![\"\"](\"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/egito_proc-498x600.jpg\")
<\/a>Davi Duarte, PhD student and member of the Egyptology group Seshat at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), said the set of pieces opens up new avenues for research in various areas of knowledge. He believes the decals to be from the region of Saqqara, south of Cairo.<\/p>\n
According to the head of the Restoration Department of the National Library, Jandira Flaeschen, the decals will require restoration as they present stains, yellowness and tears. She believes, however, that the \u201crestoration process of these works is totally doable by the Restoration Department of the National Library.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pictures show the stelas that used to belong to the National Library. Most of them were lost to the 2018 fire \u2013 fire and water turned the ancient slabs into lime putty. Some of them were conservated as they were protected by glass cases and other materials. The pictures don\u2019t need to be repaired, and Duarte believes they will assist researchers in rebuilding what was burned. Despite the loss, Duarte says the Brazilian collection of Egyptian artifacts is still the most relevant in Latin America.<\/p>\n
Inheritance from emperor<\/strong><\/p>\n The decals were inherited from emperor Pedro II of Brazil. A true enthusiast of Egypt, Pedro II visited the country twice, in 1871 and 1876. He was interested in languages, and he could read Arabic and other languages, in addition to speaking Latin, French, English, Italian and Spanish.<\/p>\n Duarte said that after the Proclamation of the Republic on November 15, 1889, Pedro II of Brazil asked that his library were broke apart and its collection distributed across several institutions, like the Botanical Garden of Rio de Janeiro, the National Library, and the National Museum.<\/p>\n Besides his fondness for artifacts from Egypt, Pedro II had another reason to be interested in the subject, says Duarte. \u201cEgyptomania was very present back then. It was fashionable among the aristocracy and the nobility of the 19th<\/sup> century. It was a symbol of status having an Egyptian collection,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n He mentions as examples of this appreciation for the history and particularly the objects of Egypt the obelisks and artifacts that are now showcased in some of the major European capitals. \u201cThe imagery of Egypt sparked a fascination in the 19th<\/sup>-century aristocracies and a headlong rush for smuggled artifacts. In Brazil\u2019s case, he (the emperor) bought everything legally. Brazil\u2019s collection is not a case of repatriation, as everything was either bought legally or gifted to Pedro II,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n According to information from the National Library, the photos were donated on June 11, 1904, by Arthur Azevedo. One of the files holding the decals includes information that they were acquired by D. Pedro II on November 3, 1871, at the Bulaq Museum in \u201cEgypto.\u201d<\/p>\n Duarte believes the relevance of historical data and the origin of the pieces will open up new research paths. The documents will be submitted to specific analyses, including x rays, and can lead researchers to sites from where they are believed to come from.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t know how many decals were made. They can be one of a kind, from one site,\u201d says Duarte. This collection can help Egyptologists, archeologists and historians broaden their research in pursuit of answers to old questions. And they also can reach the general public with the technological tools available now. \u201cOne major thing is that these records of stelas can be 3D reconstructed,\u201d said Duarte.<\/p>\n Translated by Guilherme Miranda<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Relics of the National Library of Brazil will be used by Egyptologists of the country\u2019s National Museum in research. Photographic records can help make replicas of pieces lost to the 2018 fire. Part of the collection belonged to Pedro II of Brazil, an enthusiast of Egypt and Arabic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2317,"featured_media":357135,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[421,14712,45534,6524,46371,26760,45659,6522,26255,46372],"class_list":{"0":"post-358995","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture","8":"tag-egypt","9":"tag-acervo","10":"tag-biblioteca-nacional","11":"tag-collection","12":"tag-decals","13":"tag-egito-en-2","14":"tag-national-library","15":"tag-national-museum","16":"tag-pedro-ii","17":"tag-stelas"},"wps_subtitle":"Relics of the National Library of Brazil will be used by Egyptologists of the country\u2019s National Museum in research. Photographic records can help make replicas of pieces lost to the 2018 fire. Part of the collection belonged to Pedro II of Brazil, an enthusiast of Egypt and Arabic.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2317"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}