Sponsor a book: Ancient Egypt in 50 Discoveries

Since 1882, the Egypt Exploration Society has surveyed, recorded, and excavated at over 150 different sites and monuments across the Nile valley. During this work, thousands of artefacts have been uncovered, many of which were distributed and can be seen in museums around the world.

Relief of Nebhepetre Mentuhotep II and the Goddess Hathor, discovered during EES excavations at Deir el-Bahari in 1907. MMA 07.230.2.

This volume presents the unique history of ancient Egypt through 50 artefacts discovered during excavations of the EES since its founding in 1882. They are brought together in this volume from global museums: from major collections as well as those that are a little less known. Readers will travel through three millennia of Egypt’s history from the Early Dynastic to the end of the Graeco-Roman Period uncovering the daily lives of the ancient Egyptians by investigating everyday items, as well as the elite objects of the ruling classes.

Alongside these artefacts, further topics are unpacked relating to the history of Egypt and Egyptology as well as those characters that have played a role in the ‘discovery’ of ancient Egypt.

In 2022, the EES ran an Egyptological Archives Skills School in Cairo. Students from that School will now contribute to this latest volume from the Society reflecting their work during that training. Here, Noura Seada (October 6th University) contemplates beneath the decorated lintel of Hatiay from Amarna in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

Each object entry is written by an expert in their field and contributions already include several items from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Metropolitan Museum in New York as well as the University Museum of Kyoto, Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, and Bolton Museum.

We need your help to make this a reality. Your kind contributions will help to cover the production costs to ensure that sales go to supporting the EES and its ongoing work. If you make a generous donation of £500 then we will print your name in the book itself and we will also send you a copy when it is printed in 2024. Those generously contributing £2000 will also be named in the book, receive a copy, and will also become part of our Amelia Edwards’ Circle where we’ll keep you updated regularly on the legacy of the EES.

Please, help us build on our legacy of ground-breaking work in Egypt by supporting this book today.

Share this appeal on social media using #AE50EES

This Appeal will run until the end of 2023.

Supporters in the US can make a donation via the BSUF. Read more here.

As you’ve already raised a third of our £15,000 target, here are five highlights that will feature in the book:

1. A unique ivory statuette of Khufu found at Abydos (Egyptian Museum in Cairo, JE 36143) 
2. A multi-coloured glass bottle from Amarna (National Museum of Denmark, inv. 9199) 
3. A senet gameboard from Abydos (Metropolitan Museum of Art, MMA 01.4.1a) 
4. A mummified Ibis found in the Sacred Animal Necropolis at Saqqara (Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, UC30690) 
5. One colourful knitted sock from Antinoopolis in Middle Egypt (Leicester Museums and Art Gallery, A63.1914)

We will share another five entries each time we reach a third of the target and then we will share the full contents list (as well as a previously unpublished entry!) with all those that have donated as a special ‘thank you’!