Research stay in Leiden
In September 2021 I was awarded an Incoming Mobility Grant for three months to conduct my research project in Leiden. I was in Leiden from 1 July to 11 September 2022 as a guest at NINO.
My research project aims to focus mainly on the nude female figurines of the Greco-Roman Periods. The research project will concentrate on an unpublished collection of nude female figurines which were recently moved to the Grand Egyptian Museum at Giza. Some of these figurines resemble the Egyptian traditional types of figurines; most are made from terracotta and unfired clay and are formed in the Hellenistic style. This collection of figurines has been found in various contexts. Most of them were discovered in temples and domestic buildings; some were buried in tombs. A few examples were even found in military camps and forts.
During my visit to Leiden, I conducted a comparative study between the nude figurines of my collection and other collections of female figurines, particularly those housed in the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden and those kept in The Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam.
Thanks to NINO, House of Horus, and Mehen – all of whom contributed to the completion of my research project – I was also able to travel from Leiden to Brussels and Paris. Luc Delvaux and Bieke Janssen, curators at the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels, welcomed me to study the Egyptian terracottas of female figurines of the Greco-Roman Periods housed in the museums.
I also traveled to Paris for a few days to look at objects kept in the Bibliothèque Nationale Française and the Louvre Museum. Mathilde Avisseau-Broustet helped me to examine the requested objects at BNF. The collection of BNF proved very interesting and made a difference in my research project. At the Louvre I met Caroline Thomas, responsible for the Egyptian collection in the Museum. She welcomed me to study the group of female figurine that are kept in the museum. In the Louvre, I explored unique objects that and filled some gaps in my research project.
Going forward, I will publish my research with the Mehen Foundation in 2023; a nice opportunity to present my thesis to a wide public in the Netherlands.
During my visit, I have met various colleagues and (MA) students, among whom Olaf Kaper, Miriam Müller, Elisabeth Bettles, Andrés Martin Garcia de la Cruz and Sara Cabras.
Khalid Ismail