Museo Egizio (Turin)
The world's oldest museum devoted to ancient Egypt, which holds the fragile Turin King List papyrus.
- Location
- Turin
- Modern country
- Italy
- Founded
- 1824
- Core collection
- Bernardino Drovetti's antiquities
- Key object (here)
- Turin King List papyrus (Cat. 1874), reign of Ramesses II
What is Museo Egizio known for?
The Museo Egizio in Turin, Italy, founded in 1824, is the oldest museum in the world dedicated entirely to ancient Egypt and one of the largest collections outside Cairo. It began when the King of Sardinia bought the collection of Bernardino Drovetti, a French consul in Egypt.
Among its treasures is the Turin King List, or Turin Royal Canon, a papyrus written in hieratic script in the reign of Ramesses II, around 1250 BCE, on the back of an old tax register. It lists Egypt's rulers and their reign lengths, beginning with gods and demigods before the human kings.
Drovetti acquired the papyrus at Thebes around 1820, but by the time it reached Turin it had broken into more than 160 fragments. Scholars from Champollion onward have worked to reassemble it, and much is still missing.
The Museo Egizio keeps the Turin King List, with its ages of gods before Egypt's human kings.
Mentioned on these pages
- Rabbit holeTurin King List
- PersonBernardino Drovetti
Sources
- Museo Egizio, Collection online, 'The so-called Turin King List' (Cat. 1874)Primary text
- Wikipedia, 'Museo Egizio'Reference
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