Today we inaugurate the new installation of the room dedicated to the tomb of Kha and Merit.

Innovative lighting, infographics, open-storage displays for textiles, and a 14-metre case for the Book of the Dead are the main new features of the installation, curated by Egyptologists Enrico Ferraris and Susanne Töpfer, in collaboration with Johannes Auenmüller, Federica Facchetti, Alessandro Girardi, and Cédric Gobeil. For the Production Office, contributions came from Enrico Barbero, head of the overall installation; Enrica Ciccone, responsible for museographic coordination; and Piera Luisolo for graphic design. The project also involved conservators Sara Aicardi, Francesca Maiocchi, Eleonora Furgiuele, Giulia Pallottini, and Valentina Turina, while Federico Taverni oversaw the 3D modelling.

The gallery hosts 460 objects, including coffins, furniture, textiles, and everyday items such as small bottles for perfumes and unguents made of glass and alabaster, or the game of Senet. These objects form the assemblage of the couple, who belonged to the Egyptian scribal class and lived around 3,500 years ago in Deir el-Medina, the village of the craftsmen and artists who worked on the tombs of the pharaohs.

A multimedia video installation is also on display, the result of work by the Politecnico di Milano under the guidance of Professor Corinna Rossi, showing a 3D model of the entire tomb to provide a realistic and accurate overview of the environment.

For the first time, more than 100 restored textiles from the funerary assemblage have come out of storage to be displayed in a new open-storage area added to the cases that today hold the objects composing the couple’s burial assemblage— the only intact assemblage from the New Kingdom outside Egypt.

The tomb door is also presented in a new configuration, the result of meticulous restoration based on thorough studies of the object.

But the real revolution is technological. We reaffirm our position as a global leader in papyrus conservation: Kha’s Book of the Dead is displayed in an anoxic case, inclined at a maximum of 45 degrees and about 14 metres long— the first in the world of this size designed specifically for papyri. Anoxia — the absence of oxygen — is one of the most effective preventive conservation strategies, capable of completely eliminating biological infestations and insects at every stage of development.

The Book of the Dead is accompanied by an innovative infographic running the full 14-metre length of the papyrus. It offers three levels of analysis integrating archaeological, philological, and historical-religious perspectives. The infographic illustrates the 33 spells of the papyrus and explains the technical stages that shaped the manuscript— stages investigated and studied thanks to the TT8 Project (an international research programme launched by the Museum in 2017 for the comprehensive study of the funerary assemblage, chapel, and tomb of Kha and Merit).

The encounter between material analysis, philological study, archaeometry, and conservation science offers visitors a new experience, allowing them to observe not only the objects but also the process of knowledge that makes them interpretable. The renovated gallery becomes a model for our future reinstallations, in which visitors will increasingly be guided to discover not only the artefacts but also the knowledge surrounding them.

The project was supported by Fondazione CRT, major private donors who funded the creation of two new cases within the gallery, Gli Scarabei – the Association of Supporting Members of the Museo Egizio, and more than 500 donors who participated in the fundraising campaign “Everyday Objects, Extraordinary Stories”.

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