Pavel Onderka

Biographic Data

ID4044662
NAMEPavel Onderka
GIVEN NAMESPavel
FAMILY NAMEOnderka
SIGNATUREONDERKA P
AFFILIATIONSNational Museum
VERIFIEDNo
TOTAL WORKS36
TOTAL CITATIONS46
AUTHOR COUNT36
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR2016
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2025
H-INDEX4

  • An Egyptian Aegis from the Collections of the Náprstek Museum

    Open AccessPavel Onderka, Jana UrbánkováARTICLEAnnals of the Náprstek Museum2025

    The study summarizes the history of previous interpretations of an ancient Egyp­tian aegis from the collections of the Náprstek Museum. It examines its iconography and work­manship, which closely correspond to authentic examples from the Late Period (ca. 747–332 BCE). The core of the study is a newly conducted material analysis using a handheld XRF spectrometer. The examination revealed that the object is made of an alloy inconsistent with ancien…

  • The Buchlov Copy of the Relief of Nectanebo from Bologna

    Open AccessPavel Onderka, Jiří HonzlARTICLEAnnals of the Náprstek Museum2025

    The Buchlov Castle holds in its collection several stone tablets decorated with pseudo-Egyptian scenes and pseudo-hieroglyphic texts. The largest piece represents a simpli­fied and supplemented copy of the relief of King Nectanebo I of the Thirtieth Dynasty (380–343 BCE) from the collections of the Municipal Archaeological Museum in Bologna. The Bologna relief served as the primary model, complemented by antiquarian works such as Kircher’s Oedi­p…

  • An Osiris-Shaped Papyrus Sheath in the Náprstek Museum

    Open AccessPavel OnderkaARTICLEAnnals of the Náprstek Museum2025

    This article revisits and expands upon Břetislav Vachala’s 1981 study of a wooden Osiris-shaped papyrus sheath from the collections of the Náprstek Museum. It incorporates newly discovered information regarding the object’s provenance and provenience. The object has been dated to the Twenty-first to Twenty-second Dynasties (ca. 11th–10th centuries BCE) and classified as Subtype II-D according to Raven’s typology. A particularly exceptional featur…

  • Wratislaw 1842

    Open AccessPavel OnderkaARTICLEAnnals of the Náprstek Museum2025

    In 1842, the Bohemian nobleman Josef Xaver Count Wratislaw von Mitrowitz carved a visitor’s graffito on a column in the rear part of the Ramesseum. The graffito, numbered RDK 1601, gives the family name ‘Wratislaw’ and the year of the visit ‘1842’ and relates to his visit to the funerary temple on 2 April 1842

  • A Man of Humour. Obituary of Muhammad Ali Jerban

    Open AccessPavel OnderkaARTICLEAnnals of the Náprstek Museum2024

  • Inventory of Rock Inscriptions from Naga el-Girgawi in the Náprstek Museum

    Open AccessPavel OnderkaARTICLEAnnals of the Náprstek Museum2024

    Following its participation in the UNESCO International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Lower Nubia, the Czechoslovak Institute of Egyptology received a donation of a share of finds acquired during its course by the Egyptian government. These objects are presently kept as a part of the collections of the Naprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures. Most of the finds from the UNESCO campaign have already been thoroughly examined and …

  • A Coffin Fragment with Chapters 1 and 72 of the Book of the Dead in the Náprstek Museum

    Open AccessPavel Onderka, Jiří HonzlARTICLEAnnals of the Náprstek Museum2024

    The Naprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures keeps a small collection of fragments of ancient Egyptian qeresu-coffins dated to the Late Period (ca. 747–332 BCE), specifically the Twenty-fifth Dynasty (ca. 747–664 BCE). Five of the six pieces came from the Monthu priests’ burials at Deir el-Bahri and have been already published in the past. The sixth unprovenanced specimen, Inv. No. P 4551, is dealt with in the present paper. While …

  • A Story of a Stork

    Open AccessPavel Onderka, Gabriela VrtalováARTICLEAnnals of the Náprstek Museum2023

    The Náprstek Museum, Prague, holds in its collection a mummy of a large bird. The mummy, along with other ancient Egyptian antiquities, was transferred to the National Museum in 1933 from the Esterházy manor in Tomášikovo, Slovakia. Originally, it was believed to be the mummy of a human child; however, examination through initially destructive and later non-destructive methods identified the object as a mummy of a stork, later of a sacred ibis

  • Preliminary Report on the Twenty-Second Excavation Season of the Archaeological Expedition to Wad Ben Naga

