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The Egyptian and Near Eastern Antiquities Collection is unique in Greece, and is one of the most impressive collections of its kind in the world because of the rarity and importance of the exhibits, the finest of which have been on display since 1994. These come mainly from two large donations by Greek expatriates in Egypt: the 1880-1885 donations of Ioannis Dimitriou from Lemnos, who lived in Alexandria, and the 1904 donation by Alexandros Rostovitch from Cairo.
The selection and presentation of the exhibits was largely the work of the late Perikles Kourachanis, the collection's curator. His aim was to show the development of Egyptian civilization, primarily during the Pre-dynastic and Pharaonic periods, and to stress the funerary customs of the Late period (twenty-fifth - thirtienth Dynasties), a period characterized by the wealth and elaboration of burial practices. The display covers the whole spectrum of Egyptian civilization from prehistory (c. 5000 BC) to the Roman conquest (30 BC-AD 354), with and emphasis on the Pre-dynastic and Pharaonic periods (5000-332 BC).
The exhibits cover all aspects of artistic expression. They include statues, figurines, reliefs, votive and funerary stelai, mummy covers, mummies, ceramic, stone and fa?ence vessels, Canopic jars, jewelry, Fayoum portraits, numerous minor objects, and other artefacts of public and private use illustrating daily life in ancient Egypt.
The display occupies two rooms on the museum's ground floor (Rooms 40-41) and follows a chronological order. A map of Egypt and a series of explanatory texts on this brilliant ancient civilization complete the display.
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