In an interview with Sada el Balad English Website “SEE”, Olena Romanova, an Egyptologist from Ukraine and is working for Johannes Gutenberg University, talked about her activities and stay in Egypt.
She has many books in English published in Ukraine.
Romanova is interested in the social history of the Old Kingdom and the First Intermediate Period, priests of the Old Kingdom, decoration of the tombs of the Old Kingdom, textual and visual self-presentation of a person, and autobiographies during the Old Kingdom and the First Intermediate period.
She is also interested in the religion of Ancient Egypt, the personal dimension of the Egyptian religion and history of Egyptology, the influence of political ideologies on the development of Egyptology; the Ancient Egyptian objects and their collections in the museums and other gatherings of Ukraine.
“I am very glad to be invited by the embassy of Ukraine and the Czech Institute of Egyptology to give a lecture here about my current project. I am greatly thankful for this invitation and also thankful for our Egyptian colleagues who also assisted in organizing this event and my visit to Egypt,” she added.
“I am very glad to be in Egypt again, everytime I visit Egypt, I feel I would like to visit it again,” Romanova added.
When asked about her interest in Egyptology, she said, “Firstly I would like to say that in the Ukrainian schools, our children studied the history of ancient Egyptian. So, when I was a child, we had classes on the history of ancient Egypt, and I have seen Hieroglyphs, so I got interested in reading it and learning more in this field, so I tried to find some books.”
“It was my passion and I decided to join Kyiv Taras Shevchenko University- it is a leading university in Ukraine - and after this, I joined history faculty and I was a student of Ukrainian professor, who organized individual training and a program for me in Egyptology. Then I entered the university and continued my postgraduate studies from the National Academy of Ukraine,” she added.
“From this time I tried to study ancient Egypt and eager to study the decorations of tombs, and also I tried to educate Ukrainian people to have an opportunity to read about Egypt because there is a great interest in ancient Egypt, Egyptian literature in Ukraine, so I would like to help this people to dive deep in this field,” Romanova stressed.
When she was asked if she participated in the archeological mission in Egypt, She said: “I didn’t participate in the archeological mission in Egypt but I hope but I only had the survey,”.
She added: “I would like to excavate and I could make a photo recording of the decoration and I hope that I publish my photo recording.”
Replying to a question on if she learned some Arabic words during her stay in Egypt, she said that she learned to say thank you and hello in Arabic language, adding that she tried to study Arabic language 10 years ago but she is not good in hearing Arabic language.
Asked about her current project she is working on, Olena said that she has few project but her current project is related to Egyptology, it isn’t related to ideology neither religion.
“For me, the ancient Egyptian tombs are an elegant source because through these tombs we not only know the name of the person but also who he was and his family.”
Romanova also dished on missing the opportunity to visit the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM).
“I did not visit the new museum, the new Grand Egyptian Museum. I did not visit it yet because I decided that it was not open. Is it open? I'm sorry. Because I decided that it is not open and every time when I was in Egypt it was closed,” she noted.
Romanova pointed out, “Maybe I was unlucky but I visited the old museum, the old building, and for me, it's very impressive because I like Egyptian empire style in architecture firstly and I understand that it is the house or the treasure of the world because it is a larger collection in the world,”.
She added she visited it a few times and as a person who is connected to the museum and museum storage also, saw that Egyptian museum collaborator and administration.
Romanova pointed out it made improvements and changed its exposition and the exposition.
“For me, it became better and as for me it's very useful that there are so large, so lot of objects as for Egyptologists it's good. Maybe it's not very good for common people but I'm egoistic in this manner and now what I came to mention that they use light. It's very good and they put a new object,”.
She added: “I understand that so many objects and some objects very heavy and exposition cannot be removed quickly if you want because it's problem but they try to form new exposition or new just excavated monuments that they put in some entourage of their perpetual exposition and to explain and it's very interesting as for me and now it is under the reconstruction and I really I would like to visit the Grand Egyptian Museum because I wasn't lucky,”.
“What I can see I expect that it will be something very interesting and it will be some new level of the museum, Egyptology of the museum, exposition in the world history of museum, museology maybe. I expect it,”.
Talking about her favorite Ancient Egyptian masterpiece, Romanova noted: “I am a fan of Egyptian objects at all. I have a piety to every object,".
