M.i.N.

M.i.N. stands for “Museums in the Nile Delta”, a project founded in order to introduce the public – through publication – to some of the lesser-known treasures on display in the various small museums spread across the Nile Delta, i.e. the region to the north of the city of Cairo.

The ancient city of Bubastis - cult centre of the lion goddess Bastet and one of the most important archaeological sites of the Nile Delta with its vast temple buildings and several necropolises

Far away from the main tourist routes along the Nile, followed by millions of visitors each year, are countless interesting objects waiting to be discovered, most of which were found within the ruins of some of the most important cities of ancient Egypt such as Tanis and Bubastis.

Egyptologists have long hoped for the scientific research and documentation, as well as publication, of these artefacts. The data which such research can provide would enhance our knowledge and under-standing of the history of the Nile Delta, an area that has always been multicultural in its character and where for centuries Egyptians, Libyans, Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans lived side by side.

Two so-called shabtis of clay which were found at the necropolis at Bubastis

The project’s main aim has been to gather as much information as possible about the artefacts – when and where they were found, in what context, etc – in order to make this knowledge available to other scholars. Also invaluable has been the contact with the Egyptian archaeologists who conducted excavations at the various sites in the Delta. We are greatly indebted to them for the wealth of information they have given us. We are also deeply grateful to Prof Dr Zahi Hawass, formerly Vice-Minister of Culture and Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt (SCA), and to Dr Mohamed Abd el-Maksoud, General Director of the Antiquities of Lower Egypt and Sinai, for their generous aid, which has made this project possible.

The photographic documentation of small finds, most of them measuring only one or two centimetres

The project was begun by Prof Dr Mohamed I. Bakr, formerly President of the Egyptian Antiquities Organization (EAO), and Dr Helmut Brandl, who has been authorized and supported by the SCA. Both these Egyptologists received their academic education at Humboldt University in Berlin, where the very first chair of Egyptology in Germany was founded in 1846. M.i.N. is affiliated with the Institute of Archaeology - Egyptology und Archaeology of Northeastern Africa at Humboldt University Berlin.