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Tutankhamen's Roadshow Buys Egypt A New Museum

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Bianca
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« on: May 30, 2008, 12:27:03 pm »











                                      Tutankhamen's Roadshow Buys Egypt A New Museum





The spoils of the first Tutankhamun exhibition in the 1970s were earmarked to revamp the Egyptian

Museum in Cairo.

                                                    It never happened.

But on the back of the latest sell-out tour, the world's largest museum is being built next to the

Pyramids




Will Hobson
The Guardian,
Friday May 30 2008


The rest of the world has been going crazy for Egypt since circa 12BC when a Roman praetor named Caius Cestius chose to be buried in a marble-veneer pyramid just outside Rome's Ostian Gate.

More than a million people have now seen the Tutankhamun exhibition at the O2 Centre, a popular success that, although it has made fewer headlines, matches Tut's first extravaganza in the 1970s, which packed out the British Museum for six months (tickets 50p) and criss-crossed America for three years. Its triumphant progress then (twice the number of people saw it at Seattle Art Museum as were living in Seattle at the time, for instance) earned the Egyptian Government a tidy sum by the standards of the day - $7million on the American leg alone - which was officially earmarked for a revamp of the display facilities at the treasures' permanent home, the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

Thirty years on, it's hard to think any of the money actually reached its destination. In fact it's hard to think of change of any sort disturbing the dusty, eternal dreams of the Egyptian Museum for large stretches of the last century. This incredible building offers many delights, not least the world's most magnificent collection of pharaonic art, but display facilities are not obviously one of them. Captions, wall panels, organisation by themes – all but none of the trappings of the modern museum corral the contents of its vast halls and atrium modelled on the interior of an Ancient Egyptian temple. Instead, its vast mother lode of splendours mutely await discovery, like Ancient Egypt itself, one of the best documented and, at the same time, most enigmatic civilisations in history.




 Artist's impression of the proposed
Grand Egyptian Museum
next to the Pyramids.

Photograph: Amr Nabil/AP


All this may soon be about to change. A new museum, the Grand Egyptian Museum, is due at any moment to be built on a 100-acre site next to the Pyramids. Ground clearing has begun, the Japanese government has agreed a $300 million loan, the 36-feet-high statue of Rameses II has been moved into place - its 10-hour journey through Cairo's streets lined with thousands of onlookers was broadcast live on television. Plans for what will allegedly be the world's largest museum show a hi-tech modernist glass structure with a translucent alabaster façade and a network of "streets, piazzas and bridges" linking the mass of exhibition spaces that will house 100,000 artefacts. All in all, it promises to be another spectacular new dawn of which Cairo is so fond.
« Last Edit: May 30, 2008, 01:19:03 pm by Bianca » Report Spam   Logged

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Bianca
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« Reply #1 on: May 30, 2008, 12:36:20 pm »



http://bellsouthpwp.net/k/e/ken5sar/page3.html









But sooner or later it too will be faced with the basic problem of Egyptology – the sheer profusion and variety of the material. Some 3,500 objects were found in Tutankhamun's tomb, of which 1,700 are on display in the Egyptian Museum and the rest are stored in its basement (no more than 60 have ever left the country).

 

And yet he was only a minor king who died before he could accumulate a substantial fortune. All the obvious royal tombs have been stripped by thieves. But even so, with a regularity that virtually beggars belief, the finds keep on coming (try putting "tombs discovered Egypt" into Google).

In the last 20 years alone, the largest royal tomb complex has been discovered in the Valley of the Kings; a tourist's horse's stumble in the sands south of the Great Sphinx has revealed the mud-brick tombs of the labourers and overseers who built the Pyramids; the earliest examples of alphabetic writing have been found on cliffs in the desert west of the Nile; and thousands of mummies have been unearthed by an oasis in the so-called Valley of the Golden Mummies.

These are only the highlights, and, in true Egyptian style, the royal tombs are in fact a rediscovery: the complex was discovered in 1825, a few of its rooms were mapped, and its entrance was then promptly lost.

