The main body of the Egyptian archaeological collection of the “Museo Preistorico Etnografico e Kircheriano” was donated by David Randall-MacIver in 1901. They came from the excavations he carried out on the behalf of the Egypt Exploration Fund in the town of el-Amra, Upper Egypt. This was followed in 1905 by material from the Italian Archaeological Mission in Egypt (excavations of Hammamiye) led by Ernesto Schiaparelli, director of the Egyptian Museum in Turin.

The disk in green glass with a golden square foil is considered of remarkable interest because of its label, attributed to Ippolito Rosellini, which proves that the relic was found inside a tomb in Thebes. Rosellini, one of the main figure of the Franco-Tuscan expedition in Egypt (cfr.ITEM 2) wrote on it \'Disco di vetro con entro una lamina d\'oro. Trovato in una tomba a Tebe, Egitto, da I. Rosellini 1824 -dono di Elenina Ox Sicard, dicembre 1902\'. The relic was later acquired by Enrico Hillyer Giglioli, whose collection was then acquired by the Pigorini Museum in 1913.

This relief fragment, from the tomb of Pharaoh Seti I, was discovered in 1817 in the Valley of the Kings. It belongs to the most important finds of the Franco-Tuscan expedition (1828–29), brought to Florence by Rosellini. Here the goddess Maat can be recognised by the feather on her head.

When Henry Salt and J. L. Burckhardt donated this colossal bust of Ramesses II to the British Museum in 1817, it created a sensation, and became known as the “Younger Memnon”. It was removed from the Ramesseum in Thebes by the explorer Giovanni Battista Belzoni, who transported it to Alexandria, from where it was shipped to England.

French diplomat Victor Place, who spent the last years of his life in Romania, discovered at Khorsabad (1851–54) 14 inscribed barrels like this one. All but four were lost in the Shatt el-Arab waterway in April 1855. According to a letter written by a son of Victor Place, his father had received this barrel from the French government as a reward for his archaeological activity. The text records Sargon II’s founding of a new capital at Khorsabad.

One of the massive guardian figures found by Layard, which were floated down the Tigris. They weigh several tons each.

The Flood Tablet, actually the 11th tablet of the Gilgamesh Epic, made international news in 1872. George Smith, cuneiform scholar at the British Museum, translated this story of a Flood that bears a very close resemblance to the biblical account. How could a story thought to have been revealed by God to his chosen people be found elsewhere, and in a text older than the Bible?

Rich’s assistant was a talented German by the name of Karl Bellino. He accompanied Rich on his visits to the sites and greatly impressed him by his scholarship. One of the important objects discovered by Rich and Bellino was a clay cylinder with an inscription of Sennacherib, King of Assyria.

Between 1882 and 1894 Eduard Glaser made four expeditions to Yemen, home to the legendary Queen of Sheba. Among the objects brought back by him to Vienna is this 3–4th century AD South-Arabian frieze of ram heads.

The Rosetta Stone is famous for providing the key to the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs. The inscription is a priestly decree affirming the cult of young King Ptolemy V. The text, written in hieroglyphs, Demotic and Greek, played the key role in the decipherment of hieroglyphs.

Another object brought back by Glaser was this sculpture of a male head.

The ancient world was a cosmopolitan place. In big cities, people from across the known world lived side by side. The different cultures borrowed from each other freely. Here at Palmyra (Syria) was a blend of Roman and Aramaic cultures. Aramaic is still spoken in some villages in southern Syria, as well as by modern Assyrian communities.