Visitors to Abergavenny Museum from now until the new year can learn all about one of the world’s great civilisations thanks to a special partnership with the British Museum.

The British Museum’s Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan has curated a special exhibition called ‘Writing for Eternity: Decoding Ancient Egypt’.

The exhibition uses the iconic scripts of Ancient Egypt – the well-known hieroglyphs and the lesser known Hieratic, Demotic and Coptic – to reveal conditions in the Nile Valley and Delta two to four thousand years ago through a selection of amazing objects from the collections of the British Museum.

Ilona Regulski, the British Museum’s Curator of Egyptian Written Culture said, “Ancient Egypt has produced an astonishing variety of inscribed objects giving us valuable insights into one of the greatest ancient civilisations.

“The exhibition will illustrate 4,000 years of writing history through a selection of well-known but also surprising objects, such as the scribe’s pen and inscribed pieces of jewellery. The diverse selection of artefacts reveals how the Egyptians solved daily problems but also what they thought would happen after death.”

Councillor Bob Greenland, Monmouthshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Innovation, Enterprise and Leisure said he was delighted to see the exhibition in Abergavenny Museum and grateful to the British Museum for helping it happen.

“Abergavenny Museum’s ability to display our great national treasures in the town thanks to the Welsh Government’s Sharing Treasures Programme is an important part of the museum’s offer to our communities and visitors,” he said.

“Writing for Eternity is another excellent example of this work and I am sure people will be excited by the opportunity to see it.”

The exhibition runs until January 7. Alongside the activities available in the gallery throughout the duration of the exhibition will be a lecture by Ilona Regulski at The Priory Centre on Friday November 4 from 2pm to 3pm.

The lecture entitled Museum Signs of Writing: Scribal Culture in Ancient Egypt will offer further information about how Ancient Egyptians made their language visible.

Tickets priced at £3 are available in advance from Abergavenny Museum on 01873 854282.

A literacy workshop for schools is also available - please contact [email protected] or 01600 710630 for details.