Archaeologist, Egyptologist and Secretary General of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities Dr Mostafa Waziry will give a lecture entitled ‘The Latest Discoveries and Findings from Ancient Egypt’ at the Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney on Friday 17 November.
Dr Melanie Pitkin, Senior Curator at the Chau Chak Wing Museum, said that his lecture focuses on Egyptian contributions to international Egyptology and current fieldwork projects in Egypt.
“His lecture aligns strongly with the Chau Chak Wing Museum’s ongoing engagement with Egyptian communities, particularly in the Australian diaspora, to re-think the stories we tell about our Egyptian collections, and to show that Egypt has multiple histories,” she told The Egyptian Gazette.
Since taking his current post in 2017, Dr Waziry has worked on many archaeological sites across the country, including Giza, Saqqara, Minya and Luxor.
The results of his excavations were headlined in foreign media as important discoveries made by Egyptians. These finds are now on display in many museums across the country, including Sharm el-Sheikh Museum, Cairo Museum, Hurghada Museum, the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation and the Grand Egyptian Museum near Giza Plateau.
The Chau Chak Wing Museum is located in the heart of the University of Sydney. It was designed to share the university’s collections with the broader community.
The collections began with the Nicholson Collection of antiquities in 1860 and continued to include the Macleay Collections of natural history, ethnography, science and historic photography, and the University Art Collection.
It is regarded as a centre of cultural and artistic excellence from ancient Rome, Greece and Egypt, to the art of First Nations people, and the works of leading contemporary artists.
Dr Pitkin said that there will be upwards of 500 people attending the lecture. They include the general public, local Egyptian communities, archaeologists, students and Egyptophiles.
“We will also be joined by special guests from government, religious organisations, private companies and business,” she added.
Dr Waziry will be in Sydney for a short time as part of the official delegation to open the ‘Ramses and the Gold of the Pharaohs’ exhibition.
The exhibition will be held at the Australian Museum for six months. It is the largest cultural exhibition to visit Australia in over a decade.
It provides an interactive museum experience featuring 182 priceless artefacts and ornate golden treasures, including Ramses II coffin, one-of-a-kind relics such as sarcophagi, animal mummies, magnificent jewellery, spectacular royal masks, exquisite amulets – many of which have never left Egypt before.
The exhibition is presented in partnership with World Heritage Exhibitions, Neon and the Houston Museum of Natural Science, with support by Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, and also funding from the NSW Government’s Create NSW Blockbusters Funding initiative.
Dr Pitkin said that the recent findings in Saqqara and Minya by Dr Waziry and his team are extraordinary.
“I’m very excited that some of these have made their way to Sydney as part of the Ramses exhibition,” she added.
In July, Dr Waziry was in Sydney to inspect the exhibition halls, to check their readiness and the extent to which security and precautionary measures are applied in them to ensure the safety of the artefacts.
He gave interviews for several Australian media outlets. He said that these interviews were a great promotion for the exhibition before its opening.
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