    Open AccessPavel Onderka, Jiří HonzlARTICLEAnnals of the Náprstek Museum2023References: 5

    The twenty-second excavation season of the Archaeological Expedition to Wad Ben Naga focused on the continued exploration of the so-called Isis Temple (WBN 300). The works covered the south-eastern part of the hypostyle hall (WBN 301), a part of the central vestibule (WBN 302) including its front entrance, the entire southern vestibule (WBN 310), and a large part of the southern corridor (WBN 312). The excavation in the hypostyle hall yielded mos…

  • And Yet Another Pectoral of Pyay

    Open AccessPavel Onderka, Jiří HonzlARTICLEAnnals of the Náprstek Museum2022

    In 2011, Claude Laroche was able to establish relation between three pectorals of Pyay kept in the collections of three different European museums. He proved that the objects served in the modern times as patterns for one another and established a sequence in which they were made. Another copy belonging to the group was identified in the collections of the Buchlov Castle, South Moravian Region in the Czech Republic. The Buchlov piece is significa…

  • Fish Mummies in the Collections of the Náprstek Museum – Preliminary Report

    Open AccessPavel Onderka, Tomáš PřikrylARTICLEAnnals of the Náprstek Museum2022

    The National Museum – Náprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures, Prague, keeps within its collection four ancient Egyptian fish mummies. The specimens were recently examined using computed tomography as a part of the Atlas of Egyptian Mummies Project in the Czech Collections. Preliminary results of the examination using the most advanced, non-destructive radiological methods indicated that the original taxonomical determination of t…

  • MacMichael’s Rock Drawing at Jebel Qeili

    Open AccessPavel OnderkaARTICLEAnnals of the Náprstek Museum2022References: 1

    This paper brings forth preliminary results of recent re-examination of the cave shrine at Jebel Qeili, the site best known for the rock carving shoving Meroitic Prince Shorakaror. The painted depictions in the cave shrine were examined, described, and published by H. A. MacMichael and other scholars in the 20th century. Their descriptions and reproductions are summarised and commented upon. Then they are confronted with the results of recent doc…

  • Between a Chief Barber and an Opera Soloist

    Open AccessPavel OnderkaARTICLEAnnals of the Náprstek Museum2022

    The paper deals with a small Egyptian stela (Accession No. NM 8/51; Inv. No. P 1637) kept in the Náprstek Museum acquired from the well-known 20th century Prague opera soloist Ivo Žídek. The stela is described in detail. It was commissioned by a man of an uncertain name who held the uncommon title of the ‘Chief Barber of the City’. Based on comparative study and analysis of the style and texts, the stela could be dated to the 19th Dynasty and ide…

  • Pectoral for the Lector Priest Panakht

    Open AccessPavel OnderkaARTICLEAnnals of the Náprstek Museum2022

    An ancient Egyptian pectoral dated to the New Kingdom and belonging to the lector priest Panakht, entered the collections of the now National Museum, Prague, in the second half of the 19th century. The pectoral is decorated with a scene representing the rising sun on the recto and a scene of the worship of Osiris by the owner on the verso

  • Inscribed Canopic Jars in the Czech Collections

    Open AccessPavel OnderkaARTICLEAnnals of the Náprstek Museum2022

    Altogether, twelve ancient Egyptian canopic jars with inscriptions (or their parts) are kept in collections of public museums of the Czech Republic. They date between the New Kingdom and the Late Period and originate from both Upper and Lower Egyptian sites

  • A Shrew Mummy in the Collections of the Náprstek Museum

    Open AccessPavel OnderkaARTICLEAnnals of the Náprstek Museum2022

    The extensive collection of animal mummies kept in the National Museum – Náprsek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures comprises specimens of various species. The latest examination by the means of computed tomography has confirmed that one of the mummified ball-shaped packages contained remains of a shrew. The present paper summarises in wider context the issue of the mummification of these insectivores, introduces the shrew mummy kept …

  • Preliminary Report on the Twenty-First Excavation Season of the Archaeological Expedition to Wad Ben Naga

    Open AccessPavel Onderka, Vlastimil VrtalARTICLEAnnals of the Náprstek Museum2022Cited by: 1References: 9

    The twenty-first excavation season focused on the continued exploration of the so-called Isis Temple (WBN 300) and chapel WBN 1100. In the temple, the area of the northern corridor, the northern vestibule, and the southern sanctuary were primarily examined, confirming its assumed internal distribution. Numerous fragments of the temple’s iconographic and epigraphic program were retrieved. Furthermore, the southern sanctuary was uncovered and parts…

