Overview

One of the largest collections of Egyptian and Sudanese antiquities worldwide was accrued by the Egyptologist Friedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von Bissing (1873–1956). As a scholar, university professor, and politically engaged Prussian nobleman he was an important link in the international network of Egyptology and in the distribution of archaeological objects to museums. He was also active in other disciplines regarding the ancient world, such as Etruscology. Already during his life, the collection was dispersed over different museums. Scholars are now trying to reconstruct it and better understand von Bissing’s role in early-twentieth-century Egyptology and related fields. This volume includes a short biography of von Bissing. The main part consists of papers that investigate his role in Egyptology and archaeology, some aspects of his personal and political life, and the way archaeological objects were transferred to museum collections by his agency or donation. The papers not only illustrate von Bissing’s position, but also contribute to the reconstruction of his collection. They constitute a useful tool for scholars working on museum collections, the history of Egyptology, and related fields of study.

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Lars Petersen studied Classical Archaeology, Egyptology, and Near Eastern Studies at the universities of Tübingen, Paris, and Freiburg. He works as a curator and head of the Exhibitions Department for the Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe. Petersen curated several exhibitions on archaeology, such as Ramesses the Great and lately Art Nouveau. He also teaches museology at the university of Freiburg. Ben van den Bercken (MA) studied Egyptian Archaeology at Leiden University and Museum Studies at the University of Amsterdam. He worked at excavations in Alexandria and as an assistant-curator in the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden (RMO). Since 2021 he is curator for the Ancient Egypt and Sudan collection at the Allard Pierson – the collections of the University of Amsterdam.

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