Oxford museum to project original colours onto 3,000-year-old Egyptian shrine

The Shrine of King Taharqa, a sandstone shrine almost 3,000 years old, once wore bright paint, and visitors to the Ashmolean museum in Oxford will soon see those colours again. From 13 November, a digital projection will recolour the shrine in the museum's Ancient Egypt and Sudan galleries, according to The Art Newspaper. The projection is free to see.

King Taharqa ruled Egypt and Sudan from 690 to 654 BC. The shrine was built in northern Sudan, and it is the only freestanding building in Britain that dates back to the time of the pharaohs, the same report says. A freestanding building is one that stands on its own, rather than being part of a larger structure.

The shrine's journey to Oxford was a long one. It left Khartoum, Sudan's capital, packed in 150 crates. The Sudanese government gave it to the Oxford University Excavations in Nubia, the team working in the region. In 1936, Nora Griffith gave it to the Ashmolean in memory of her husband, Francis Llewellyn Griffith.

Its carved sandstone blocks were originally covered in plaster and painted in bright colours. Over the centuries, most of that paint has gone. Fragments of red paint survive in tiny crevices in the carvings, and they were the first clue to what had been there.

Researchers then studied the stone more closely. Microscopic analysis, which uses magnification to examine tiny samples, and hyperspectral imaging, which records light across many wavelengths, revealed yellow and Egyptian blue. Egyptian blue is a vivid blue that the ancient Egyptians made themselves. Neither colour can be seen by the naked eye on the stone today.

Scorch marks on the stones also bear witness to the shrine's destruction, the report says. The museum's research does not turn the clock back for the stone itself. The digital projection lays colour over the shrine, based on the traces the researchers found, so visitors can see how the carvings may have looked.

Liam McNamara is the Ashmolean's keeper of antiquities, the museum's senior post for its ancient objects. For visitors planning a trip, the galleries are open to anyone who wants to see the shrine in its painted form.