  • Preliminary Report on the Twentieth Excavation Season of the Archaeological Expedition to Wad Ben Naga

    Open AccessPavel Onderka, Vlastimil VrtalARTICLEAnnals of the Náprstek Museum2022Cited by: 2References: 5

    The twentieth excavation season of the Archaeological Expedition to Wad Ben Naga primarily focused on the continued excavations of the so-called Isis Temple (WBN 300). The excavation focused on the area in the rear of the temple explored by the Royal Prussian Expedition in 1844. Altogether ten rooms were revealed which allowed the assessment of the whole complex inner disposition of the temple. During the excavation, various pieces of the origina…

  • Preliminary Report on the Nineteenth Excavation Season of the Archaeological Expedition to Wad Ben Naga

    Open AccessPavel Onderka, Vlastimil Vrtal et al.ARTICLEAnnals of the Náprstek Museum2021Cited by: 4References: 9

    The nineteenth excavation season of the Archaeological Expedition to Wad Ben Naga primarily focused on the continued excavations of the so-called Isis Temple (WBN 300). The main aim was to confirm the assumptions that could have been made about the dimensions and disposition of the temple based on the results of previous excavation seasons. The second, southern, tower of the temple’s pylon was uncovered. Similar to the northern one, it included a…

  • Preliminary Report on the Eighteenth Excavation Season of the Archaeological Expedition to Wad Ben Naga

    Open AccessPavel Onderka, Vlastimil Vrtal et al.ARTICLEAnnals of the Náprstek Museum2021Cited by: 4References: 6

    The eighteenth excavation season of the Archaeological Expedition to Wad Ben Naga focused on the continued excavations of the so-called Isis Temple (WBN 300; more specifically on the frontal part of the proper temple), the continued excavations of structure WBN 250, and the continued excavations of cemetery WBN C260

  • From Egypt, with love

    Open AccessPavel Onderka, Christian E LoebenARTICLEAnnals of the Náprstek Museum2020

    The present article surveys Karl Richard Lepsius’ (1810–1884) love for producing modern compositions of Egyptian hieroglyphic texts, and in particular, for writing modern names in Egyptian hieroglyphs. The survey is carried out in the context of new discoveries of such texts on objects kept in the collections of Museum August Kestner in Hanover and the National Museum – Náprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures in Prague. Two newly …

  • Preliminary Report on the Seventeenth Excavation Season of the Archaeological Expedition to Wad Ben Naga

    Open AccessPavel Onderka, Vlastimil Vrtal et al.ARTICLEAnnals of the Náprstek Museum2019Cited by: 6

    The seventeenth excavation season of the Archaeological Expedition to Wad Ben Naga focused on the continued exploration of the so-called Isis Temple (WBN 300), the Palace of Queen Amanishakheto (WBN 100), and cemetery WBN C260

  • An Egyptian Tomb Inscription from Klapý

    Open AccessPavel OnderkaARTICLEAnnals of the Náprstek Museum2019

    Jiří Jan Zeman (1886-1934), a landowner from Sedlec (now Ústí nad Labem region), was buried in an Egyptianizing grave at the cemetery in Klapý. The gravestone was inscribed by an ancient Egyptian inscription containing the tomb owner’s biographical data which was with certainty composed by František Lexa

  • Preliminary Report on the Sixteenth Excavation Season of the Archaeological Expedition to Wad Ben Naga

    Open AccessPavel Onderka, Vlastimil Vrtal et al.ARTICLEAnnals of the Náprstek Museum2019Cited by: 3References: 2

    During its seventeenth excavation season, the Archaeological Expedition to Wad Ben Naga continued with the exploration of the so-called Palace of Queen Amanishakheto at Wad Ben Naga (WBN 100), as well as with the excavation and protection of the kom located behind the rail track. During the season, the complex of the so-called Isis Temple at Wad Ben Naga (WBN 300) began to be explored. Based on the previous magnetometric survey, a Meroitic kiosk …

  • Preliminary Report on the Fifteenth Excavation Season of the Archaeological Expedition to Wad Ben Naga

    Open AccessPavel Onderka, Vlastimil Vrtal et al.ARTICLEAnnals of the Náprstek Museum2018Cited by: 5

    The fifteenth excavation season of the Archaeological Expedition to Wad Ben Naga focused on the archaeological exploration of the Palace of Queen Amanishakheto (WBN 100) and rescue excavation of a kom located in the exclave of the archaeological site west of the railway (WBN 1000 and WBN C220