An Egyptian Scholar at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology

Closing Comment We would like to thank the respondents to our paper for their contributions to the unfolding debate over Brexit and its relationship to archaeology and heritage. These essays reflect in diverse ways the complex intersection of the scholarly, the political and the personal that has perhaps always been with us, and increasingly commented upon, but which Brexit has brought to a moment of crisis from which we can only hope a positive outcome is still salvageable. Since writing the initial paper for this Forum in July of 2017, events have moved forward in several ways, although ironically in terms of the actual process of exiting the EU remarkably little has happened. More and more evidence is certainly emerging of the social and economic problems that this process, should it reach conclusion, will cause, whether in UK generally, in the rest of Europe (particularly in Ireland; e.g. House of Lords 2016; The UK in a Changing Europe 2017), or in our particular sector (Schlanger 2017). More disturbingly, perhaps, the tone of debate represented in some media outlets has darkened even further and universities in particular have come under attack as bastions of ‘remainerism’. Just prior to writing this piece, the Conservative politician Chris Heaton-Harris MP was in the news for seeking information about the teaching of Brexit-related issues in all UK universities (BBC 2017a). Whatever the motivation behind this, the front cover of the Daily Mail on October 26th (headline, ‘Our Remainer Universities’) followed up on this story, and made it clear that for some on the pro-Leave right-wing, universities are now a major target for political attack. This can be seen as part of a wider trend, pre-dating the referendum and becoming widespread across the western world (and certainly in the US), of right-wing populists painting universities – and, by extension, academic and scientific knowledge – as simultaneously liberal/left-biased and elitist (cf. Runciman 2016). Meanwhile, these same populist movements appear to be, literally, on the march, from Charlottesville in August (BBC UCL Institute of Archaeology, GB Corresponding author: Andrew Gardner (andrew.gardner@ucl.ac.uk) FORUM


Background
In 2010, after I arrived in London to complete my PhD studies at the Institute of Archaeology UCL, my attention was drawn to a great man, the first professor of Egyptology in the United Kingdom (Drower 1985: 200-201;Drower 2004: 88), W. F. Petrie .The friends and employees of the Petrie Museum and staff at the Institute of Archaeology praise Petrie for his magnificent work and excavations in Egypt and Palestine.Through the Friends of the Petrie Museum (PMF) of Egyptian Archaeology, workshops, talks and festivals of art and pottery are held to commemorate the work of Petrie.Attendance is not restricted to British students and the doors of the Museum are open to all nationalities, encouraging public engagement.

Initial Impression and Visit to the Museum
The Petrie Museum keeps over 80,000 Egyptian objects and is the only museum in the United Kingdom which is called 'Museum of Egyptian Archaeology'.I was lucky enough to visit the Museum from time to time as my PhD supervisor was Professor Stephen Quirke, then curator of the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology (1999Archaeology ( -2013)).All of our meetings were held at the Museum and I used to look around the Museum before or after these meetings.Whilst I was exploring the Museum soon after my arrival, I found an object on display, UC16639 (Figure 1), which was not published.There was no available documentation for the date of acquisition, excavator or provenance of the object.This attracted my attention and it bears the name 'Werethekau', which inspired my PhD thesis entitled 'Werethekau 'Great of Magic' in the religious landscape of ancient Egypt' (Ouda 2014).

Closing Comment
We would like to than to our paper for their co unfolding debate over B tionship to archaeology a essays reflect in diverse intersection of the schola the personal that has pe with us, and increasingly but which Brexit has brou crisis from which we can o outcome is still salvageab initial paper for this Foru events have moved forw although ironically in term cess of exiting the EU re happened.More and mo tainly emerging of the so problems that this proce conclusion, will cause, w erally, in the rest of Eur Ireland; e.g.House of Lord Organization of Various Events at the Museum I attended many talks and events from 2010-2014, which were organized by the Museum and the Friends of Petrie Museum, but I focus here on the events and talks which I did organize or teach.

Teaching
At the festival of art in May 2013 at the Petrie Museum, teaching children and adults how to write their names in Hieroglyphs (Figure 2).It was great to take part in this event as an Egyptian, teaching the language of his ancestors to foreigners from the United Kingdom, the States, Netherlands, Canada, Singapore, and Spain!While I was teaching in the study room, another Egyptian friend, Gamal Ibrahim, was teaching in another room on how to manufacture papyrus.Every child or adult, who wrote his/her name in hieroglyphs or manufactured papyrus, took something home with them as a memento of their day.This open event proved to be a wonderful occasion for all.

