The “On Top of the Pyramid: The Civilization of Ancient Egypt” exhibition officially opened to the public at the Shanghai Museum on July 19. This exhibition is the largest of its kind ever held outside Egypt and the highest-level ever held in Asia. It marks the first collaboration between a Chinese state-run museum and the Egyptian government, offering an in-depth exploration of Ancient Egyptian civilization and its latest archaeological discoveries.

Jointly orchestrated by the Shanghai Museum and the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt, with guidance from China’s State Administration of Culture Heritage and Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, this exhibition has benefitted greatly from the expertise of esteemed scholars. Professor Yan Haiying and Dr. Xue Jiang, both affiliated with the Egyptian division within the World Art History Institute (WAI) at Shanghai International Studies University (SISU), served as chief curator and co-curator respectively. Their involvement underscores the scholarly depth and international collaboration that define this endeavor.

The exhibition has drawn considerable public attention, with extensive coverage by national and regional media outlets. Spanning 13 months, it is expected to attract numerous visitors from across China, as well as neighboring countries and regions.

University Council Chair Yin Dongmei and President Li Yansong attended the opening ceremony on July 17. They met with key Egyptian guests, including Dr. Mohamed Ismail Mohamed Khaled, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt, and Dr. Ali Abdelhalim Ali, General Director of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. They also met with Chu Xiaobo, Director of the Shanghai Museum, and Tang Shifen, Party Committee Secretary of the Shanghai Museum. Assistant President Hu Kaibao, along with heads of SISU’s Office of International Cooperation and Exchange and the World Art History Institute, accompanied them in attending the related events.

Behind the Epic Exhibition

The exhibition showcases 492 groups of artifacts, totaling 788 items from various periods of Ancient Egyptian civilization. Highlights include statues of Pharaohs Tutankhamun, Amenemhat III, and Ramesses II, complete mummy coffins, royal gold ornaments, newly discovered painted wooden coffins from Saqqara, as well as animal mummies and statues. Over 95% of the artifacts are presented to the public in Asia for the first time, offering a detailed view of Ancient Egyptian civilization and presenting the latest archaeological discoveries and research achievements.

The exhibition features three sections. The first section, “The Land of the Pharaohs”, introduces the Ancient Egyptians’ cosmological view, which is deeply intertwined with their natural landscape. Presenting a condensed history of Ancient Egyptian civilization, it explores their beliefs about the cosmos, social order, writing systems, artisan skills, and burial customs, encompassing aspects from social systems and daily life to the spiritual world. This section also includes a joint display of selected Chinese and Egyptian artifacts, exploring how different civilizations address fundamental human inquiries, and offering an opportunity to re-examine Chinese culture through the lens of other civilizations.

The second section, “The Secrets of Saqqara”, offers the first comprehensive unveiling of the discoveries made by the Egyptian archaeological team in Saqqara since they began independent excavations. It traces the trajectory of religious practices, including the worship of sacred animals, the veneration of the goddess Bastet, and the funerary customs of the priests devoted to Bastet, shedding light on Saqqara’s cultural significance as a city of revival. It also showcases recent archaeological achievements by the China-Egypt joint archaeological team in Saqqara.

The third section, “The Age of Tutankhamun”, takes its starting point from the Mediterranean region’s shift into the imperial era around 1500 BCE. It explores the rise of the worship of the god Amun and the religious reforms of Pharaoh Akhenaten of the 18th Dynasty, marking a pivotal shift from polytheism to monotheism. This section also delves into the restoration of traditional religious practices under the young Tutankhamun and their lasting impact.

The artifacts on display were thoughtfully selected from seven prominent Egyptian museums, including the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Luxor Museum, and the National Museum of Suez, along with the latest finds from Saqqara. Yan and Xue traveled extensively across Egypt and worked closely with the Shanghai Museum to meticulously curate these exquisite pieces. Their goal is to advance Egyptology research in China, contribute to global Egyptian studies, and provide a comprehensive exploration of Ancient Egyptian civilization from a Chinese academic perspective.

This exhibition is a vivid example of the cultural exchange and mutual learning between China and Egypt. It is also a highlight of “Shanghai Summer”, an international consumer festival, showcasing Shanghai as a global cultural hub that embraces openness to the world.

Mutual Learning: Two Ancient Civilizations Pioneering Future-Focused Research

The exhibition’s arrival in Shanghai underscores the substantial academic contribution from SISU, particularly evident in the second section, “The Secrets of Saqqara”, which showcases the outcomes of SISU’s China-Egypt joint digital investigation and research project on newly unearthed artifacts from Saqqara.

