Category: CCEPS

The boxes for the cassettes and the index cards came in this week, so we got to work moving them in. These are mostly recordings of the regular public lectures hosted by the IAC over the years. A few of the tapes are from the Nag Hammadi expedition and seem to be of interviews with the people who discovered the codices.

Miraculously only one of these had an empty spider egg sac in it. It was a considerate spider though, it chose one of the blank tapes.

Still working through these too:

They’re fun to look at; it’s interesting to see all the different information that the archaeologists needed to conduct the their digs successfully. What the ground consisted of seems to be particularly important, which makes sense. They charted the types of stone and ancient building work and where they were in the site:

Wouldn’t want to lose anything! That’s why you went there in the first place. Next step is getting all the information put into Archivist’s toolkit – series one and a chunk of series two are in there now but the cassettes are going to have to be described on the item level. Until next week!

– Sara

Well it’s suddenly the week of spring break, hard to believe the semester is already half over! The end is in sight and the proof is in those tidy boxes. This week I finished up the photos / slides and also started digging deeper into the maps. These are the most substantial thing remaining to be done, but luckily the mapmakers had an order system. Can’t take chances I suppose when you’re trying to keep track of a dig, seems like it’d be pretty important to know where things are. Unfortunately, some of these are so massive that we’re going to have to keep them rolled up. It’s always best to avoid leaving them that way but any folder big enough for these could also double as a queen-sized bed cover. Some of the maps look like they’ve been through the mill a bit, like the dirt-covered field notes, and must have seen a lot of use. It would be interesting to find out just how each kind was used in the course of the dig. We’re still working on entering all the folder names into archivists toolkit as well, and getting some research done for the front material of the eventual finding aid. It’s definitely shaping up!

Until next week –

Sara

The first series is complete! Everything has been sorted, refoldered, and put into new boxes so now we can work on getting them entered into the database. We’ve just got the rough edges of series two to smooth out – slides, a few photos, last week’s maps and the audio tapes. While we were sorting through Series 1’s photos I wrote about some interesting coins held by the IAC – now I’ve got some photos to share. Here are a few of my favorites from the collection:

There is no size reference for the coins, and they are in black and white, but the amount of detail on these animals and people is impressive. I want to look into how these were created, and what materials they’re made of. I’m not even completely sure these are monetary coins.

This fellow doesn’t look like he wants to be on a coin, and has lost his eyes.

 Lion surrounded by/excited about eating conches(lilies?)

It’s great to see the collection coming together! Soon enough the finding aid will be done too. There’s still work to be done but it’s moving along really well. Until next week!

– Sara

I have just realized that we have just about hit the half way point in my time as a CCEPS Fellow. While we have have finished a great deal of the IAC Collection there remains a great amount of details that need to be addressed before the collection is ready to be used by researchers. I am currently in the midst of placing everything in the proper order and preparing to write up a good finding aid for the collection. Now that I have raced you through the technical side of archiving, I can bring you to the interesting bits and pieces of history.

These small pieces of history that I have shown you are all found within the plain white boxes that adorn my work station. Last week I gave the story of Muhammad Ali, discoverer of the Codices, and that the story was incomplete. After a bit of research I was able to uncover more of his story and the reasons for which his mother burned one of the books. It seems after they were found, Ali and his brother had just placed them on some hay next to the over. Ali’s mother simply used the book as kindling for fire since the family was completely unaware of the significance of their find. While the story of Ali and his family is compelling, I would like to move on to other characters in this world.

In several pictures that I came across, I found prominent individuals visiting the small town of Nag Hammadi. These dignitaries and scholars alike came to the Coptic Museum after it was brought into the Egyptian National Museum system of support and protection. Of the most recognizable names was Boutros Boutros-Gahli, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs for Egypt and former Secretary General of the UN, who is also a Coptic Orthodox Christian. Unfortunately, the picture of him is only a poor photo copy as the original is in a different collection. Not to disappoint my readers, I have included a couple other pictures that garner the same interest at previous ones I have attached.

