2011

From March 23 to 30, 2012, Ahmed Shoeib (Conservation and Restoration Group), Adel Akarish (Conservation and Restoration Group) and Ewa Roznerska (Conservation and Restoration Group) held workshops at Kansai University and had a meeting with Japanese colleagues on Egypt survey next year. Beyond the bounds of their professions, they achieved a substantial result.

On March 27, 2012, Ahmed Shoeib (Conservation and Restoration Group), Adel Akarish (Conservation and Restoration Group) and Ewa Roznerska (Conservation and Restoration Group) conducted reports on conservation and restoration of cultural properties in Egypt and Poland.

Then Hiroshi Suita (Culture and Town Group), Tadateru Nishiura (Conservation and Restoration Group), Atsushi Ito (Geotechnical Engineering Group), Tatsuaki Nishigata (Geotechnical Engineering Group), Tetsuaki Tsuchido (Technology Development Group), Kosuke Takatori (Technology Development Group), Yoshinobu Nakamura (Technology Development Group), Ryuichi Arakawa (Technology Development Group) also reported on their research and had a discussion with the members from Egypt and Poland.

During a workshop, Ewa Roznerska (Conservation and Restoration Group) gave a demonstration of an adhesive material for conservation and restoration of mural paintings. Yoshinobu Nakamura (Technology Development Group) also had a meeting with Ahmed Shoeib (Conservation and Restoration Group) and Ewa Roznerska (Conservation and Restoration Group), and exchanged their views on an experiment next time.

Ahmed Shoeib (Conservation and Restoration Group), Adel Akarish (Conservation and Restoration Group) and Ewa Roznerska (Conservation and Restoration Group) visited some cultural properties in Japan such as Sumiyoshi-taisya in Osaka, Nanzen-ji in Kyoto, Itukushima-jinja and Hiroshima Peace Memorial. This visiting has broadened their horizon for the future restoration and conservation of cultural properties.

On the Agreement between Cairo University and Kansai University, Cairo University sent two specialists from Faculty of Archaeology to Kansai University. Ahmed Shoeib and Maisa Mansur spent one month here from December 15, 2011, and they conducted a research with members of the ICP and Kansai University.

They discussed with Tetsuaki Tsuchido (Technology Development Group) about the research and analyses of fungi and microorganism in Egyptian monuments and they exchanged ideas with Yoshinobu Nakamura (Technology Development Group) about the deterioration of polymers used in Egyptian monuments.

Ahmed Shoeib lectured on the monuments of ancient Egypt, ancient Mediterranean world and ancient Europe at some classes, undergraduate and graduate, of Kansai University. He also showed some conservation processes and techniques for ancient paintings. And he discussed with Ryuichi Arakawa (Technology Development Group) and Hideya Kawasaki (Technology Development Group) about the analysis methods of painting adhesive.

Maisa Mansur studied some advanced technology for culturing and identifying fungi and microorganisms at laboratory of Tetsuaki Tsuchido (Technology Development Group).

At the end of last August, Hiroshi Suita (Culture and Town Group), Tsutomu Nakazawa (Culture and Town Group) and Takashi Mori (Culture and Town Group) visited Alexandria to watch Qait Bay Fort, National Museum, Roman Theatre, Catacomb, Amud El-Sawari and Al-Anfushi Monuments. They compared cultural heritages of ancient Egypt with archaeological sites of Hellenistic era from the point of Natural History, Classical Archaeology and Egyptology.

On the other days, Atsushi Ito (Geotechnical Engineering Group), Tadateru Nishiura (Conservation and Restoration Group), Ahmed Shoeib (Conservation and Restoration Group), Adel Akarish (Conservation and Restoration Group) and Hiroshi Suita (Culture and Town Group) had experiment on soil stabilization of burial chamber of ancient Egypt at the Mastaba Idout in Saqqara. Meanwhile Eriko Oka (Culture and Town Group) did fieldwork at Saqqara village.

Atsushi Ito (Geotechnical Engineering Group), Hiroshi Suita (Culture and Town Group) and Tadateru Nishiura (Conservation and Restoration Group) also visited Conservation Center in the Grand Egyptian Museum and exchanged their ideas with specialists who work at the Center.

What is more, Yoshihiro Yasumuro (Faculty of Environmental and Urban Engineering) participated in a research on the superstructure of the Mastaba Idout. The research was surpported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research.

From August 5 (Friday) to 11 (Thursday), Hiroshi Suita (Culture and Town Group), Tetsuaki Tsuchido (Technology Development Group), Yoshinobu Nakamura (Technology Development Group), Kosuke Takatori (Technology Development Group), Adel Akarish (Conservation and Restoration Group), and Ahmed Shoeib (Conservation and Restoration Group) visited Dunhuang Academy to see the conservation of wall paintings.

Not only did they see the mural paintings at the Mogao Grottoes, but also the Western Thousand Buddha Caves and other historical places which do not open to the public at the moment.They got explanations about them at the sight where the restration was going on.

They also visited the National Research Center for Conservation of Ancient Wall Paintings. Ahmed Shoeib (Conservation and Restoration Group) and Hiroshi Suita had a workshop on their subjects there.

In this trip, they could compare the issue of conservating the wall painting in China to the one in Ancient Egypt as well as they exchanged views with local researchers.

A research of Tadateru Nishiura (Conservation and Restoration Group) in Machu Picchu was introduced in the Asahi Shimbun newspaper (Morning edition). This research was conducted in collaboration with Haruhiro Fujita (Toyo University).

Performance of Egyptian dance was held under joint sponsorship of Embassy of the Arab Republic of Egypt (Culture, Education and Science Bureau) at Kansai University on July 21 (Thursday), 2011.

Egyptian National Folk Dance Troupe “El-Horrya” performed the folk dance and Kansai University’s dance circle “Belly Divas” presented the belly dance.

Performance for “El-Horrya” is as follows:

1. Pharaonic Dance
2. Sufi Dance
3. Nubian Dance
4. Horse Dance
5. Spoon Dance with Semsemiya

Ryuichi Arakawa (Technology Development Group) and Hideya Kawasaki (Technology Development Group), members of this institute, applied mass spectrometry to pigment analysis in corporation with Dai Nippon Toryo and Shimadzu Corporation, and they have developed the ionization technology of small organic molecules using iron oxide nanoparticles. This technology has enhanced detection sensitivity a million times better than the conventional techniques.
This development will be applied to medical field. In addition, it is expected to analyze organic materials on pigment surface for the conservation and restoration work of cultural properties.

The 33th Annual Meeting of the Japan Society for the Conservation of Cultural Property was held at Nara Prefecture New Public Hall from June 4 (Saturday) to 5 (Sunday), 2011. Tadateru Nishiura (Conservation and Restoration Group), member of ICP, gave a presentation.

“Conservation of Machu Picchu Archaeological Site, Peru (I)
– Site Investigation for Deterioration and Conservation of Remains -“

Atsushi Ito (Geotechnical Engineering Group) lectured in the R&R Exhibition of Building Renovation 2011 at Tokyo Big Sight on June 1 (Wednesday), 2011.

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