Closing Comment
We would like to than to our paper for their co unfolding debate over B tionship to archaeology a essays reflect in diverse intersection of the schola the personal that has pe with us, and increasingly but which Brexit has brou crisis from which we can o outcome is still salvageab initial paper for this Foru events have moved forw although ironically in term cess of exiting the EU re happened.More and mo tainly emerging of the so problems that this proce conclusion, will cause, w erally, in the rest of Eur Ireland; e.g.House of Lord

Sharing the Museum and meeting new people
The door of the Museum was open to me again when I led a group of Arab PhD students (Emad Ghandourah, Essam Banoqitah, Mansour Almurayshid, Khalild Aloufi) through the Petrie Museum from the Engineering Department at UCL.It was also an honour to lead the delegates of the Current Research in Egyptology XV 2014 in a tour to the Museum with my colleague, Lucia Gahlin, Chair of the Friends of the Petrie Museum.In July 2012, Stephen Quirke invited me to meet some Egyptian scholars taking part in the International Training Programme (ITP) at the British Museum.They visited the Petrie Museum (The British Museum 2012: 17), and we discussed the way the objects were displayed, the documentation system, and the use of audio-visual technology at the Museum.Among the group were Nevine Nizar Zakaria (GEM), Marwa Badr el Din (Egyptian Museum Cairo), Abdel Rehim Hanafy Mousa (Museum of Islamic Art) (The British Museum 2012: 20) and Mohamed Naguib (inspector and ceramicist at Abydos).I remember M. Naguib did not like the fact that 'many pottery jars were inserted in a small display case and they do not have enough space to be shown'.

The Egyptian revolution
The Petrie Museum was the perfect place to celebrate the first anniversary of the Egyptian revolution dated 25 th of January 2011.I participated in organizing this celebration together with curator Stephen Quirke and Debbie Challis, the audience development officer.We showed two short videos on the Egyptian revolution, and a famous song, ya el-Midan 'O (Tahrir) Square'.I made a comment on one of these videos (Figure 3) which was well received (Stevenson and Challis 2015: 23) and the event overall was a great success.Stephen Quirke and I hosted Soraya Morayef, an Egyptian writer and journalist, delivering a presentation on 'History Rewritten: Ancient Egyptian Art revived through post-revolutionary graffiti in Cairo' in May 2013 (Stevenson and Challis 2015: 23).The talk focused on introducing images of street art in Egypt after the revolution.The idea of continuity was indicated, linking modern Egypt to ancient Egypt as the images from ancient Egypt inspired modern street artists.

Closing Comment
We would like to than to our paper for their co unfolding debate over B tionship to archaeology a essays reflect in diverse intersection of the schola the personal that has pe with us, and increasingly but which Brexit has brou crisis from which we can o outcome is still salvageab initial paper for this Foru events have moved forw although ironically in term cess of exiting the EU re happened.More and mo tainly emerging of the so problems that this proce conclusion, will cause, w erally, in the rest of Eur Ireland; e.g.House of Lord

The Museum and Continuous Research Inspiration
When I got back from London to Egypt, I thought about the Egyptians who wrote on ancient Egypt, whether they are Egyptologists or non-Egyptologists, inspiring the acclaim of Petrie by the surrounding community in London.My first talk on "Ancient Egypt in the Writings of Ahmed Lutfi el-Sayed", which I delivered to EES Cairo in October 2014, was a result of this inspiration.I also delivered this talk to the delegates of Current Research in Egyptology XVI at Oxford University in 2015 (Alvarez et al. 2016: viii), the Free University Berlin in April 2017 and Humboldt University in May 2017.I received an invitation from my colleague Lucia Gahlin, Chair of the Friends of the Petrie Museum, to deliver a talk to the friends of Petrie who were touring Egypt in October 2016.I delivered this talk for them at Meridien Pyramids (Figure 4).
My relationship with the Petrie Museum continues.I have reported many varied objects, including the shabtis of the vizier Paser (Ouda 2016), the shabtis of the god's father Panebmontu (Ouda 2017(Ouda : 2019)), inscribed mud brick of the royal cup-bearer Tja-wy,

Closing Comment
We would like to than to our paper for their co unfolding debate over B tionship to archaeology a essays reflect in diverse intersection of the schola the personal that has pe with us, and increasingly but which Brexit has brou crisis from which we can o outcome is still salvageab initial paper for this Foru events have moved forw although ironically in term cess of exiting the EU re happened.More and mo tainly emerging of the so problems that this proce conclusion, will cause, w erally, in the rest of Eur Ireland; e.g.House of Lord

Closing Comment
We would like to than to our paper for their co unfolding debate over B tionship to archaeology a essays reflect in diverse intersection of the schola the personal that has pe with us, and increasingly but which Brexit has brou crisis from which we can o outcome is still salvageab initial paper for this Foru events have moved forw although ironically in term cess of exiting the EU re happened.More and mo tainly emerging of the so problems that this proce conclusion, will cause, w erally, in the rest of Eur Ireland; e.g.House of Lord

Figure 1 :
Figure 1: A block of stone with the name of Werethekau.

Figure 2 :
Figure 2: Ahmed M. Mekawy Ouda takes part in teaching on the occasion of 'the festival of art' at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology.

Figure 3 :
Figure 3: The celebration with the anniversary of the Egyptian revolution in 2012 at the Petrie Museum.

Figure 4 :
Figure 4: Ahmed M. Mekawy Ouda with friends of Petrie Museum at Meridian Cairo.