BIA

JUIN 2015
Mardi 23 juin 2015
Beginning in August, visitors of
Tutankhamun’s galleries at the Egyptian
Museum in Tahrîr will not be able to admire
the king’s distinguished gold funerary mask
which will leave its original display for intensive
restoration to repair the improper restoration
carried out recently.
Minister of Antiquities Mamdûh al-Damâtî
told Ahram Online that Tutankhamun’s gold
funerary mask will go for restoration in August
after the completion of the scientific studies
carried out to discover the material used in its
restoration and how to remove them without
causing harm.
“A month ago I assigned a scientific
committee, led by me, to carry out a
comprehensive analytic study on the mask
since its discovery in 1922 in Tutankhamun’s
tomb, as well as the restoration work carried
out on it until now,” al-Damâtî said. al-Damâtî
said that German restorer Christian ECKMANN
assisted him in such studies because he is an
expert in metal restoration.
The committee includes the head of the
German Archaeological Institute, Târiq Tawfîq,
the head of the metal restoration section at
the Egyptian Museum in Tahrîr Square, and a
German CT-scan expert. The ministry has
bought new CT scanning equipment to
complete the study.
After the completion of the study, ECKMANN
will travel to Germany with the results, where
he will create a gypsum replica of the mask
using the proper materials, according to al-
Damâtî. In August, he will then return to Cairo
where an international conference is to be held
to explain to the public and scholars the
method selected to restore the beard through
state-of-the-art technology. Then, the
restoration itself is to start and all the work
will be documented.
In January 2015, it was reported that the
blue and gold beard of the mask was broken
during a cleaning process at the Egyptian
Museum and that conservators hurriedly glued
the beard back on with epoxy resin, damaging
the artefact. The ministry of antiquities held a
press conference where experts asserted that
the mask is safe and that the botched
restoration carried out in August 2014 is
reversible. (Nevine El-Aref, “Restoration of
Tutankhamun’s funerary mask to start in
August”, Ahram Online, June 23, 2015. Voir
également Muhammad ‘Abd al-Mu‘tî, « Retrait
du masque de Toutankhamon pour
restauration », al-Ahrâm, 17 juin).
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Jeudi 25 juin 2015
The Ayyubid walls stretch for 1.5 km in the
Bâb al-Wazîr area, just below al-Azhar Park, on
what was once the rubbish tip of mediaeval
Cairo. The walls were constructed in the 12 th
century by Sultan Salâh al-Dîn al-Ayyûbî
(Saladin) as part of his plans to connect the
Fatimid city of al-Qâhira (Cairo) with the
Citadel and its aqueduct.
These walls, with their gates, towers, interior
chambers and galleries, were one of the most
important archaeological discoveries of the late
1990s, as was the Qubat al-Amîr Tarâbây al-
Sharîf, a dome structure built by the
commander of the Mamluke soldiers during the
reign of sultan Qunsuwwa al-Ghûrî located next
to the walls.
BIA LI — Janvier/Juin 2015 159