The Ancient Egyptians were obsessed by life rather than death. They were determined in every way they knew how to prolong the sheer sweetness and sensuousness and physicality of being alive – alive as perhaps you could only be when living on the plentiful banks of Nile in the midst of what, originally at least, you thought to be unending desert.

They wished their dead "bread, beer, and prosperity"; hard to think of anything further removed from the Judaeo-Christian tradition of an immortal self shedding its corporeal form, its "prison", at death. The body was a crucial part of their individual existence, hence the necessity of mummification, and their entire theology was designed not to justify death – for instance as God's revenge on us for our original sin – but to defeat it with the help of any one of their thousands of gods.
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« Reply #2 on: May 30, 2008, 12:44:53 pm »









At first, only the Pharaoh was thought to be able to enjoy the pleasures of this world in paradise, but as time passed, huge swathes of society became eligible.

Everything, depending of course on whether it was war or peacetime, became more elaborate and manifold: mummification techniques, spells, rituals, blithely contradictory myths, offerings, temples, pyramids, jewellery, literature.

And because they were such good craftsmen and the desert is so good at preserving things and their civilisation lasted so long, Egypt is both an archaeologist's dream and biggest challenge. Some simply give up.

Around two million mummified ibis are thought to be stored in the catacombs of Saqqara, but no one is prepared to spend any more time working out exactly how many. But, even more pressing, once you do find something, what on earth are you supposed to do with it?




The Egyptian Museum is vast,
but many exhibits remain in the basement.


The first purpose-built museum in the world, the Egyptian Museum, with its neo-classical façade and reinforced concrete walls, was the height of up-to-date cosmopolitanism when it opened in 1902. Designed to house collections that had already outgrown four previous homes, the building filled up immediately, but then the fun really began.

Tutankhamun's tomb, discovered in 1922, was the most spectacular find, but it was only the tip of the iceberg - the royal tombs at Tanis, for instance, produced wonderful gold face masks and silver coffins. Exhibits were shunted around, but most of the haul - around 80,000 artefacts - went straight into the basement.

Exactly how much is impossible to tell since, after a series of embarrassing thefts at the turn of the millenium,
Zahi Hawass, the general secretary of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, ventured down into the basement to discover an incredible hodgepodge of grime-encrusted, unopened packing cases, coffins and mummies piled on
top of one another and human remains scattered over shelves.




"For the last 100 years, curators sat down to drink tea, but they did not do their jobs,"


the Indiana-Jones-hat-wearing Hawass exclaimed (he has a flair for the dramatic, as anyone who has seen
the introductory film on his website zahihawass.com will know).


"How many artifacts are in the basement?
It was awful."
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« Reply #3 on: May 30, 2008, 12:47:50 pm »











A full inventory, it turned out, hadn't been taken since the 1930s.

So until the new database commissioned is complete, a cloud of unknowing will continue to hang
over the museum, like the hazy gloaming in which parts of it are sunk.

The signage, such as it is, is a law unto itself: a percentage are in English or Arabic, some date from 1902, in rather impatient French, and some are too high to read. The building is arranged according
to the accepted chronology of Egyptian history in the 19th century, which leaves sizeable gaps.

And in room after room, you gaze at things thinking, what is that?

This makes for a unique, and in many ways, uniquely stimulating experience.

Every big museum - the Louvre, the Met, the Uffizi - needs a plan after all, and you can buy a map for LE40 (£3.80) or a guidebook (Illustrated Guide to the Egyptian Museum, AUC Press, LE180/£17) at the entrance and work your way round the highlights.





Tutankhamun's wonders at the far end of the first floor could be a museum in itself, with its incredible profusion of gold and precious jewels, and unending repetition – interlocking shrines and coffins like Russian dolls.

Fatigue, rather than any shortage of highlights, is the only potential problem, and that is when the other side of the museum kicks in: the ability to go off-piste and make wonderful discoveries.

