To this day, Saint Menas remains one of the most important saints of the Coptic Church in Egypt. His veneration can be traced back to the fourth century AD, for example through the late-antique pilgrimage centre of Abu Mina, west of Alexandria. It was a destination for travellers from across the Christian world of that time.

In the Sunday lectures, Daniel Kischko from the Institute of Egyptology and Coptology will speak on 15 and 29 November at 2.15 pm in Lecture Theatre F33 of the Fürstenberghaus. He will not only provide insights into the figure of Menas and Abu Mina, but will also discuss the depiction of the saint (iconography) from late antiquity right up to the modern era. The focus will be on small ampoules, which, from the fourth to the seventh century AD, spread throughout the Roman Empire as mass-produced souvenirs for pilgrims and can therefore be found today in almost every archaeological collection.

In the latest episode of the podcast “News from the Ancient World”, the guest is Assistant Professor Dr Sabine Huy from the Institute for Classical Archaeology and Christian Archaeology, which runs the Archaeological Museum. Emilia Bachmann and David Westerkamp talk to her about her research into connectivity and cultural interactions in the eastern Mediterranean world and in the often-overlooked Black Sea region from the Archaic to the Hellenistic periods (7th to 1st centuries BC). The focus is on her experiences in German-Russian field research projects on Greek settlements near Taganrog in southern Russia on the Sea of Azov, and her doctoral thesis, which examines processes of material and cultural exchange in this fascinating region, which is generally rarely associated with Greek antiquity.

Who was the man whose mummy is on display in the basement of the University of Münster’s Archaeological Museum? Why was he buried in a coffin that is several centuries older than he was? And how did the mummy and coffin come into the possession of the merchant Wilhelm Schmitz-Scholl, a descendant of the Tengelmann founding family? These specific questions will probably remain unanswered forever. However, Egyptologist Prof. Dr Angelika Lohwasser and project collaborator Dr Marc Loth, together with the team at the Archaeological Museum, hope that the new project, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) with 170,000 euros, entitled “History(ies) in a ‘dense find’ – a multidisciplinary investigation of the Egyptian coffin containing a mummy in Münster”, will yield numerous new insights into everyday life in Egypt 3,000 years ago.

Until 16 November, the Archaeological Museum is honouring Dr Alexander Haindorf, the first Jewish private lecturer at the University of Münster, and the Marks-Haindorf Foundation with a special display case. Selected historical objects and documents provide insights into Haindorf’s educational vision and the eventful history of the institution he founded. A particular highlight is a commemorative cup dating from 1850, which the “Israelite Community” dedicated to Alexander Haindorf to mark the 25th anniversary of his educational initiative. 

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