Überblick
The holdings from Ahmed Fakhry to the DAI Cairo consists of 10 boxes and a card index. A large part of this collection consists of photographs (both prints and negatives) from the years 1934 to 1973, which have been sorted into either envelopes or folders. Nonetheless, only some of them were labelled, so that not all have been definitively classified yet. Of more than 2000 photographs, only some 20% have been published. Part of the correspondence with Erika Feucht and Eberhard Otto, largely concerning Fakhry’s contributions to the Lexikon der Ägyptologie is also present among the holdings. A card index from Fakhry’s work in Dahshur consisting of more than 600 object find cards, often with sketches, is also to be found at the DAI Cairo. The remaining written documents comprise a few notebooks, notecards, and manuscripts written in both English and Arabic, the majority of which are still to be translated.
The documents in the DAI Cairo archive reveal various stages in the life of Ahmed Fakhry, such as the early years of his career. His research and, most prominently, materials for his publications on the oases, form a key focus of the holdings within the DAI Cairo archive. Documents from his work on Dahshur form another vital part of the bequest.
Study of the collection began in 2009 with initial organising of the material, and the establishing of an excel spreadsheet by I. Lehnert, A. Huth and M. Reinemer as a preliminary finding aid. 2019 began with the digitalisation of all photographs, negatives, and documents by M. Tolba and A. Nasser. In consequence of this, Ahmed Fakhry’s entire collection is now available for review by academic colleagues. Nonetheless, the search inventory must be checked and reworked for iDAI.archives. Hence, a cursory survey of the content is all that is possible at present (as of 2020)
