Melville House is a large building in County Fife that housed soldiers during the Second World War and later became a boarding school. After the first artifact was found on its territory in 1952, many other ancient objects were also found in the same place. This continued until 1984; teachers and students took each new find to museum curators and experts, who determined that the statues belonged to ancient Egyptian statues. But no one could find out how they got there.

Solution

A fascinating collection further enriched by the mystery of its origins in this country.
Margaret Maitland, Chief Curator of the Ancient Mediterranean Department at the National Museum of Scotland, where most of the objects are kept, says:

A total of 18 ancient Egyptian objects were found around the Melville House; this is the only work of its kind to be officially declared and described in Scotland. The ancient collection includes a nearly 4,000-year-old statue head carved from red sandstone that Maitland calls a “masterpiece of Egyptian sculpture” and numerous bronze and ceramic figurines dating from 1069 BC to 30 BC, just before the Romans took over the region. Sweetcorn.

12 of 18 items were found on school grounds / Photo: National Museums of Scotland

So how did the artifacts get to these places?

Based on recent evidence, researchers believe they were brought by Alexander Leslie-Melville, titled Lord Balgonie, the young heir of the House of Melville, who traveled to Egypt in 1856 and died a year after returning to Britain. It is thought that he acquired the collection during his travels, as consuls and antique dealers frequently sold antique works to foreigners during this period. At that time, neither in Egypt nor in other countries did people approach archaeological finds with as much admiration and attention as they do today. There are known cases where scientists discarded some findings if they found them unimportant. Even so, after Lord Balgoni’s death, family members probably moved the belongings to the annexe, which was later demolished, and forgot about the valuable artifacts. This would be unheard of today.

Glazed ceramic figurine showing the Egyptian goddess Isis breastfeeding her son Horus / Photograph National Museums of Scotland

Eye of Horus Image / Photo: National Museums of Scotland

The discovery of ancient Egyptian artefacts buried in Scotland for more than a century shows the scale and complex history of the antiquities collected in the 19th century. Examining and describing such a variety of artifacts was an exciting challenge.
says Margaret Maitland.

Unfortunately this is just a guess. We will probably never get accurate data about this mystery. But even small facts like examining the journeys of the previous owners of the house and comparing them with time periods allow you to look at this story from a new angle.