Visitors can experience the buried royal city of Naga up close – including a background noise between crickets chirping and car stuttering. © Astrid Schmidhuber
Adventure in the desert: The Museum of Egyptian Art takes its visitors on excavations to the buried royal city of Naga.
The loud whirring of the plane slowly subsides. Passengers rise from their seats. We landed in Khartoum. Bright green letters above the gate welcome us with the words "Welcome to Sudan". Only the lack of sand under your feet makes you suspicious. We are not really in the Sudanese desert, but in the State Museum of Egyptian Art in Munich.
In the multimedia special exhibition "Naga – The Buried Royal City", the museum takes its visitors on excavations in the desert of Sudan, where a Munich team has been conducting research since 2013 (we reported).
A short trip to the Sudanese desert
"The visitor is an archaeologist and part of the excavation team," explains museum director Arnulf Schlüter during a tour of the exhibition. According to Schlüter, sounds such as the chirping of crickets in the desert or the stuttering of the car that does not start, which the visitor hears through headphones, are intended to create a feeling of immersion in this strange world. And who else could know better how it feels, as he has been in Sudan twice a year for almost ten years and is in charge of the excavations. Upon entering the exhibition, the audio guide begins to tell the story. Welcome to Naga! The place was once a magnificent temple city of the ancient empire of Meroe, which had its heyday from about 300 BC to 300 AD.
For some time now, museum director Arnulf Schlüter has been travelling to Sudan twice a year and leading the excavations there. © Astrid Schmidhuber
The focus is on everyday excavation work
The focus of the exhibition is on everyday excavation life. Among other things, visitors will learn what equipment is needed for an excavation campaign, how the archaeologists live there and what methods are used for research. Through the walk-in photo panoramas, various places around the excavation site can be experienced. Walking through the excavation areas, you can look over the shoulders of the archaeologists at dusk, who capture a statue with the structured light scanner. Or you find yourself in the middle of the restoration of the Lion Temple.
"Many of the temples in Naga are different in type," explains Schlüter. For example, the Hathor Chapel combines Egyptian and Roman-Greek elements. "They wanted to show what they knew." Another panorama opens up a spectacular view over the ancient temple city and the vastness of the steppe. Visitors learn about the dangerous and harmless animals that exist in Naga and can see a stuffed scorpion, a sand rattle or a praying mantis.
Visitors control the narrative texts themselves
The photographs and sound recordings were made during the ongoing excavation work. "They are casual texts with a lot of information," says Schlüter. "However, the knowledge is not primarily in the foreground, but you should immerse yourself in everyday life there." The highlight: In addition to the main texts that you hear in the photo panoramas, you can automatically trigger additional explanations by approaching some motifs.
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It is currently unclear how the excavations will continue. Currently, the army and paramilitaries are fighting for power in Sudan, Schlüter reports. "It would be too dangerous there." The work is currently suspended anyway after the end of the spring campaign. Until October 22 at the State Museum of Egyptian Art, Wed.-Sun. 10 a.m.-18 p.m., Tue. until 20 p.m.