Priest's wigs, the first boomerangs, the first documented use of the colon, undeciphered Nubian scripts. Amazing contrasts between the monumental and the diminutive, absolute power and private affection, the idealised and the naturalistic.

Egypt has always promoted the long view and, looking at the same forms repeated over centuries, in different states of repair is like watching stop-frame renditions of the effects of time.

Patience, artistry – it must be a wonderful place to sketch – and, above all, a delight in life in all its physical forms, the Egyptian Museum perfectly bears out Florence Nightingale's famous quote,


              "One wonders that people come back from Egypt and live lives as they did before."
« Last Edit: May 30, 2008, 01:42:47 pm by Bianca » Report Spam   Logged

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« Reply #4 on: May 30, 2008, 12:58:50 pm »










                                         T H E   H A P P I E S T   P H A R A O H





by Jimmy Dunn

Today, I have a vision of a sort of Pharaoh reunion.

Everyone is hanging about, many of whom are very much alive, while others are somewhat weaker, struggling for breath at times. Indeed, not all of  them are here. Many from the intermediate periods
did not make it and, apparently, even a few from other more prominent times have left the world of
the living for good.

Some of them, while strong and healthy, are not altogether pleased about the presence of some of
their companions. Clearly, Tuthmosis III really did not expect to see Hatshepsut so strong and alive,
and no one particularly wanted or expected to see Akhenaten, as healthy as ever.

Among the strongest and most healthy we find Ramesses II (he worked very hard for this), Djoser and Khufu. Tuthmosis III, perhaps the greatest empire builder in Egyptian history is strong enough, and Cleopatra (VII), though most of her Alexandria is now gone, survives very well.

But among their midst is an irony.

He was a child king, hardly living into adulthood, with probably nothing to show for his own efforts. Even though his reign was pivotal in the 3,000 year reign of ancient Egyptian religion most, if not all, of this was not his doing. He had not the time to establish himself, and some of his successors even tried to eliminate any possibility of his eternal life.

Yet, here he is, his chest heaving with pure air, his heart beating with the steady confidence of a
top athlete, stronger and healthier than even the most elite among the Pharaohs, for his name
is on everyone's tongues, and this is what matters most to all of the Pharaohs. Tutankhamun.

To the ancient Egyptians, an individual consisted of a number of different parts, which is not altogether different than those of religion view individuals today.

Even now, we think of a person as having a body and a soul, or spirit. The ancient Egyptians thought the same thing, but added to this mix was a persons name, his shadow and other elements (though this is a slightly simplified explanation of the ancient Egyptian's idea of a soul). All of these elements were important, but perhaps most important of all, at least for eternal life, was the name. If one's name was not remembered, there was little hope for the soul to live on after the physical death of the body. As long as the pharaoh's name was remembered, the king would live on through eternity, and none of their names are remembered better than that of King Tut.

Of this group of great men, he must be the happiest of all, not to mention very fond of Howard Carter, even though he did rob his tomb one last time.

In ancient Egypt, kings played the Pharaoh's game, though we should probably not call it a game, because they were dead serious about the outcome. They imagined that they could control their own fate, and the fate of their predecessors by usurping their names on statues, or sometimes by completely obliterating a foe's name from the historic record.

Hatshepsut more or less, mostly more, usurped the throne from her stepson, Tuthmosis III. It may have been good for him, allowing him to mature and become the great commander that he was, but it didn't please him. After her death, he went about methodically removing her name, and so he thought her chances for eternal life as well, from the monuments that she built while king (in ancient Egypt, a king was a king, female or male). What he couldn't remove, he built walls around, such as her Obelisk at Karnak. However, that act only helped to preserve her monument, and her name lives on today and so, according to the ancient Egyptian religion, so does she.

