DPJPARTMENT OF EGYPTIAN AND ASSYRIAN ANTIQUITIES. 43 



Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities. 



I. — Arrangement, Cataloguing, ^'c. 



Egyptian Antiquities : — 



Many thousands of bags of sand have been removed from the 

 Egyptian Galleries, and the statues and other monuments have been 

 replaced in their original positions in the Egyptian Galleries. All 

 the Egy[)tian stelse have been unpacked and replaced on the shelves, 

 together with a number of recently acquired Nubian funerary slabs 

 and memorial stones. The stelse of the Graeco-Roman Period have 

 been collected and grouped. 



The hieroglyphic, hieratic and demotic papyri, which had been 

 carefully packed inside the large stone sarcophagi, have been 

 unpacked and replaced in the wall cases in the Carthaginian Base- 

 ment, and an exhaustive examination has shown that none of them 

 has suffered injury. 



Three hundred and thirty-three cases of antiquities have been 

 brought from the Postal Tube to the Museum, and the Rosetta Stone, 

 and the choice monuments of the Ancient Empire have been re- 

 placed uninjured in the Egyptian Galleries. 



All the mummies and coffins stored in the strong rooms in the 

 Basement have been brought up to the First Northern Gallery, and 

 arranged tentatively in the Wall Cases ready for the general re- 

 arrangement of the Gallery. As many of the dowels in the coffins 

 had shrunk and fallen out, new dowels have been cut and inserted, 

 and all cracks in the plaster casings have been stopped. During 

 the rearrangement all the rectangular and anthropoid coffins acquired 

 during the last ten or fifteen years have been incorporated. 



The greater number of the objects acquired during the year have 

 been cleaned, and repaired where necessary, in readiness for 

 exhibition. 



The damaged labels in the Egyptian Galleries have been 

 repaired, and all numbers restored. 



Twelve stelae frames have been made ; several hundred feet of 

 mahogany have been prepared for ebonizing ; thirty-eight wooden 

 pedestals for coffins have been enlarged, and about forty new ones 

 made. Twelve stone pedestals have been prepared and objects 

 mounted on them. Eight cartonnage cases have been cleaned and 

 repaired. 



One hundred and eighty-three objects have been registered ; 

 one hundred and eighty-nine labels have been drafted and painted, 

 and numbers have been painted on about five hundred objects. 



A set of eight coloured post cards with scenes and vignettes 

 from the Book of the Dead have been published. 