Led by President Zhu Qingsheng, Professor Yan Haiying, and Dr. Xue Jiang of the WAI at SISU, the research team focuses on digitizing newly unearthed artifacts in Egypt. Through on-site investigations, they have partnered with the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt to launch collaborative research initiatives, including the China-Egypt Saqqara Excavation Artifacts Investigation and Research Project.

The project involves the digitization, documentation, and scholarly publication of numerous humanoid mummy coffins excavated at the Saqqara site, utilizing the shared cultural background and China’s technological advantages to build a globally accessible database of artifacts and publications in Chinese, English, and Arabic. This initivative is poised to enrich global Egyptology, especially in coffin studies.

In the initial phase, extensive scanning, photography, cataloging, and translation work have been completed on-site in Egypt, yielding a substantial amount of primary data. The project is now entering the second phase, which includes digital image analysis, 3D modeling, and enhanced cataloging processes. By incorporating the latest research findings from multiple Chinese universities, the project aims to deliver comprehensive academic outcomes through a multimodal approach.

“In Saqqara, desert temperatures regularly reach 47°C, while inside the tomb chambers, it can climb to 70°C. To ensure safety, the Chinese archaeological team can only work a full four hours a day, yet the risk of heatstroke looms large. With the first phase of on-site work now finished, we plan to return to Egypt in November or December to continue our efforts,” said Xue, the on-site team leader.

Professor Yan Haiying, a distinguished Egyptologist and faculty member at Peking University, remarked, “As inheritors of ancient civilizations, the Chinese hold unique perspectives and interests in Ancient Egyptian culture distinct from those of the West.”  She emphasized that this exhibition and the pioneering on-site archaeological endeavors by Chinese universities in Egypt are paving ways for Chinese scholars to enter the field of Egyptology. She believes this initiative will inspire more young Chinese scholars to join the global Egyptology research community, bringing Eastern perspectives to uncover the unresolved mysteries of the Pharaohs’ Kingdom.

More is Yet to Be Accomplished: Nurturing Global Knowledge via Regional Research

In recent years, SISU has leveraged its strengths in foreign languages and literature to meet the evolving demands of global and area studies. The university has actively advanced foundational research focused on global cultural exchange and mutual learning, while prioritizing academic research and talent development. Its goal is to cultivate international talents who are not only proficient in languages but also possess deep knowledge of specific countries and expertise in their respective fields, thereby contributing to China’s research on civilization.

In the field of history research supported by language studies, particularly foreign languages, SISU prioritizes access to firsthand research materials and fully leverages interdisciplinary integration through its “language+” approach. In 2020, the university expanded its focus to fields such as image science, image data science, and image neuroscience to bolster the depth of research materials for area studies, notably in civilization research. SISU is paving the way for a fresh academic approach to civilization research, transitioning from understanding to mutual learning, from exchange to integration, and from cooperation to sharing.

Utilizing the World Art History Research Institute as an experimental base, besides curating the major exhibition on ancient Egyptian civilization and spearheading the “first release” of newly unearthed materials from the Saqqara archaeological site, SISU has initiated a specialized Gandhara research program in the field of “Silk Road Civilization Exchange.” Renowned global experts have been invited to delve into the study of ancient ideological and cultural exchanges between China and other regions, particularly through Buddhist art. In the domain of “Origins of Western Civilization,” research on ancient Greek art has been launched, striving to conduct in-depth research by collaborating with experts in fields such as linguistics, philosophy, art history, archaeology, and history, guided by original research data. The university is also integrating computer technology with over 20 years of methodologies and research from Professor Zhu Qingsheng’s project of “General Record of Han Paintings.” Leveraging its language strengths, the unviersity is developing a new-generation image library to create a globally accessible and collaboratively constructed database for world civilization research, with the Egypt project marking a significant milestone.

In addition, SISU has engaged in international cooperation in Renaissance and Japanese art, fostering exchanges with world-class research institutions. A multidisciplinary team is being assembled, bringing together experts from diverse fields, including art history, history, linguistics, computer science, archaeology, philosophy, medicine, image science, classical studies, museology, publishing, library and information science, psychology, and data science. This team aims to advance civilization research and area studies through a “language + image” approach, contributing to the development of China’s own knowledge systems, with a focus on morphology (image science). These efforts are laying the foundation for future academic institutions that are problem-oriented, data-driven, and innovation-focused, positioning SISU at the forefront of global academic innovation.