Here is a picture of the Queen of Denmark making a visit in 1962 to the Coptic Museum in Nag Hammadi.

Why Danish royalty would visit a Coptic Museum is beyond my knowledge! But I will probably do some proper research should time allow.

Next, is a picture of the Minister of the Imperial Court of Egypt. The name on the back of the photo is illegible and several attempts at Google resulted in nothing. However, that should not stop one from imaging what is being said at the moment.

I could easily pepper in more pictures, but that would just be irresponsible as I have yet to discovering the interesting stories behind them. One of those is a picture of a banner honoring then President of France, Giscard, and Anwar El-Sadat of Egypt. Once I know what is going on, I will surely pass that knowledge down to you! Just remember, big historical events are only the tip of the iceberg and the remaining pieces could be found in plain white boxes.

Next up is a box of maps and drawings from the archeological expeditions to Nag Hammadi. Inside we found maps of the general area, hand-drawn guides to the dig site, and (in a separate tube) a satellite image of the area. I’ve never been on an archeological dig but from what I’ve seen mapping has got to be a key component.

We’ve put materials relating to the dig into their own series, which contains these maps, field notes, photographs, audio tapes, and correspondence. The expeditions are divided into seasons that span from 1976 until 1980, when it seems their funding ended.

It’s difficult to tell just from the labels, but I suspect the tapes are interviews from the dig. Some are labeled Mohammed Ali, and I’m curious if this is the same Mohammed that originally discovered the codices. Jason has mentioned this story in his posts, it could be that the tapes contain Ali’s complete account. Maybe we’ll come across some information on these tapes as we continue processing this week! Until next time – 

– Sara

It’s so nice to see everything all neat and ordered like this, isn’t it? Too bad that was the easy part, this collection has a lot of oversized maps and a multitude of photos, slides, negatives, index cards, and audio tapes. I’m not complaining though, the IAC was host to amazing artifacts and projects, and not just from the Nag Hammadi dig:

Most of last week was spent going through the photos – since we’re going to have to sleeve them we need to break the folders apart into small chunks. Fortunately the IAC photos are pretty organized already and it hasn’t been hard to group them up. Besides documenting the museum’s holdings, the IAC photos cover special events, guest visits, and the staff through the years. The expedition to Nag Hammadi is of course a large part of the collection, but the IAC was host to many interesting people and artifacts.

This week I’ll be finishing up a new crate of photos, getting all the newspaper clippings quarantined, and getting to work on the maps and blueprints. Stay tuned for Series 2, the records from the archeological expeditions to Nag Hammadi.

Sara

Hello Again!

Well, another week has passed and I am still in disbelief of how quickly the days go by. This week is starting off with rain trickling down the windows of the library but I am looking through the window of history today! (Please excuse the cheesy cliché)

As promised, I have a couple of interesting snapshots of the hundreds of pictures I have been combing through. Most recently I have been reorganizing the series on the Nag Hammadi dig and the surrounding work involved in such a monumentally historic project. This had included everything from field logs of the dig sites, pictures of the surrounding towns and landscape, and a plethora of amazing records documenting the whole process.

Going through this series in the IAC Nag Hammadi Collection has afforded me the opportunity to see a different time and place through the eyes of both the locals and scholars involved with the excavation and scholarly analysis.

One of the amazing photos included in the series are of the discoverer of the codices, Muhammad Ali and his mother. Ali standing next to his mother (dressed in black). 

The mother of Ali had actually burned one of the codex books upon their initial discovery. Unfortunately, there was no other information on the reasons for his mother burning one of the books but one can just imagine what was going through the minds of the IAC scholars upon hearing this story!

And as I mentioned in one of my previous posts I am including just one picture of Henry Kissinger from his tour of the Nag Hammadi Codices. He is intently studying pages of ancient texts while members of the project explain what is written and the significance to ancient Christianity.

There are pieces of history hidden all around us and it is up to us, historians and others alike, to document that history so others have the opportunity to look through the window of the past.