Monday 11 July 2011

Hatshepsut Project Museum Database- Update

I have now created the database which will list (eventually) all items i am able to locate. So far the following museums have been added:

British Museum
Petrie Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Ashmolean
Royal Ontario
Alexandria National Museum

This is despite the list i posted originally.

Approximately 250 items are now stored with thousands to follow. The artifacts listed have given me a number of issues which i didn't expect- issues which have to be resolved in order to even think about adding further artifacts.

1. Attachment to Hatsheput. Some of the items on the databases of the above museums are attached to Hatshepsut for a variation of reasons. These include Hatshepsut being depicted, mentioned, dedicated to or for Hatshepsut and items belonging to those in hatshepsut's family and her court.

Other items are stylistically from the period of the New Kingdom when Hatshepsut reigned either as Pharaoh or as Regent. These items do not mention Hatshepsut by name, by title or by any other means. Some of these items appeared on the Hatshepsut from Queen to Pharaoh exhibition and do provide general datable clues to the time of Hatshepsut.

I have decided NOT to include any items which cannot be classed as either belonging to, commissioned by, mentioning, dedicated to or for Hatshepsut. Many, many artifacts have been recovered in and around the Temple of Hatshepsut (for example) which are from later periods. These will NOT be included on the database. There may be exceptions to the rule, but for now a blanket rule is applied.

Items found which include Senenmut, Djehuty and all the various people who make up the background will be included if the artifact in question either mentions Hatshepsut in some way or can be linked to Hatshepsut's reign clearly. Neferure, Neferubity, Wadjmose, etc will be included as they are linked without doubt to Hatshepsut. Thutmose I, II and III will be included if the item/ artifacts link to Hatshepsut.

(I'm not sure if that is particularly clear, but i simply wish to weed out those items which will not help me or others when looking at Hatshepsut's footprints).

2. Fakes/ Forgeries. For now i will include these (labelled clearly). There are very few and i will make a final decision based on the final numbers.

3. Many collections do not appear online. These will require seperate research and enquiries, which i will do- just not right now.

4. Photos. Large numbers of photos are not available. Again this is a headache which i will tackle once i am putting the finishing touches to the database. I would like to add AT LEAST one photo of each, but i may have to get creative.

5. Descriptions. Whilst spending a great deal of time copying and pasting descriptions, i realised the best thing to do here is simply add Hyperlinks. This will be an issue for items which are not displayed by museums and photograph collections online.

These are a taster of what i am currently looking at. I will give myself the next 2 days off with the family (and work of course), as the British Museum and Petrie collections took most of the weekend.

Regards,
Stuart

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