Inside the British Museum: stories of papyri and human remains (Gehad Shawky Ali, Egypt, ITP 2025)
Written by Gehad Shawky Ali, Luxor, Egypt, Archeological Awareness Administration of Luxor, Community Engagement and Outreached Program Coordinator, ITP 2025).
After years of persistent attempts since 2015, I finally succeeded this year in joining the International Training Programme (ITP). Today, as I walk through the galleries and departments of the British Museum, I am living the museum work experiences I have always aspired to.
On August 7, my colleague Shimaa Gomaa (Deputy Director of Technical Affairs at Egypt’s Capitals Museum) and I had the rare opportunity to spend a day between papyri and human remains, accompanied by Dr. Christina Geisen, Curator of Egyptian Written Culture, Adrienn Almasy-Martin, Project Curator for Egypt and Sudan, and Rebecca Whiting, Curator of Bioarcheology.
We began by visiting the papyrus storage room, which houses around five thousand papyri preserved in vertical or horizontal frames depending on their fragility. The most delicate pieces are kept in locked cabinets.
The collection contains rare examples covering medicine, magic, mathematics, and the Book of the Dead. Highlights include a double document from the Ptolemaic period, Coptic papyri in book form, hieratic literary text, and the famous Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, which contains around eighty problems, including pyramid slope calculations. There are also medical papyri blending practical prescriptions with spiritual remedies to expel spirits believed to cause illness.
During the session, we discussed conservation challenges such as the deterioration of frames over time, humidity, and the need to use Japanese paper for mounting. We also talked about historical stories that brought the collection to life, starting from 19th-century forgeries where genuine fragments were wrapped around wood to increase their value, to scribes running out of ink while writing texts, and finally to the graffiti in ancient Thebes that celebrated rare rainfall.
In the afternoon, we attended a session on managing human remains within the Sudan and Nubia Department, led by Rebecca Whiting, Curator of Bioarchaeology. We learned about the updated 2023 policy, which defines human remains as bones; tissues made from bodily fluids, and emphasizes respect for diverse beliefs and cultures. Ethical display requires providing historical context, respecting communities and relatives, and ensuring proper environmental care.
Aaron, another curator, demonstrated the process of examining and registering bones, noting details such as age, sex, preservation, and pathological changes. With 1,500 samples to register in three years, simplified forms help speed up documentation, enabling researchers to understand the collection and select suitable samples for projects. We also visited the human remains storage, where we saw a coffin containing the “Book of Two Ways,” considered one of the most beautiful artifacts in the world.
By the end of a day rich with knowledge and experience, I gained a deeper appreciation for the complexity and diversity of museum work, which goes beyond preserving artifacts to understanding their historical and ethical contexts and engaging with contemporary communities. Meeting Prof. Salima Ikram, a distinguished expert in sociology, Egyptology, and anthropology, was a fitting conclusion to this inspiring journey.
