Step into ancient Egypt at the Hearst Museum!
If you’ve ever wanted to see ancient Egypt with your own eyes, you can cancel that trip to Cairo — the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum brings it right to UC Berkeley, California.
As a part of my MELC 18: Intro to Ancient Egypt class with Professor Rita Lucarelli, I had the chance to visit the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, and view the assortment of Egyptian artifacts Professor Lucarelli and her colleagues have been studying. I’d never heard of nor visited the museum prior to this, and so I entered my visit rather tepid towards the experience. I’d leave the building, however, deeply fascinated with the wonders of anthropology I’d viewed, and grateful for this remarkable opportunity as a golden bear.
See, the Hearst Museum hosts a global collection of cultural artifacts and is an exclusive space in that it is only open to UC Berkeley students and researchers. This means that if you’re lucky enough to call UC Berkeley home, you’re also lucky enough to have access to one of the most expansive anthropologic collections in the world.
The museum
Founded in 1901, the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology has supported the Department of Anthropology at UC Berkeley for 125 years, and has accumulated a massive collection of ancient artifacts since. Though the museum contains an estimated 3.8 million objects in total, obviously not all of these were on display during my visit. What I was able to view were objects from the museum’s ancient Egyptian collection, stewarded by Professor Lucarelli.
The Hearst Museum. Photo by Deborah Swarts.
Visiting Hearst Museum
The Hearst Museum is currently temporarily closed to the public, and no longer accepting tour requests during its closure. But fear not! The Hearst Museum’s gallery is available for UC Berkeley class visits, and so as a part of your enrollment in a course such as MELC 18: Intro to Ancient Egypt, you too can gaze at the wonders of ancient Egypt, China, Mexico, and more.
The gallery
A massive sarcophagus lid in the museum.
If the magnitude of this artifact isn’t clear digitally, it’s certainly apparent in person —– the sarcophagus lid pictured here weighs almost four tons and boasts a length of 98 inches. The sheer, overwhelming size of it engrosses you in the splendor of ancient Egypt it’s meant to evoke, complete with the intricate craftsmanship seen in the details throughout the lid. The Hearst Museum acquired this, along with a host of other ancient Egyptian artifacts, from collector John V. Twyman in the early 20th century. According to Professor Lucarelli, one of the tasks of Berkeley’s present-day Egyptologists is determining where artifacts such as this one came from, and whether they are qualified for repatriation.
An ornate wooden inner-coffin meant to go inside a larger sarcophagus.
Next, I had the opportunity to study a wooden anthropoid coffin, carved with elaborate inscriptions running down the center of the lid. This artifact was excavated in the 1880s, and purchased by Phoebe A. Hearst, who then donated the coffin to UC Berkeley and the Hearst Museum.
Today, the Hearst Museum’s Predynastic Era collection is the largest outside of Egypt, and the museum has become the sponsor of innovative research by historians such as Professor Lucarelli. Though my experience at the museum was centered on artifacts from ancient Egypt (paying attention to these was essential for my imminent final), the Hearst Museum also houses collections from all throughout Africa, North America, South America, Europe, Australia, Asia, and the Middle East.
Egyptology: ancient studies in the modern day
One of the biggest focuses of modern day Egyptology is repatriation, the returning of Egyptian artifacts removed during the 19th and 20th centuries to their home in Egypt. Though the matter of what nations have a rightful claim to ownership of artifacts such as these is debated in academic circles, the Hearst Museum has dedicated the past few years of its work to the repatriation of Native American artifacts through the UC Berkeley Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) program. Recently, the university and Hearst Museum announced their intention to repatriate 51 lots of cultural items to the Morongo Band of Mission Indians in accordance with federal law. Hearing about this work from the stewards of repatriation themselves really communicated the stakes of this intersection between the matters of anthropological research and ownership.
Only-at-Cal Opportunities
A wondrous artifact in the Hearst Museum. Photo by Peg Skorpinski.
In a way, visiting the Hearst Museum made me feel closer to ancient Egypt. It wasn’t just that these vestiges of antiquity were right before my eyes, but that the subjects of my MELC 18: Intro to Ancient Egypt class readings and countless History Channel documentaries became real. I felt connected to the course material for once, and to this impressive culture so many Egyptologists have dedicated their lives to studying. Almost overwhelmed, I finally resolved to just be gracious that I got to — for just a moment of the day — step into ancient Egypt.
So, if you get the chance, give a visit to the quaint museum in the southeast corner of campus. I’d passed that unassuming building across from Caffè Strada almost every day of the school year, yet had no idea about the magnificent space within it until I took advantage of an opportunity extended to me as a Cal student. College, especially at an R1 research institution such as UC Berkeley, is a singular time in life, and checking out spots like the Hearst Museum is how you can make the most of it.
So get out there, Golden Bears — at UC Berkeley, you can explore the world.
Joseph Burney, Class of 2029, is majoring in philosophy and minoring in journalism. Cover photo from the Berkeley Gallery.
Want more?
- Explore the arts with a visit to the BAMPFA.
- After your museum visit, find more ways to de-stress.
- Discover opportunities for theater and the arts.