FLOGYPT
Ancient Egyptian floral arrangements: a modern analytical key for identification of their plant species and the study of their operational chain.
MSCA-Postdoctoral Fellowship project for Dr Flora Andreozzi
The peculiarity of Egyptian archaeobotanical material has created many difficulties in its study over the last two centuries. Floral compositions (dry ancient garlands and bouquets found in tombs of the Pharaonic and Greco-Roman periods) have no comparison in Mediterranean and European archaeobotany, as they preserve parts of dehydrated plants with which the archaeobotanist has commonly not been trained to compare and study. The result is that to this day, many floral arrangements found in contemporary
excavations remain unpublished, creating gaps in information regarding ancient Egyptian flora and cultural practices that use flora as raw material.
The project will therefore focus on the development of specific identification tools for the plant species of this material available to all archaeobotanists who may find them selves dealing with Egyptian material. The numerous floral compositions preserved at the UCL Petrie Museum and Kew Gardens will be used as ancient material to develop valid species identification criteria. The project will propose identifying morphological characters of the species which can be established primarily with low magnification observation, and only secondarily with the collection of thin sections to be observed under a light microscope or samples for the SEM.
The result will be a specific protocol and an analytical key for the analysis of ancient Egyptian floral compositions which will finally also bring greater uniformity in the identification of the species of floral compositions and their publications. Furthermore, all dissemination phases of the project will try to involve the ongoing archaeological excavations in Egypt as much as possible, to create a fruitful and mutual exchange on the presence and study of this material. Finally, the results of the identifications made on museum objects will be integrated with textual and iconographic evidence to explore the sociocultural dynamics behind these objects.
Related publications
- Andreozzi R., “A report study on the garlands of the Schweinfurth’s collection at the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden”, Egitto e Vicino Oriente 45, 2023
- Nardella, F., M. Mattonai, Andreozzi, M. Betrò, E.Ribechini, “Long-lasting flavor compounds of myrtle and immortelle from ancient Egyptian tombs: A study by analytical pyrolysis”, Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis, Volume 177, 2024. ISSN 0165- 2370, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaap.2023.106305
- Andreozzi, F., “Garlands in Graeco-Roman Egypt”, in Dogaer, L., Fong, C.H.W., Hertel, E.L., Kilani, M. & Lunden, G.K.H. (eds), Current Research in Egyptology 2023, Proceedings of the Twenty-Third Annual Symposium, University of Basel, 10-14 September 2023, Archeopress, Oxford, 2024, 27-48
