Helen Strudwick is Senior Curator (Ancient Nile Valley) at the Fitzwilliam Museum and is responsible for the Museum’s collection of Egyptian Antiquities. Since 2014, with Julie Dawson (Leverhulme Emeritus Fellow and Affiliated Researcher), she has a led a project to study, document and publish information about the Fitzwilliam’s collection of Egyptian coffins.
She first joined the Department of Antiquities in 2001 as an Egyptologist, working in documentation of the collections, as a dedicated outreach officer for ancient Egypt and then as acting Senior Assistant Keeper. In 2009 she became the Fitzwilliam’s first exhibitions officer, a post she held until her return to Antiquities in 2014.
Working with Julie Dawson (former Head of Conservation at the Fitzwilliam), she curated a major exhibition on ancient Egyptian coffins and the funerary industry in 2016 called Death on the Nile: Uncovering the Afterlife of Ancient Egypt. She also co-authored an exhibition catalogue of the same name.
Helen has also been archaeological director of the Cambridge Theban Tomb mission which has worked in Luxor since 1984 on a long-term project to document private tombs endangered by theft, tourism and environmental damage. So far the project has recorded Theban tombs 99, 253, 254, 294 and 297.
She is passionate about sharing information about ancient Egypt, not only with other Egyptologists but with people from all walks of life and is a regular lecturer at day schools and events run by local Egyptology societies.
+H. Strudwick, J. Dawson, J. Marchant, E. Geldhof and C. Hunkeler. In press. ‘Complex layered structures on ‘bivalve’ coffins’. Proceedings of the Second Vatican Conference 6–9 June 2017. Città del Vaticano: Edizioni Musei Vaticani
+H. Strudwick. In press. ‘A painted shroud fragment in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge’. [To be published in a forthcoming Festschrift]
+H. Strudwick. (2022) ‘Reuse, appropriation and ownership in ancient Egypt: a prolegomenon’. The Star who appears in Thebes: Studies in Honour of Jiro Kondo. Liverpool: Abercomby Press, 413-428
+J. Dawson, T. Turmezei, G. Killen and H. Strudwick. 2022. ’Revealing Interiors: CT scanning and microCT scanning of wooden coffins’. In Proceedings of the first international conference for Science of Ancient Egyptian materials and technology (SAEMT), Cairo 4-6 November 2017. Cairo: IFAO, 35–47
+M. Pitkin, H. Strudwick, J. Dawson and S. Hany Abed. (2021) ‘Engaging audiences in areas of low cultural provision: the concept of the ‘Pop-up’ museum experience’, CIPEG Journal, 4 https://doi.org/10.11588/cipeg.2020.4.83936
+L. Rees and H. Strudwick. (2020) ‘The sarcophagus ensemble of Ramesses III from KV 11: new insights from old documents and recent finds’. In Akhet Neheh: studies in honour of Willem Hovestreydt on occasion of his 75th birthday. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 43-55.
+H. Strudwick and J. Dawson (eds). (2018) Ancient Egyptian Coffins: past, present, future. Oxford: Oxbow Books https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvh9w0cw
+H. Strudwick. (2017) ‘Egyptian coffins at the Fitzwilliam Museum: a case study in collection formation’. In Egypt 2015: Perspectives of Research (Proceedings of the Seventh European Conference of Egyptologists). Oxford: Archaeopress, 97-113 h
The Fitzwilliam Museum @hmstrudwick
