Athens museum to show its priceless Egyptian collection

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A priceless ancient Egyptian collection opens to the public Wednesday - featuring a wooden body tag for a mummy, a stunning bronze statue of a princess, and a 3,000-year-old loaf of bread with a bite-sized chunk missing.

The National Archaeological Museum in Athens is putting more than 1,100 pieces from the collection on permanent exhibition, as more of its halls open to the public following years of renovation.

The previous Egyptian display, shelved six years ago, included just 350 artifacts.

Most of the current collection - which museum officials say is one of the best in the world - has never been shown to the public before due to lack of space.

A further 6,000 Egyptian artifacts remain in underground storage.

One piece that made it into the display is the round, brown loaf of bread, which is missing a bite-sized chunk.

Baked during the New Kingdom, between 1550-1075 B.C., it was placed in a tomb for the occupant's use in the afterlife. Museum officials are unsure what happened to the missing bit.

Archaeologist Lena Papazoglou, curator of the museum's prehistoric, Egyptian and eastern collections, said Egypt's dry, hot climate helped preserve organic materials - food, wood and leather - for thousands of years.

Also on The Canadian Press, the New Zealand Herald and Egypt Daily Star News.

The Egyptian collection is featured on the National Archaeological Museum of Athens website.