The majority of Egyptian artefacts were acquired from excavations carried out in Egypt between the 1890s and the 1920s and range in date from the Stone Age to the Middle Ages.

During the late nineteenth century the Museum received a share in several major divisions of finds from the excavations of the Egypt Exploration Fund, London, including sites such as Hieraconpolis, Deir el-Bahri, Ehnasya, Oxyrhynchus, Tarkhan and Riqqa. The exhibition includes finds collected by Irish travellers such as Lady Harriet Kavanagh.

On display

Among the most important objects exhibited are the gilt and painted cartonnage case of the mummy Tentdinebu dated to the 22nd Dynasty c. 945 - 716 BC; the mummy portraits of a woman and a young boy from Hawara dated to the first/second Century AD; and a model of a wooden boat dated to the early 12th Dynasty c. 1900 BC. There is also a number of important stelae, tomb furniture, offering tables, jewellery and household equipment.

The National Museum’s Egyptian collection comprises about three thousand objects, the majority acquired from excavations carried out in Egypt between the 1890s and the 1920s and ranging in date from the Stone Age to the Middle Ages.

The finest and most important of them are exhibited to provide a window on ancient Egypt within Ireland.