She reminisced about her last visit and noted during her last survey, that she made observations of the Raur tomb in the central necropolis of Giza, and the object from the Raur tomb, are in the Cairo Museum, Alexandria Museum, and some other museums.
“Like there is an alabaster stela in Cairo museum, with the figure of Raur, and some inscription. It’s maybe simple, but it's laconic very laconic style,” Romanova noted. “I admire this stela, this style because Egyptian artists was very craftful in presenting the main details,”.
“For me, it's very fascinating, because he used the surface of alabaster and made it delicate. And also I like alabaster figures, and I like the sculpture of ancient Egyptians, because if we compare the sculpture of ancient Egyptians with ancient Greeks, they were master to show the movement of the human body in stone,”.
Romanova described the Egyptian artists as masters for representing the mind of the people, of the person, which is reflected on their face.
“Some sculptures, for me, it's very, some details, they are very realistic. For example, there are a few sculptures of Nefertiti, of course, you could see that the artist, they represent, you can understand, for them some, it is young Nefertiti or old Nefertiti. She is beautiful, but she has some risks. And it's, she is really beautiful, but some of the sculpture represents that she is a lady in age,”.
“From my perspective, it's something fantastical how they can do it. And also another style that some sculptures, they, of course, represent, a royal sculpture, they represent a king who is, who is god, and he don't see on us, but the sculptors of their Middle Kingdom, they represent Senusert, and of this period, they represent the kings as this statue see on you,” She added.
“For me, he wants to say, what you have done for ancient Egypt? Because it's, he contacts, the statue contacts with visitors, he see, and you and you can understand. As for me, I would like to answer him, I am glad to see you, I greet you, great king. So, it's, for me, it's something very, very, how to, realistic, and realistic together because it's, and it's really fascinating,”.
When asked if she agreed that the International community should take part in preserving Egyptian archaeology and monuments?", Romanov replied: “Yes, I would like to say that I spouse and believe that humanity is possible to exist when we realize and remember our past, history, and historical heritage of every country is very useful and of course, Egypt is so brilliant, ancient, powerful, and influential civilization that really influence the whole world and also Europe and its democracy.”
“In my point of view, the preservation of Egyptian heritage is very necessary and I agree to adopt a deal that all artifacts of Ancient Egypt should not be in trading and must be kept in museums or be safe in the territory of Egypt," she continued.
"Illegal trafficking must be stopped," she emphasized, adding that they also face issues with illegal trafficking, particularly in "black archaeology," which involves unauthorized excavations at archaeological sites in Ukraine.
She believes there is potential for cooperation between Egypt and Ukraine, particularly in areas of mutual interest such as international organizations and institutions aimed at preventing illegal trafficking, like UNESCO.
Romanov invited the viewers to watch a video featuring a man and his wife, not just any wife but his beloved wife. She highlights that the phrase "my beloved wife" signifies a personal attitude of an Egyptian man toward an Egyptian woman, emphasizing that it’s not a standard or generic phrase but an individual expression. She finds this aspect fascinating. One of her ongoing projects focuses on social life in ancient Egypt. Through the study of different tombs and the collection of information, she aims to understand the organization of Egyptian society, the social groups, and the structure of state administration, which she finds deeply intriguing. Her particular interest lies in Egyptian priests, a role she believes differs significantly from contemporary religious figures in Christianity or Islam. She is working to understand the role of priests in ancient Egypt and hopes to share her hypothesis with other Egyptologists.
Romanov also acknowledges the impact of the war in Ukraine, stating that in 2014, when Russia invaded Ukraine and occupied Crimea, she had to pause her project. Crimea is home to the Kerch State Museum, which houses a unique collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts brought to Ukraine in antiquity. These artifacts, such as statues, scarabs, and jewelry, were brought by the ancient Greeks who had close ties with ancient Egypt.
She explains that in Ukraine, there are over 18 museums with such collections, although Ukraine has never been an empire seeking to claim Egyptian artifacts. The items in these collections were either excavated or brought back by Ukrainian travelers in the 19th century. Due to the full-scale Russian invasion, researchers can no longer access these collections, as the museum staff has secured them in shelters for protection. Despite the current circumstances, Romanov and her colleagues are working to document, organize, and inventory the collections for future research. They are hopeful that they will be able to continue their work, including scientific descriptions and publications, though for now, the artifacts remain safely stored away.
Romanov concluded by saying that “she loves Egypt very much.”
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