Project News

At the Special Laboratory, the world oldest extant wooden boat found by the French team was shown to Mr. Mitsuhiko Koenuma, Director General of the Middle East and Europe Department of the JICA Tokyo headquarter

During the period from the 4th to the 9th of September, the GEM-CC received 3 groups of official visitors from Japan. They were well-received by Dr. El Hussein Bassir, Director General of the GEM and the GEM-CC, Mr. Osama Abo El Kheir, Executive Manager of the GEM-CC and Dr. Hussein Kamal, Technical Manager of the GEM-CC. They showed over and explained the guests a scene of technical cooperation and support of the Japanese side and the activities of the JICA-CC project.

On the 4th of September, Mr. Mitsuhiko Koenuma, Director General of the Middle East and Europe Department of the JICA Tokyo headquarter and 6 staffs of the JICA Egypt Office visited the GEM-CC. They were shown over the Special Project Lab, the Organic Material Lab, the Human Remains Lab, Inorganic Lab, the Wood Lab, the Archaeological Database Department (ADD) and the GEM-CC’s storage facilities. At the Organic Material Lab, the GEM-CC’s conservators explained the way of making digital documentation of the ancient artifacts. The head of this lab also explained them how the conservators treat and conserve the papyruses.

At the Human Remains Lab, the visitors had the opportunities to observe a scene of conservation of the ancient Egyptian mummies. As for at the Inorganic Lab, those guests were shown how the conservators treat the metal, pottery and glass objects. Then, they visited the Wood Lab, which is responsible to conserve the wooden objects such as the coffin. At the end of their tour, they visited storage of the GEM-CC and the ADD. They were able to observe a scene of technical cooperation and support of the Japanese side and the activities of the JICA-CC project, and they were also able to learn a lot about the fields of conservators’ work for the ancient Egyptian artifacts.

On the 6th of September, Executive Board Member of the JICA E-JUST Project, Prof. Katsuhiko Shirai, ex-President of Waseda University and President of the Open University of Japan and a JICA staff visited the ADD and the scientific labs. Both the ADD and scientific labs’ staffs explained the nature of their work. Subsequently, they visited the storerooms of the GEM-CC, where they learnt from each lab staffs about the methods and the system of storing the varying artifacts discovered and transported from across Egypt.

On the 9th of September, the GEM-CC also had the opportunity to receive important guests of Mr. Shigeharu Kato, Director-General for International Affairs, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan (MEXT) and Mr. Eisuke Futamura, JICA Expert for the Egyptian State Ministry for Scientific Research. Mr. Osama explained guests a role and the nature of conservation work in the GEM-CC and how the GEM-CC has received the objects from the stores of the antiquities across Egypt and the Egyptian Museum (EM) and kept conserving them in the GEM-CC. Mr. Osama also expressed gratitude for that the conservators, curators and scientists of the GEM-CC have had the opportunity to learn the new techniques and knowledge of conservation through the training courses, which have been provided and arranged by JICA and its experts. In response, Mr. Kato also appreciated cooperation of the GEM-CC’s managers for implementation of such training courses together with JICA to develop the capacity of the GEM-CC’s conservators, curators and scientists.

At the Organic Laboratory, Prof. Katsuhiko Shirai, President of the Open University of Japan is shown how the conservators treat mummy of the Ptolemaios period.

Mr. Shigeharu Kato, Director-General for International Affairs, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan (MEXT) is explained about the nature of the conservation work at the Organic Laboratory.