The year 2022 marks the bicentenary of the deciphering of hieroglyphics by Jean-François Champollion. This historic event marks the birth of modern Egyptology and the Egyptian Museum celebrates it with an exhibition dedicated entirely to the scriptures and language of Egyptian civilization . According to the myth, it was the god Thoth who invented the art of writing, becoming the patron saint of knowledge and scribes. Writing is a fundamental tool for the administration of the country and, at the same time, an essential component of the vision of the world and imagery, vehicle of religious thought and ritual, of the representation of royal power and of the social identity of the elites.

"The Gift of Thoth: Reading Ancient Egypt" traces the evolution of scripture (hieratic, demotic, coptic and hieroglyphic) and the variety of media on which they wrote, opening a window on the environment, thought and society of Ancient Egypt . There are 170 exhibits on display , all from the Collections of the Egyptian Museum, with the exception of the cuneiform tablets from the Royal Museums of Turin. On display are papyri, statuary masterpieces, alabaster objects and wooden statuettes, testifying to that material culture through which Egyptologists and historians have reconstructed the biography not only of the objects, but of the entire Nilotic civilization.

Curated by Paolo Marini, Federico Poole and Susanne Töpfer , curators of the Egyptian Museum, the exhibition is the result of a scientific project conceived by the director of the Museum, Christian Greco and is supported by the Council for the Enhancement of Artistic and Cultural Heritage of Turin.