Papyrology and Reparations

Roberta Mazza (University of Bologna)

Rooted in the age of modern European colonialism, the field of papyrology is based on a corpus of archaeological objects that were extracted from Egyptian soil and transferred to the Global North, where they became economic and cultural assets and sources of academic prestige to the advantage of the colonisers. Since then, papyrology and papyrus collecting have been enmeshed in the regimes of violence, injustice, and inequality created by colonialism. We are now called to decide what to do about this legacy.

After a critical historical outline of the birth and development of papyrology, the lecture questions current practices in papyrus collecting and publications and addresses the issue of reparations towards the artefacts and their ultimate owners, the Egyptian people.