Egyptian mummies and ancient papyri are known to preserve rich historical facts of cultures that existed eons ago, but are at risk of diminishing away without efficient preservation. That has inspired an Italian commodity aid initiative to implement the use of high tech instruments that would save the museum’s secular papyri.
The launch of the technology was presented this week at a ceremony at the museum that was attended by the Director General for the cooperation for development Gianpaolo Cantini and Egyptian antiquities minister Mohamed Ibrahim, Italian ambassador Maurizio Massari and the museum’s director Rarek el Awadi.
The initiative, in favour of the Egyptian Antiquities Ministry is part of a programme of aid that aims to import to Egypt high tech Italian products and train specialized personnel in a number of sectors. More so, Italian technology will allow the restoration and preservation of thousands of highly delicate papyri at the Egyptian museum in Cairo that overlooks the popular Tahrir square, Cairo. The state of the art instruments provided by the Italtrend Spa and produced by Bresciani Srl, would play a vital role in preserving the museum’s thousands of Egyptian secular papyri.
A low-pressure table with a humidifier would be used to preserve precious papyri of the Egyptian museum, to restore paper documents. It has been provided alongside ten thermometers, humidifiers and five climatic chambers to preserve the findings to recreate the same condition as in the tombs where the papyri were discovered.
Moreover, the technology that comes with a laser and a portable gadget, has its laser using non-invasive technology to clean delicate and sensitive surfaces without the need of chemicals. The spectrometer would be used for chemical-physical measurements and to analyse material without extraction of samples.
Reports say that the initiative was agreed in 19 years ago, began in 1996 and has since funded the importation of Italian goods worth27 million euros, while the installment for the Egyptian museum has a value of 300,000 euros.