The Graeco-Roman Museum and the Future of Greco-Roman Archaeological Studies

Prof. Sobhi Ashour, Professor of Graeco-Roman Archeology, Department of Archeology and Civilization, Faculty of Arts, Helwan University and member of the Supreme Ministerial Committee for Museum Scenario at the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities

05 November 2023

01:00 PM

Conference Center, Delegations Hall

The Antiquities Museum and the Zahi Hawass Center for Egyptology, affiliated with the Cultural Outreach Sector at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, are organizing a lecture entitled “The Graeco-Roman Museum and the Future of Greco-Roman Archeology Studies,” on Sunday, 5 November 2023, 1:00 pm, at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina Conference Center, Delegations Hall. The lecture will be delivered by Prof. Sobhi Ashour, Professor of Graeco-Roman Archeology, Department of Archeology and Civilization, Faculty of Arts, Helwan University and member of the Supreme Ministerial Committee for Museum Scenario at the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. The lecture discusses the history of the Graeco-Roman Museum since its first opening in 1892. The opening represented a turning point in the development of Alexandrian studies, after the records of the scholars of the French expedition, and the excavations of Mahmoud Bey the astronomer and Neroutsos Bey, which determined the city’s boundaries and assumed the locations of its most famous landmarks. While archaeological evidence of Alexandria's architecture and arts were missing.

The Egyptian Institute was the first to display Graeco-Roman antiquities, followed by the establishment of the Museum and then the Antiquities Society, which was a first-class research institute. Scholars were searching in Alexandria for its ancient landmarks and the effects of its major historical figures; Alexander, Ptolemy, Caesar, and Cleopatra. In 1885, Theodor Schreiber coined the term “Pan-Alexandrianism” to indicate Alexandria’s leadership in every innovation in Hellenistic art.