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Museu Egipci de Barcelona
Museum, Museums outside Egypt · also called Egyptian Museum of Barcelona, Museo Egipcio de Barcelona, Fundació Arqueològica Clos, Iny tomb Barcelona
Barcelona's Egyptian Museum shows the tomb chapel of Iny, an official of the 6th Dynasty, rebuilt from blocks the museum traced over twenty years, and a granite statue of Ramesses III whose hieroglyphs give the names of several kings. A granite shabti of Taharqa from Nuri carries a chapter of the Book of the Dead.
Point your camera at the signs
Signs to look for
- Sedge M23sw The sedge opens the offering formula on Iny's false door.
- Bread on an offering mat R4ḥtp Bread on a mat (hotep) follows it in the same formula.
- Head and neck of a canine F12wsr The head and neck of a canine is wsr in Usermaatre, Ramesses III's throne name.
- Three fox skins F31ms Three fox skins (ms) are in the name Ramesses on the statue.
- Cartouche V10 The cartouche marks each king's name on the Ramesses III statue, the way to tell them apart.
Names you can find here
The story of Museu Egipci de Barcelona
The hotelier Jordi Clos set up his archaeological foundation in 1992, and the museum opened on Carrer de València in 1994. It is private and holds more than a thousand works, grouped by theme: the pharaoh, hieroglyphic writing, funerary beliefs, burial, the gods.
Iny lived around 2290 to 2235 BC and led expeditions for three kings, Pepi I, Merenre and Pepi II, to what is now the Middle East. Clos bought a stela from his false door at auction in London in 1991. In 1996 he recognised Iny's name on a block at a dealer in Paris and began tracing the rest. Most of the original blocks are in New York and Tokyo, so much of the chapel in Barcelona is a reproduction.
The room on the pharaoh holds royal pieces of many periods. A sandstone relief shows Akhenaten offering flowers to the Aten, and a limestone stela with no text shows a queen, identified by Jean Yoyotte as Cleopatra VII, before two gods with a king behind her.
Inscriptions to see
Tomb of Iny
A 6th Dynasty chapel with its false door, opened in the museum in July 2013. On a false door the offering formula leads to the owner's names and titles.
Ramesses III with a standard
A granite statue 49 cm high (MEB E-695). The king holds a divine standard, perhaps once topped by Amun's ram. Its hieroglyphs give the names of several kings.
Shabti of Taharqa
A granite figure from the Nubian king's pyramid at Nuri in Sudan (MEB E-643), inscribed with a version of chapter 6 of the Book of the Dead.
Stela of Khuenptah and Meritites
A limestone stela of the 6th Dynasty (MEB E-1111) for the lady Meritites and her son Khuenptah. Her title ties her to a temple that kept the memory of Khufu.
Reading the hieroglyphs here
- Read the Ramesses III statue cartouche by cartouche. Several kings are named, so read every ring before deciding whose statue it is.
- Much of the Iny chapel is a reproduction. Original stone shows chisel marks and wear, and the camera reads both the same.
- Temporary exhibitions take one floor and the displays change. Check before you go if you come for one object.
Hiero Lens boxes the signs and names them, on your phone; nothing is uploaded. On worn stone, trace a sign over the photo.
Questions
Who was Iny?
An official of the 6th Dynasty who served Pepi I, Merenre and Pepi II and led trading expeditions abroad. His tomb chapel was broken up and sold, and the Museu Egipci rebuilt it from blocks it found.
Who owns the Egyptian Museum of Barcelona?
The Fundació Arqueològica Clos, a private foundation set up by the hotelier Jordi Clos in 1992.
Does the Barcelona museum have Cleopatra?
It has a limestone stela that Jean Yoyotte identified as Cleopatra VII with a Ptolemy behind her. It carries no hieroglyphic text, so the identification rests on the scene.
Where it is
Open in OpenStreetMap · Written from published sources and not yet checked on site by our team: displays and open tombs change.