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Museo Egizio di Firenze
Museum, Museums outside Egypt · also called Egyptian Museum Florence, Museo Egizio Firenze, Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Firenze, National Archaeological Museum Florence Egyptian collection
Florence's Egyptian Museum, inside the Archaeological Museum, has a painted pillar from the tomb of Seti I where Hathor greets the king, with his throne name Menmaatre and his name Seti in cartouches. Its core is the share Tuscany brought home from Champollion and Rosellini's expedition of 1828 and 1829.
Point your camera at the signs
Signs to look for
- Game board Y5mn The game board (mn) opens Menmaatre, Seti I's throne name on the pillar.
- Goddess Maat C10mꜣꜥt The seated goddess Maat stands for maat inside the same cartouche.
- Pintail duck G39zꜣ The duck (sa) writes son of Ra before the king's second cartouche.
- Ankh S34ꜥnḫ The ankh is the life given to the king, like Ra for ever.
Names you can find here
The story of Museo Egizio di Firenze
Grand Duke Leopold II of Tuscany paid for the Italian half of a joint expedition with France, and Ippolito Rosellini, Champollion's student, led it. The finds were divided between the Louvre and Florence. Rosellini went on to be counted the founder of Italian Egyptology, and Florence's Egyptian collection grew around his share. Today it has some 14,000 objects.
The Seti I pillar is the best place to practise royal names. The text calls Hathor foremost in Thebes and lady of Dendera, and names the king of Upper and Lower Egypt, Menmaatre, son of Ra, Seti, given life like Ra for ever. A small sandstone statue shows the same king as a standard-bearer, with his Horus name on the back pillar.
The expedition also found the tomb of Tjesraperet at Thebes, a wet nurse of a daughter of the Nubian king Taharqa. Her outer box coffin and inner coffin are in Florence, with a mirror and a kohl pot from the same tomb.
Inscriptions to see
Pillar of Seti I and Hathor
Painted limestone from his tomb in the Valley of the Kings, cut out by the expedition in 1829 (inv. 2468). Hathor holds the king's hand and offers him her menat necklace.
Statue of Seti I as standard-bearer
A small sandstone figure (inv. 1794). The back pillar begins his Horus name: strong bull, great of victories.
Coffins of Tjesraperet
Box and anthropoid coffins of the 25th Dynasty from her tomb at Thebes. Her stela went to the Louvre.
Chariot
A wooden chariot of the 18th Dynasty from Thebes, among the few complete ones known. It carries no text, but it shows the chariots drawn in battle scenes on temple walls.
Reading the hieroglyphs here
- Parts of the museum can be closed for work. Check before you go which Egyptian rooms are open.
- Stand square to the Seti pillar and read each cartouche in turn: the painted signs are large and the camera boxes them well.
- In Seti's tomb his name was often written with a figure of Osiris instead of the god Seth. Trace the first sign if the reading looks wrong.
Hiero Lens boxes the signs and names them, on your phone; nothing is uploaded. On worn stone, trace a sign over the photo.
Questions
Is there an Egyptian museum in Florence?
Yes. The Museo Egizio is the Egyptian section of the National Archaeological Museum on Piazza della Santissima Annunziata. It is often called the second Egyptian collection in Italy after Turin's.
Who founded the Egyptian Museum in Florence?
Its core comes from the Franco-Tuscan expedition of 1828 and 1829, paid for by Grand Duke Leopold II and led for Tuscany by Ippolito Rosellini. Later directors, Ernesto Schiaparelli among them, added more by purchase.
What is the Florence chariot?
A wooden chariot of the 18th Dynasty found at Thebes. Few Egyptian chariots survive whole. Most of the others come from the tomb of Tutankhamun.
Where it is
Open in OpenStreetMap · Written from published sources and not yet checked on site by our team: displays and open tombs change.