H. Rutschowscaya, D. Benazeth, “Apports des fouilles d'Edfou au musee du Louvre”, in
Tell-Edfou soixante ans apres. Actes du colloąue franco-polonais, Le Caire - 15 octobre 1996,
(Fouilles franco-polonaises IV), Cairo 1999, p. 56 as well as A. Majewska, “L'importance de la
cooperation franco-polonaise pour 1'enrichissement de la galerie d'art antiąue du musee
national de Varsovie”, ibid., pp. 37-47.
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