STARS OF EGYPTOLOGY

Season Two is here! Originally from Scotland, Dr Campbell Price is the Curator of the Manchester Museum. Below is his exclusive interview. Don’t forget to check out the new exhibition: ”Golden Mummies of Egypt”(link below). Read and enjoy!

When did you first become interested in Egyptology?

I quite vividly remember visiting a museum when I was very young – maybe 5 years old – in my native city of Glasgow. A wondrous civic palace of a building, the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum had a not insignificant Egyptology collection. I was particularly attracted to the coffined mummy because I loved the cartoon Thundercats and wanted to see if real mummies looked like the bandage-swathed bad-guy, Mumm-Ra. They didn’t – but I quickly became devoted to Egyptology, before I ever really knew it was a thing. I now find it fascinating to psychoanalyse my own reactions at that age – clearly it was a common response in future Egyptologists and Egyptophiles.

What qualifications do you have?

I studied for my BA, MA and PhD in Egyptology at the University of Liverpool between 2002 and 2011. When I was applying for universities I quickly realised I’d have to leave Scotland to get a degree – and was told by several eminent Egyptologists I was brave enough to ask (Aidan Dodson among them!) that Liverpool offered the most in-depth course. I still believe that’s true and am very glad I made that decision. 

How did you become the curator of the Manchester Museum?

At school I had volunteered at another museum in Glasgow – the Burrell Collection – and I became interested in museum collections and their history. Whilst I was a postgraduate at Liverpool, I gravitated towards material culture and worked on the objects at what is now the Garstang Museum of Archaeology at the University of Liverpool, a really rich and diverse collection. I also became involved in a programme to inspire kids from less privileged backgrounds to consider university – called ‘Professor Fluffy’ – and used the Garstang collection to enthuse about ancient Egypt. I like enthusing. I was fortunate that a job opened at Manchester Museum the same year I finished my PhD!

What is a typical day for you in the museum? Is there such thing as a typical day?

Wise people say, find a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life. That is absolutely true. Working at Manchester Museum is still my dream job. The word ‘curate’ comes from Latin ‘cura’ (‘to care’), so it primarily caring for the collection and caring about the subject. I spend a good deal of time advocating (read: enthusing) for the (absolutely stupendous) Egyptology collection at Manchester, one of the most significant in Europe. Part of that is giving a critically-informed history of its acquisition and interpretation, which involves research. Answering enquiries and working on exhibitions, both physical and digital, help bring the collection (and its significance to humanity) to a bigger audience, and I love that. It’s fair to say no day is quite the same.

How do you use social media to focus interest on the museum? Do you find it effective? Is there any platform you use more than others and why?

Social media is a big part of what we do because you can reach far more people digitally than can physically visit the museum (especially during Lockdown!). That said, there is nothing quite like seeing real objects. Digital media is an effective way to engage people with both the collection and our mission to build understanding between cultures. Blogging (and Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) is a good way to present information to a general audience and demonstrate why something is important/interesting/unusual – but those platforms can also be used by researchers, which is very satisfying. Steaming apps, like Periscope, are excellent for having an interactive conversation. I do a weekly broadcast (15:00 UK time!) answering questions, which is a great way to build wider dialogue.

What advice would you give young people who wanted to make Egyptology a career?

It’s a question I get asked a lot. Honestly, in life there’s much to be said for doing what you love and what makes you feel happy. Although jobs in Egyptology are rather rare, the skills (and rewards) of understanding an ancient culture have very broad applications.  Key to getting paid to do Egyptology is enthusiasm. If you can’t share your enthusiasm for the subject – whether giving a lecture, writing an article or promoting an exhibition – it is difficult to get noticed. Egyptology is, in significant part, a performance – so you need to be a performer. That said, the performance is hollow without knowledge of the material remains from and in Egypt; some people seem naturally have the ‘eye’ for such things, but its possible to acquire much of the same knowledge by reading and visiting collections, ideally within Egypt itself. If, like me, you’re not fortunate to be a native Arabic speaker, it helps to spend time in Egypt and get a sense of the place and the people. I was lucky to be involved in fieldwork, but that is no prerequisite to caring about the subject.

Check out the link to a new exhibition: ”Golden Mummies of Egypt” which will also be a book. http://www.nomadexhibitions.com/golden-mummies-of-egypt

You can also listen to a great podcast with Campbell Price and Dominic Perry (The History of Egypt Podcast). Check it out below and enjoy!