Castello del Buonconsiglio monumenti e collezioni provinciali

Unseen Egypt

Previously unseen collections from the Egyptian Museum of Turin and Castello del Buonconsiglio of Trento

Location: Trento, Castello del Buonconsiglio

29 May - 07 November 2009

Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday 10 am - 6 pm. Closed Mondays

More than 100 years after first being discovered, for the first time ever two fascinating collections from ancient Egypt are to go on display to the general public.
The important Egyptian collection of Castello del Buonconsiglio of Trento, which has long been in storage, will be shown together with extraordinary artefacts discovered during excavations by Ernesto Schiaparelli between 1905 and 1920 in the necropolises of Gebelein and Asyut, the mythical city where, according to Coptic tradition, the Holy Family took refuge on its flight from Egypt.
The exhibition will include over 500 remarkable finds that have never before been shown, which will be displayed in evocative reconstructions, revealing secrets of the daily life and the Afterlife of Ancient Egypt. Visitors can relive the excitement of these historic discoveries as they retrace the steps of the explorers who unearthed the remains of buried cities in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, carried away by their mysterious charms.
This extraordinary selection of treasures will be leaving the Egyptian Museum of Turin for the first time and will include painted sarcophagi in stuccoed wood together with funereal artefacts made up of day-to-day objects, earthenware, clothing and wooden figurines which have survived to this day in excellent condition. The exhibition will also feature a number of mummies from the First Intermediate Period and Middle Kingdom, and buried remains in a tree trunk and in a basket. The exhibition will be of great scientific importance because for the first time it will enable a complete study of these materials which were brought to light by the Italian Archaeological Mission.
These magnificent remains from the past will be displayed alongside the Egyptian collection of Buonconsiglio Castle, donated in the mid-nineteenth century by Taddeo Tonelli of Trento, an official of the Austro-Hungarian Empire who was gripped by the ‘Egyptmania’ which saw scholars and adventurers throughout Europe compete to secure precious relics to be shown off in the salons of the nobility. The collection includes steles, funeral masks, ornaments, remains of human and animal mummies, numerous ushabti figurines (miniature funerary figures that were intended to act as substitutes for the deceased in activities during the Afterlife) and hundreds of amulets. Among the more curious objects is a mummified cat from the Late Period, a sacred animal which symbolised the beneficial heat of the sun, a number of wooden statuettes of the divinity Nekhbet depicted as a vulture, the divinity Uaget in the form of a snake and Osiris, the god of the Afterlife.
The exhibition will include a recreation of an archaeologist’s tent and study, a reconstruction of a rock tomb, a pit containing a sarcophagus and all the small figurines that accompanied the deceased: boats with full crew, those bearing offerings, scenes depicting agricultural works, offerings of food and earthenware. Through expertly chosen exhibits visitors will be helped to read hieroglyphics which will reveal the rise of the cult of Osiris and the resulting “democratisation” of ideas of access to eternal life, typical of this phase of Egyptian culture.

Admission price

Full price: 7.00 Euro
Reduced price: 4.00 Euro. Students up to age 26; student ID required; Groups of at least 15 people; Members of organizations with special agreement with the Museum
Free entry: Teachers accompanying students or accredited with Museum; Tourist guides and interpreters in service; Disabled persons and accompanying persons; Law enforcement personnel (ID necessary); Journalists accredited with Museum; Cultural heritage and activities professionals accredited with Museum (ID required) and other authorized persons; Under-18s; Over-65s.