This path was created by Emilia Porubcin. The last update was by Christina J. Hodge.
Welcome to Our Dark Materials: Rediscovering an Egyptian Collection
Introduction
Our Dark Materials: Rediscovering an Egyptian Collection examines Stanford University's forgotten collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts, which provides insight into the experiences of ordinary Egyptians in daily life and death. This site is a digital supplement to a physical exhibit on view in 2018–2019, providing additional content and interactive features. The site uses a non-linear multimedia platform to highlight the special aspects of Stanford University Archaeology Collections’ Egyptian collection: the artifacts’ material qualities, the ways they reflect everyday life and death, and their connections to the history of Egyptology. In rediscovering these enduring materials, we are inspired to challenge assumptions about where value is found in ancient Egyptian collections.For tips on navigating this digital publication, see How to Use this Website.
Value in trivial things
Sir William Flinders Petrie, whose energetic methods helped establish the field of Egyptian archaeology, was fascinated by the small objects of ancient daily life. In Ten Years’ Digging in Egypt: 1881–1891, he wrote, “Most trivial things may be of value, as giving a clue to something else.” We respectfully disagree. We find that even “trivial things”—ordinary, cheap, worn, broken—are of value in, and especially of, themselves.Our curatorial process has returned these enduring materials to an active object life—not the one their makers and users intended, but one that nevertheless celebrates their many kinds of value. These materials once again shape worlds of experience and entangle the living with the dead. They provide unique paths of inquiry into the lives of ancient Egyptians. And they inspire critical consideration of the forces of imperialism, exoticism, acquisitiveness, and memory that brought them to Stanford over a hundred years ago.