Faded Over Millennia, the Intricately Carved Sandstone Walls of This Ancient Egyptian Shrine Will See Color Once Again.
The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford will use digital light projections starting November 13 to show the colors once painted on the Shrine of Taharqa, based on pigment traces found by researchers.
The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England, plans to restore the original colors of an ancient Egyptian shrine using digital projections. The Shrine of Taharqa, built about 2,700 years ago in Kawa, in present-day northern Sudan, has appeared as plain beige sandstone for the modern era. Projections will begin on November 13.
The shrine was assembled from 236 sandstone blocks inside a temple to Amun-Ra and was commissioned by Taharqa, who ruled Egypt and Kush from 690 to 664 B.C.E. Its carvings show him presenting offerings to gods. According to the page, research suggests the scenes were originally plastered and painted in bright colors. By the 1930s, when British archaeologists excavated the shrine, the stone was largely intact but had lost its color.
To recover that lost palette, researchers studied the shrine with infrared and hyperspectral imaging cameras, which can detect trace amounts of pigment that the naked eye cannot see. They found evidence of Egyptian Blue, described as the world's oldest-known synthetic pigment and typically reserved for depictions of royals and deities. They also identified traces of yellows and reds, among other colors. These findings will guide the projected colors.
Liam McNamara, the museum's curator for Ancient Egypt and Sudan, said in a statement that the projection and the research behind it will help visitors understand the shrine's original painted decoration. He said the carvings partly tell the story of the shrine's creation, beginning with a young Taharqa visiting the half-buried ruins of an earlier Amun-Ra temple and vowing to restore the shrine. Taharqa is also shown as an Egyptian pharaoh in the double crown and as a Kushite king with a ram's head and cobras.
Two newly produced films will accompany the display. They cover the shrine's 2,500-mile journey from Sudan to England in the 1930s. According to museum records, the Sudanese government gave the shrine to Oxford to recognize Egyptologist Francis Llewellyn Griffith's contribution to the region's archaeology. His team packed it into 200 wooden crates and moved it by barge, train and ship. James Lupton, chair of the museum's board of visitors, said: "I hope that this use of technology in the Ashmolean will similarly inspire our visitors, especially the young."
At a Glance
- The Shrine of Taharqa was built about 2,700 years ago from 236 sandstone blocks in Kawa, in present-day northern Sudan.
- Projections of the shrine's original colors begin at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford on November 13.
- Infrared and hyperspectral imaging revealed traces of Egyptian Blue, along with yellows and reds, on the sandstone.
- The shrine is the only free-standing pharaonic building in Britain and traveled 2,500 miles in 200 crates in the 1930s.
Sources
This brief was written by Brightside Report from the reporting linked above. Spot an error? Request a correction.