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Wednesday, January 04, 2006
King Tut Exhibit Review, Part 2
Exhibit Review
Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs
January 3, 2006
Part 2 of 3
The first hall is titled “Egypt Before Tut” and featured cases of beautiful objects that are too many to describe here. There was so much to look at that I can’t even recall exactly what my favorite objects were without consulting the official exhibit catalog (a cool $50 in the gift shop…I didn’t get one). The second hall was about the traditional beliefs of the ancient Egyptians. Many of the objects here were very elaborate and quite beautiful. At this point I thoroughly convinced of the magnitude of Howard Carter’s find in 1922. The preservation of virtually all of the artifacts is simply breathtaking. After proceeding through halls about the Valley of the Kings (the location of Tut’s tomb), death and the afterlife, and religion we finally got the objects found in the tomb. Unfortunately the actual sarcophagus and the mummy of Tutankhamun is still in Egypt (which makes complete sense to me) but most of the other objects were on display here. Items such as chairs, chests, dressers, mirrors, tables, model boats, body ornamentation, and jewelry were all displayed beautifully with very helpful descriptors. There was even a bust of the young king that is believed to have served as a mannequin to either store or manufacture his elaborate garments. Perhaps the most impressive was the solid gold sarcophagus of a woman believed to be Tut’s mother. It is simply too beautiful for words and seeing any picture cannot do it justice.
At this point we were still on the second floor of the museum so after descending a staircase to the first floor, which is supposed to represent Howard Carter’s discovery of the tomb, we were treated with all the details of the mummy itself. The rest of the exhibit included great displays about the remains and tests than have been carried out, guesses as to his cause of death (which is still unknown), and an interesting room that reconstructed what the tomb looked like. And of course, this then led to the gift shop where mountains of overpriced Tut memorabilia were available for purchase.
Part 3 to follow...
Posted by Will at January 4, 2006 07:16 PM in Anthropology