Today on the ITP (Heba Hassan Amer, Egypt, ITP 2024)

Written by Heba Hassan Amer, Curator, Alexandria National Museum (Egypt, ITP 2024)

Today, the ITP fellows were taken on a tour of the Waddesdon Bequest with Rachel King, Curator: European Renaissance and Waddesdon. It was a great display, and I liked the glass Mamluk mosque lamp from Egypt, bearing brightly coloured Arabic inscriptions ”Glory to our lord the sultan, the king, the wise, the just, the warrior.”

During the tour Abdulrhman Ayad Hussein from the Iraq Museum took some pictures of us fellows and the artefacts. Then, with fellows from Egypt and Sudan and Asia departments, we attended a session on Jewellery collections: conservation, science, display and storage. We met Shilei Zeng, British Museum volunteer, Carol Michaelson, former Curator from the Asia department, Aude Mongiatti, Scientist, Scientific Research, Rachel Berridge, Conservator: ceramics, glass and metals, and Aurelia Masson-Berghoff, Curator, Greece and Rome.

It was a useful and interesting lecture, and I was particularly inspired to learn about silversmithing in the Sultanate of Oman through the story of three women. It made me happy to see examples of Omani men’s silver jewellery, from old and modern schools. It also made me happy to see women at an advanced level of learning and traditional crafts. In the ITP programme I have met Roqaya Al Shokri from Oman Across Ages museum, along with Heba Alders from Aswan Museum who always provides us with help and assistance, and Heba Abd Ellatif from the Egyptian Museum.

I also have met my dear colleagues Mustafa Barış Harmankaya from Istanbul Archaeological Museum, Turkey, and Holly Kunst from CVAR – Centre of Visual Arts and Research, Cyprus, in the Greece and Rome department. In the afternoon we met Alexandra Villing, Curator, Greece and Rome. Alexandra provided us with information about studying artifacts, specifically a piece of pottery from Naucratis that highlights the relationship between Egypt and Greece, comparing the raw materials with other artifacts from the same time and location. We discussed how to re-describe and display the artifact again in temporary exhibitions.

Then we met Joanne Dyer, Scientific Researcher, who talked to us about how to study and photograph artifacts. We tried to read an inscription in ancient Greek, a dedication from Cyprus, and on the base of the limestone statue the inscription read “From Ariston to Heracles,” – I was surprised that she was skilled at reading the ancient Greek language!During the tour Abdulrhman Ayad Hussein from the Iraq Museum took some pictures of us fellows and the artefacts. Then, with fellows from Egypt and Sudan and Asia departments, we attended a session on Jewellery collections: conservation, science, display and storage. We met Shilei Zeng, British Museum volunteer, Carol Michaelson, former Curator from the Asia department, Aude Mongiatti, Scientist, Scientific Research, Rachel Berridge, Conservator: ceramics, glass and metals, and Aurelia Masson-Berghoff, Curator, Greece and Rome.

Then we met Joanne Dyer, Scientific Researcher, who talked to us about how to study and photograph artifacts. We tried to read an inscription in ancient Greek, a dedication from Cyprus, and on the base of the limestone statue the inscription read “From Ariston to Heracles,” – I was surprised that she was skilled at reading the ancient Greek language!