Open Access Egyptological Database: Croato-Aegyptica Electronica

Croato-Aegyptica Electronica

PROJECT GOALS:

To build an aimed and selected database of relevant monuments pertaining to cultural influences of Egyptian civilization in the Croatian historical area based on the institutional and private collections in Croatia. 

In initial phase of project development, the plan is to process the Egyptological monuments kept in the Egyptian, Ancient and Numismatic collections of the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb (AMZ). Simultaneously with processing the monuments from the AMZ, we plan to process all the artifacts kept in other museum collections in Croatia and to introduce the results into the database. After processing the collections of museum institutions in Zagreb (the Mimara Museum in Zagreb, the Museum of Contemporary Art - the Benko Horvat Collection, the Museum of the City of Zagreb), we plan to process scientifically the artifacts kept in museums outside of Zagreb (the Dubrovnik museums - the Archaeological Museum of Dubrovnik, the Archaelogical Museum of Split, the Archaeological Museum of Istria in Pula, the Archaeological Museum of Zadar, the Museum of Slavonia in Osijek, the Museum of the City of Varaždin, and variety of town and regional museums with minor collections) that have not yet been interpreted and processed, and to introduce the results into the database.
There are more than 3100 artifacts pertaining to the Egyptian civilization kept in the Archaological Museum of Zagreb, important cultural and museum institution of the city of Zagreb and Croatia. The bulk of collection consists of the Egyptian collection by the Austrian undermarshall Franz Koller that was bought for the National Museum in Zagreb in 1868. It comprises about 2300 artifacts of Egyptian origin. Next to the Egyptian collection as a main part of the Egyptological inventory of the Archaeological Museum of Zagreb, there are many other artifacts related to the history of Egypt kept in the museum. There are about 500 pieces of Ptolemaic coinage, and the coins from the Roman era minted in Alexandria kept in the Numismatic collection. The Antique collection is comprised of the statues, statuettes and epigraphic monuments related to the Egyptian cults of Greco-Roman era, originating from the Mediterranean or from the Croatian historical area. During the last 150 years, the collections have been supplemented by a variety of smaller or larger buys and donations by private individuals, so the number of artifacts increases constantly. 

There are also smaller or larger collections of Egyptian origin in other museums in Croatia. The most important collections according to the number of artifacts are to be found in the Archaeological Museum of Dubrovnik - the Dubrovnik museums (197), the Archaeological Museum of Split (84), the Mimara Museum in Zagreb (503), the Archaeological Museum of Istria in Pula (38), the Collection of the St. Euphemia monastery in Kampor on the island of Rab (14), the Archaological collection of The Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb (11), the Archaeological Museum of Zadar (11), The Museum of Slavonia in Osijek (10), the Museum of the City of Varaždin (6), the Franciscan monastery in Sinj (6), and in about dozen more town and regional museums with only one or two artifacts. According to our knowledge, there are 4031 artifacts in museum institutions and almost 1000 artifacts in private collections in Croatia. The data on each collection are published in the book entitled Egypt in Croatia by Mladen Tomorad (Barbat, Zagreb, 2003).

		About The project Collections Researchers and collaborators
		Egyptian monuments in Croatia All Museums Private collections Minor collectionsc