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Egypt
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12 ton Sphinx in the Lower Egyptian Gallery (ca. 1290-1224 BCE.) Photo by Lauren Hansen-Flaschen

The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology houses one of the largest collections of Egyptian and Nubian material in the United States, with more than 42,000 items. Assembled through nearly a century of archaeological research, this collection is unusual in that a majority of the objects were obtained through archaeological investigations in Egypt. Because the museum has worked at a wide range of sites (provincial and royal cemeteries, palaces, temples, towns, sanctuaries and settlements), the collection spans ancient Egypt's entire history, from the Predynastic Period (circa 4000 BC) through the Greco-Roman Period and into the Coptic Period (ending in the 7th century AD). It also includes a large number of material categories, such as architecture, statuary, minor arts, domestic artifacts, textiles, papyri, pottery, tools, jewelry, weapons, funerary objects and human remains.

The artifacts comprising the Egyptian collection of Penn Museum derive from a variety of sources. Around the turn of the century, the Museum began acquiring objects through purchases and gifts from local benefactors. A major part of the collection, however, results from excavations sponsored by the Penn Museum. The Museum sponsored excavations in settlements and cemeteries in Nubia; at Egypt's ancient capital city of Memphis (Mit-rahina); in the cemeteries at Dendera, Giza, Dra abu el-Naga (near Thebes), and Meidum; and at the major cult center of Abydos, among others. Before originating its own excavations, Penn Museum contributed funding to support the work of the Egypt Exploration Fund (later Egypt Exploration Society), a British organization responsible for archaeological excavations throughout Egypt. In particular, it funded the work of Sir William M. Flinders Petrie, one of the foremost archaeologists working in Egypt at the time. As a result, the Museum obtained a significant portion of the material awarded to this project by the Egyptian government. This material comes from a wide variety of sites throughout Egypt and Nubia. Among the most important artifacts are the Predynastic and Early Dynastic remains, which document the earliest periods of Egyptian history and the formation of the unified state.