Egyptologist’s research journey starts and ends at Raglan Museum

When an American Professor saw a photo of a small amulet on the Raglan Museum website, it began a journey which concluded with her meeting the descendants of the Raglan man who found the amulet in the Egyptian desert sands over 100 years previously. Dr Dobbin-Bennett, a New Zealander who is Assistant Professor of Art History at Oxford College of Emory, Georgia, USA, saw the photo of the amulet and a description saying, “Small turquoise figure with headdress. Fragile and held together with wire.” Her journey of research had begun.

Research by Dr Tasha Dobbin-Bennett, world leading egyptologist, revealed that the amulet was 3000 years old. It was found in the desert sand in Egypt during World War One by Raglanite the late Frank Gibbison. It was donated to the museum by Coralie Ormiston (nee Gibbison) in 1968, shortly after the Museum Society was established. It is now on display in the Raglan Museum’s WW1 exhibition. Doctor Dobbin-Bennett identified the small amulet as a representation of the Egyptian God Bes. Using a series of photos of objects representing Bes over thousands of years she was able to date the object as being 3000 years old. In other research she placed production of the amulet to the area around modern day Cairo. Dorothy Baucke, a descendent of Frank Gibbison, along with her family and Museum members were at the Museum on Monday 4th February at a Raglan Museum Society meeting in the Museum office to hear a presentation by Dr Dobbin-Bennett on her research and findings.