Amelia Edwards

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women explorers, played an important role in The British fascination with Egyptian mummies, a century ago, and the girls - visited Much later - their collections are in the national museums, is today one of the emerging archaeologists. Samira Ahmed looks at The Female influence in the mom-world.

It was a "light bulb moment as he teleported himself back in Ancient Egypt ," says remember Danielle Wootton, to see their excitement, That Bolton Museum is The Egyptian mummy for the First Time .

"Suddenly, these people who lived hundreds of years ago, and in a very different Way to how I lived My Life in Bolton were there. It was just amazing to think That this Other World exists, this past - who were these people and what language did you speak?"

In the time, Danielle was a professional archaeologist and expert on Channel 4 's Time Team .

Later, the same thing happened in Macclesfield, 30 miles to The South , when Rebecca went to Get into The City , West Park Museum and saw The Mummy case of a 15-year-old temple girl.

"I was probably about five and remember The Mummy case for the First Time and it was just sheer fascination. "Mom, what is the, what is it?' And my fascination never went away," she says.

they ran back further and further, and at 14 became a museum volunteer, for hours After school. A mentor, honorary curator Alan Hayward, taught them How To read hieroglyphs, and the handling of objects. Now , at 24, she is just finished with a master's degree in archaeology at the University of Oxford.

The Passions aroused by The Mummies , which are inherited in these two Young Women , in a very direct Way by Two Women , built a century lived in their towns earlier, and the collections of museums and have been to the House - Annie Barlow in Bolton and Marianne Brocklehurst in Macclesfield.

In fact, there is an even stronger connection than That between Danielle Wootton and Annie Barlow. Barlow was The Daughter of a wealthy mill-owner, and Danielle's own grandmother and aunt worked in the area of Barlow and Jones family mills.

Annie Barlow, It was The Money earned from The Mill to the spun Egyptian cotton in Lancashire cloth - enabled Barlow to explore Egyptian tombs.

Marianne Brocklehurst , came Now from a silk-manufacturer, of the family. As well as funding their own travel, they paid out of their own pocket for the construction of the West Park Museum, where Rebecca found her inspiration. Their heritage includes not only the items they brought from Egypt , but their detailed diaries and sketches of her travels on the Nile, which are some of the records, the only grave sites before they were Disturbed .

Marianne Brocklehurst ' s diary-But there is a third North-mill heiress, the an important contribution to The British mummy mania - Amelia Oldroyd, whose findings will be catalogued in a leather-bound record books in the archives of the Bagshaw Museum in Batley. She was one of The First to discover a tomb in Abydos , Now in The Museum After the opening, in 1900, for the First Time in 4,000 years.

at one time, to throw the male collectors of textiles aside in your hunt for a great mummy cases and gold objects, Amelia cartonnage brought a rare intact - a mummy wrapping from papyrus with a painted representation of The Dead person's face.

Find out more lists to Samira Ahmed 's documentary film, The Victorian Queens of Ancient Egypt , on Radio 3 on Sunday, may 3. February 18:45

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After a third young female archaeologist in Cairo, Heba Abd El Gawad born, The Female discoverer was a distinctive approach, not only to The Grand tombs, but on the intimate small portable objects. (One reason, perhaps, why they are more likely to be dismissed as Amateurs by the contemporary male archaeologists. )

"in contrast to the displays we see today, where there is so Much focus on gold, royal characters, everything is very glittery, I think you can say of your to collect samples, they were also interested in The Daily lives of Ordinary People ," Heba.

Cartonnage at Takhenmes points to their collections of cartonnage face packaging. "It is this intimacy That in The Mummy -face. You can see The Eyes , he looks back at you. You can see the people there. "

antiquities In The Present day, Danielle and Rebecca focus on small portable and what they reveal about the lived Life - the make-up Container, the jewelry, the small statues. Rebecca ' s favorite object in the display in Macclesfield is a six-inch statuette of a Queen, Queen Ti, who is wearing large, ornate wig and wore a lotus flail.

Rebecca Holt, and behind her, on The Left -hand side, the figure of the Queen Ti "It is one of The First artefacts, the hieroglyphics, I tried to translate, so this is very special to me," she says. "The carving itself is really great. I love Queen Ti -how powerful she was and how Much influence it had. "

For Heba, 26, grew up views of The Pyramids and think about the human labor forced to create them while reading books, bought at the ancient Egyptian world, for her father to keep the Victorian women's self-a complex fascination. They were pioneers of Egyptology, the bringing of the public drawing for the fundraising cultural enrichment to normal people. But they were also colonial looters.

Heba Abd El Gawad (left, with Samira Ahmed ) has examined how The British Victorians collected and distributed find your Egyptian. She co-curated an exhibition in London in 2016, on the ancient Egyptian afterlife, drawing on this Northern Museum. The days of books and lectures by these Victorian women capture the adrenaline rush of discovery. Amelia Edwards , a Victorian pioneer, founded the Egypt Exploration Fund, of the excavations of the famous male Egyptologists, Flinders Petrie . On one occasion, they wrote on the receipt a note on their camp by an artist traveling with them: "Please come immediately - I found the entrance to a tomb. Please bring a couple of Sandwiches . "

rushing to join him, Amelia wrote: "All Sunday afternoon, we worked on our hands and knees, As If for the bare Life , under The Burning sun. More Than once, when we stopped for a moment to breathe the air, we said to each other: 'If they could see us, what would you say!'"

torso of a Princess, purchased by Flinders Petrie with the Egypt Exploration Fund, But the Victorian women were enthusiastic participants in a kind of Wild-West-collection in the Nile valley, is fighting haggle against the deeper pockets of The British Museum, the Louvre Museum and the Penn Museum in Philadelphia, with local merchants and officials. Bribery and theft were routine.

Marianne Brocklehurst 's journal jokes about the smuggling of Antiques from. The reason for this is That mummy case is in Macclesfield, empty, because they discarded The Body , possibly on Board of your ship, in the Nile, worried the smell might betray your theft.

Heba says, "Maybe it is for me doubly sensitive to be Egyptian and how we perceive The Body today. During the Pharaonic period, there were texts, the completely grave convicted robber and who fiddles with mummies or not to outsource, only the jewelry and amulets. This was a great story in Ancient Egypt . "

groove to The Goddess , painted on The Inside of a coffin Heba believes Egyptology museums should be honest about the provenance of their collections. The new ad for Brocklehurst mummy case in the Macclesfield Silk Museum was moved there from the West Park museum - makes no mention of the disposal of The Body , or the fact That it was smuggled. Mummified hands, sitting in a glass case with no labeling.

'I don't want to sound Like I'm pro-return everything. That 's not what I'm After ," says Heba. "But what I'm After is trying to [people think], what makes it acceptable?" It would never be acceptable, you points to show British human remains in this Way .

Marianne Brocklehurst 's diary, Rebecca says That she can see Marianne Brocklehurst as a heroine, while the realization That her diary shows, the unpleasant, even racist, colonial attitudes of the time. Your favorite passages tell the story of how Brocklehurst, The Egyptian chef on your Nile, House boat, dismissed the beating was The Kitchen -maid, and promoted The Maid , his job. "Their priority is the protection of this woman. And it's just, 'You know, we need This Man . She [The Maid ] great. 'She was just fiercely protective of The Women in your Life . "

The Double -tomb of Marianne Brocklehurst and Mary Isabella booth, believed to be her lesbian partner, in the case of Wincle, near Macclesfield, "I think I'm just really, really thankful to Western Park Museum, it was here," says Rebecca Holt. The Museum is currently rarely Open .

Rebecca Holt at West Park Museum

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Source of news: bbc.com