Griffith Institute

If you’re interested in learning more, you can read the journals and diaries of Howard Carter and Arthur Mace on our website (www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/discov.../jo...).

The first look into the sarcophagus and cleaning of the outer coffin had already happened during the 3rd season, in early February 1925. At this stage, details such as the floral wreath placed across the forehead of the coffin lid were captured through the photography of Harry Burton.

Carter also recorded the linen sheets covering the coffin, which sadly were too fragile to survive but details were captured in his ‘object cards’, written for each item uncovered in the tomb.

On 13th October 1925, with an early start of 7am, Carter describes in his journal the inspection of the coffin and various technical considerations needed, considering the coffin size and the narrow dimensions of the Burial Chamber.

On this day 100 years ago, the team excavating the tomb of Tutankhamun removed the lid of the king’s outermost coffin.

Bechard

Hoskins

Horeau

Thinking of warmer climates with these shots of the Memphite statue of Ramesses II across various different collections! (Hoskins MSS 1.110, Horeau 4.2 and Béchard photograph 134).
صور من الأرشيف لتمثال رمسيس الثاني في ممفيس (ميت رهينه). Hoskins MSS 1.110, Horeau MSS 4.2 و Béchard photograph 134

جوارب أطفال من العصر المتأخر في مصر. حفائر جمعية استكشاف مصر بالشيخ عبادة (انطينوبوليس) علم ١٩١٣-١٩١٤.
من مجموعة John de Monins Johnson
Tiny late antique children’s socks discovered during the Egypt Exploration Fund’s 1913-14 excavations at Antinoupolis. From the John de Monins Johnson Collection

نتأمل جمال لوحة Wild I.C.12، هذه اللوحة الجميلة التي رسمها جيمس ويلد للسقف والأفريز داخل مقبرة كا و زوجته مريت TT 8.
We’ve just been admiring Wild MSS i.C.12, James Wild’s gorgeous painting of the ceiling and frieze of the tomb of the foreman Kha & his wife Merit (TT8, Deir el-Medina).

Another great image from the archive -
المدخل إلى بهو الأعمدة في معبد دير الحجر، واحة الداخلة، حوالي عام ١٨٧٣

The entrance to the hypostyle of the Temple of Deir el Hagar, Dakhla Oasis. c1873. Remelé MSS Da 01.

Recently we've been admiring early images of Egypt from the Simpson collection, including this beautiful fountain of the mosque of Mohammad Ali in Cairo. Photo taken in 1888 (Griffith Institute, Simpson Photograph Collection).
نافورة جامع محمد من مجموعة الفوتوغرافية علي - القاهرة في عام ١٨٨٨.​

How to View Stereoscopic 3-D Images: Free-Viewing and Using Stereoscopes There are different ways to view images in a stereopair and they all rely on each image being viewed separately by the corresponding eye so your brain can fuse the two 2-D images into one 3-D image…

For advice on free viewing parallel-view stereoscopic images on a digital screen, there's a tutorial here:
stereoscopy.blog/2019/08/04/h...

With Michael Gabriel's permission, our Digital Imaging Officer Jenni scanned his original colour negative and produced this parallel stereo pair from two of the four Nimslo frames.

The Nimslo is a 'stereo 3D quadrascopic' camera that produced pictures which could be seen in 3D without a stereoscope. It used 35mm film and shot four images simultaneously which were then overlaid using lenticular printing.

This year we offer this quintessential Oxford moment: author Colin Dexter during the shooting of the 1993 Inspector Morse episode "Twilight of the Gods", beautifully captured in 3D by Michael Gabriel using his Nimslo camera. (In the foreground is an unknown supporting artiste in costume.)

To mark the day in 1838 that Charles Wheatstone presented his stereoscope to the Royal Society, the Griffith Institute joins the Brian May Archive of Stereoscopy in celebrating the fourth International Stereoscopy Day.

We are lucky to have Sara Aly joining us & working hard researching the Clère collection (archive.griffith.ox.ac.uk/index.php/cl...). Success stories from her work include locating statues & other unidentified objects discussed in Clère's notes which are now part of international museum collections!

Together with Agile Collective (agile.coop), we will completely revamp the Tutankhamun online resources, making these materials more easily accessible than ever before. More exciting updates to come soon!

We are delighted to share the exciting news that Lara Bampfield has joined our team as the Research Assistant for our new Tutankhamun project which aims to produce the first spatial archive in Egyptology!

Happy 151st Birthday to Howard Carter, born on this day in 1874! To mark the occasion this year, we are sharing Carter's watercolour of a 'Theban landscape with figures and tent', which is said to have hung above his desk in his house, 'Carter Castle II', at Thebes.

Some recent excitement in the archive - Nick from the Bodleian joined us to take new images of some of our fantastic Carter drawings and watercolours!
Thank you to Nick for his work, and we can't wait to see the results!

Part-time vacancy at the Griffith Institute working on the Tutankhamun archive! The part-time post will assist in the creation of the Tutankhamun Spatial Archive. The closing date for applications is 12 noon on 11 March 2025.
You can find more details about the post here: shorturl.at/NhRLH

The 3rd lecture focuses on colours, and was presented on the 17th October 1934 at the V&A Museum, London.
Stay tuned for more!

This new accession contributes to our understanding of the public perception and narratives surrounding the discovery and excavation of the tomb of Tutankhamun, as was shaped by the excavator himself through his public lectures.

Two of these lectures describe the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun, re-creating the key moments. The notes correlate with his lantern slides in our archive, and we already have very exciting plans for these!

Thanks to a generous donation from the Friends of the Nations' Libraries (www.fnl.org.uk), we are so pleased to share that we have acquired 3 original lecture notes of Howard Carter! Our first step is to digitise and make these notes available online.

We are happy that 86 years on, the Griffith Institute is thriving with lots of exciting projects coming up in 2025. Stay tuned!

We owe our existence not only to Griffith but also his two wives, Kate Bradbury (1854-1902) and Nora Scott (1870-1937), who shared Griffiths' passion for Egyptology and were also instrumental in the establishment of our Institute.

We are named after our 1st Professor of Egyptology, Francis Llewellyn Griffith, who bequeathed most of his estate to Oxford University.

Happy birthday to us! 🎉 Today we are celebrating the 86th anniversary of the foundation of the Griffith Institute, home to the study of ancient Egypt and the Near East at Oxford.

We are delighted to share that we recently received a major grant from the University’s John Fell Fund! This will be used to revamp the Tutankhamun online resource (www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/discoveringT...) - stay tuned for further updates!