Bulletin du Musée National de Varsovie (42.2001)

have existed somewhere. It should be mentioned that the objects sent from
Egypt were not registered at the Museum in Warsaw and the crates from 1939
arrived in Poland just before the war started, and remained unpacked until the
outbreak of the war. At time of the Edfu expedition, there were no
egyptologists in Poland able to read the hieroglyphic texts and work on the
objects. As Michałowski once mentioned, he sought the help of his colleague
at the university, Professor Antoni Śmieszek, the author of the first history of
ancient Egyptian literaturę written in Poland (published in 1930). But
Śmieszek refused, explaining, that he can read the hieroglyphs printed in the
books, but deciphering the hardly legible texts on the monuments was
beyond his possibilities. So, except Michałowski, who certainly had no time
and proper library in Warsaw to deepen his rather cursory knowledge of
egyptology he gained during his stay in the French Institute in Cairo and short
field practice at Deir el-Medina, there was nobody to work on the materials
brought from Egypt.

1. Statuę of baboon
before restoration
The National Museum
Warsaw

inv. no. 141271
(photo: Z. Doliński)

49