Ireland’s University College Cork has said it will repatriate ancient artefacts, including mummified human remains and a sarcophagus, to Egypt next year.
The items, which were donated to the university in 1928, also include a set of canopic jars — containers used by ancient Egyptians during the mummification process, to store and preserve the organs of their owner for the afterlife — and items of cartonnage, material used in funerary masks.
University College Cork said the artefacts date back to the period between 975BC and 100AD.
The decision to repatriate the artefacts is the result of talks with the Egyptian embassy in Dublin, the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and the National Museum of Ireland, the university said.
A plan for the items’ safe return to Egypt is being devised and they are expected to be repatriated next year, it added.
“UCC takes seriously the care of its heritage assets and is pleased to be in a position to present these objects to the Egyptian state,” UCC president Prof John O’Halloran said.
“I wish to thank all stakeholders for their assistance in developing a programme for the return of these items.”
Egypt’s ambassador to Ireland, Mohamed Selim, thanked Prof O’Halloran and Irish and Egyptian officials for their co-operation in the repatriation effort.
When given to the university, the mummified remains were believed to be those of an ancient queen. They had been uncovered Luxor’s Valley of the Queens between 1903 and 1904.
However, tests by the university determined that they were the remains of a man, aged between 45 and 50. The sarcophagus did not belong to the same person.
The artefacts' journey back to Egypt is set to be documented in a “creative project” entitled Kinship.
This will be led by artist Dorothy Cross and producer Mary Hickson, said the university.
Egypt's repatriated artefacts - in pictures
-
A mixed group of artefacts repatriated to Egypt from the US. -
The pieces were smuggled out at various times throughout Egypt's recent history. -
The pieces date back to various eras of Egypt's history, including the Roman, Byzantime, Ptolemaic and Pharaonic periods. -
Egypt’s antiquities ministry said it co-operated with New York prosecutors and Egyptian foreign ministry officials in the US to repatriate the pieces, -
The pieces were smuggled out at various times in Egypt's recent history. -
Three separate American investigations were conducted into the matter, according to the antiquities ministry. The investigations conclusively determined that the artefacts were smuggled out of Egypt illegally. -
Egypt has intensified its efforts to combat rampant smuggling and repatriate smuggled pieces. -
A bronze statue depicting a man kneeling. -
In December last year 36 pieces were returned from Valencia, Spain after being smuggled out in 2014.
