Do you know that the archive of the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo (DAIK) holds the manuscripts of one of the most prominent Egyptian Archeologists?
In the mid of the seventieth, the DAIK received a donation of manuscripts from Ali, who is the son of the renowned archaeologist Ahmed Fakhry (1905-1973). Fakhry graduated in Egyptology in 1928 from Cairo University. Then, he went to continue his post-graduate in Europe, and he started his journey from Berlin under the supervision of Kurt Sethe. In 1932, Fakhry joined the Antiquities Service of Egypt. Throughout his field and academic career that lasted for more than 35 years, Fakhry did achieve many accomplishments in the field of pyramids‘ studies, and desert researches as well.
The donated material mainly consists of the core of Fahkry’s publications, either in articles or in books. The archive includes more than 4000 documents such as documentation on notebooks; field visits reports, plans, maps, a pile of photographs and photo negatives, as well as correspondence from and to Ahmed Fakhry.
Since it arrived in the DAIK, the material has been explored, organized, and cataloged as the first step to making them accessible to researchers. Then, the first decision was to edit and publish Fakhry’s last activities in Dakhla Oasis, relying on the material conferred posthumously to the institute, in a book entitled: Denkmäler der Oase Dakhla.
One year ago, the DAIK started a round of digitization for Fakhry’s material. This step is aiming in the future at integrating his archive into the online portal of (iDAI World) for digital archaeological knowledge. Moreover, the DAIK organized a conference in January 2020 on writings of the intellectuals, and archives of the early Egyptian pioneer archaeologists. One aim of the conference was to highlight Fakhry’s archive and other archives of distinguished Egyptian archaeologists.
Read about the institute’s archive https://www.dainst.org/…/organization-di…/ZI9STUj61zKB/18449
