The Ministry of Education and Science, as part of the Social Responsibility of Science II competition, has awarded funding for the project ‘Egyptological database hatshepsut.iksiopan.pl – continuation’. Created in 2013 in English, the Egyptological website and database hatshepsut.iksiopan.pl fits perfectly with the postulate of internationalising science and popularising it. It was created as a tool to collect all data concerning the time of Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut. This ruler reigned in the 15th century BC as one of the few women on the throne of the Pharaohs. It was a period of the state’s flourishing, prosperity and great building work. The hatshepsut.iksiopan.co.uk website is constructed on the principle of integrated databases containing seven large databases (databases of archaeological sites, monuments, famous historical figures, deities, rituals, documents and bibliographies). In addition, in addition to the database, scholarly articles commenting on particular problematic issues concerning the reign of the queen are gradually being introduced on the hatshepsut.co.uk website. So far, no database on ancient Egypt has been created that shows so extensively the problems of the Egyptian state in one historical period, hatshepsut.iksiopan.pl is therefore an excellent tool for all those interested in the times of the queen’s reign, especially international scholars. Poles are heavily involved in the study of this era by conducting work at one of Egypt’s most prestigious sites: the temple of Hatshepsut in Deir el-Bahari (Luxor), while 7 staff members of the Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures of the Polish Academy of Sciences were involved in the work of this mission, so they have the necessary knowledge and tools to bring these historical times closer to a wider audience. The proposed theme for 2023-2025 is to continue creating entries and entering data on monuments dating to the time of Hatshepsut. This data will be illustrated with representations from the period. Thanks to an extensive search engine, the person using the site is able to quickly find information, in parallel he or she can learn about the buildings built during the reign of the queen, the material culture of the period, the inhabitants of Egypt at the time, the deities worshipped at the time, both those known from previous eras and those whose cult was introduced precisely during Hatshepsut’s reign, and the rituals attested for the period. The ‘Monuments (Objects)’ database contains the following fields: monument name, category and type of monument, type of collection, museum and museum number, auction and auction number or field number of the monument, dimensions, material, description, history, commentary, bibliography, links to databases of sites, scenes, people, deities, rituals. Information is collected on images of monuments in the archives of museums and scientific institutions and, if possible, on casts of the monument. Museum information is, wherever possible, a link to the museum’s website presenting the monument.
The project is co-financed by the state budget, allocated by the Minister of Education and Science under the “Social Responsibility of Science II” Program (Poland).