Everyone tried to kill off Akhenaten's hopes for an eternal life. He was the heretic king who, while attempting to radically alter ancient Egyptian religion, abandoned the priests of Amun and the other age old deities of Egypt. His successors tried to remove his name from every source, including the lists of Kings that were kept in holy places. But the city he built at modern el-Amarna was left to the desert sands which, in many ways, protected it for prosperity, and his radical beliefs found for him not oblivion but posterity. He may live on, healthy and viral, but perhaps not a favorite of the gods.
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« Reply #5 on: May 30, 2008, 01:03:47 pm »









And then...... there's King Tut.


After the death of his presumed father, Akhenaten, the old religion was restored, making his reign pivotal in Egyptian history, but this was almost certainly not his work.

Personally, he may not be able to claim a single building project of his own, and much of the wealth even in his tomb was not his, but gifts from others. It was surely Ay and Horemheb who held the reins of power during Tutankhamun's kingship, and after the young king's death, Horemheb took back much
of the work performed in the young king's name, by usurping inscriptions with his own name.

Like his father, Tut's name was also omitted from the various Kings' lists. In fact, were it not for Howard Carter, he might not have made the reunion of Pharaohs at all.

But fate plays strange tricks.

What little he had, compared to some of the greater kings of ancient Egypt, was discovered mostly intact in his tomb. Even the grave robbers played into this divine poker hand, not plundering his tomb completely, like so many others.


                         
                             


November 4th, 2007  marks the opening of the King Tut exhibit and not since Tutankhamun's tomb was
 
discovered has he been better known to the world. And since an attribute of ancient Egyptian religion

was that, indeed, fame lead to eternal life for the pharaoh, today King Tut must be one of the happiest

pharaohs who ever lived and,  LIVED ON..........



http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/tut.htm


FOR FULL, COMPLETE PHOTO AND VIDEO COVERAGE OF THE OPENING OF THE EXHIBIT, GO TO:

http://atlantisonline.smfforfree2.com/index.php/topic,706.390.html
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« Reply #6 on: May 30, 2008, 01:09:18 pm »







Tutankhamun exhibition back to London after 35 years


The exhibition of (King Tutankhamun and the Golden Age

of the Pharaohs) returns to London after 35 years amid

immense preparations in London to the opening of the
 
exhibition on November 15, 2007

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« Reply #7 on: May 30, 2008, 01:10:52 pm »











                                      King Tut Treasures Return London 15/11/2007 - 31/8/2008





After the initial Tutankhamun touring exhibit returned home in the 1970s, the Egyptian parliament passed laws barring future travel of tomb artifacts outside of Egypt, as a result of minor damage to an artifact while on tour. The damage understandably dismayed Egyptian officials, making it another three decades before officials would consider letting the treasures of King Tut travel outside of Egypt.

In 2004, the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities began working with National Geographic, AEG Exhibitions, and Arts and Exhibitions International to develop a new Exhibition. The Exhibition, entitled "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs," would be bigger and better than any previous tour. The current exhibition includes more than 130 artifacts from the tomb of Tutankhamun, other Valley of the Kings tombs and ancient Egyptian sites. The Exhibition also features recent forensic studies performed on Tutankhamun's mummy with a special exhibition section that explores the mystery of Tutankhamun's death through CT scans performed on the young pharaoh's mummy. Additionally, a realistic, life-sized bust created by forensic specialists lets visitors look into the face of the young pharaoh for the first time.

While previous shows focused mostly on the story of the tomb's discovery, this exhibition places Tutankhamun in his own time, revealing the art, politics, religion, and culture of his era. In addition, more than 70 objects from the tombs of Tutankhamun's relatives shed light on his family's dynasty and their role in bringing Egypt to its artistic and military summit. This exhibition will take museum visitors beyond just the shimmering gold, and make them a part of Tutankhamun's legacy.

Proceeds from the tour of this exhibition will go to support the construction of the Great Egyptian Museum, to be built near the pyramids at Giza. This new museum will contain most of the collections from the Cairo Museum, which is too small and obsolete to display more than a small fraction of the artifacts in its vast collections.

With record-breaking success in Los Angeles, Ft. Lauderdale, and Chicago, "Tutankhamun and the Gold Age of the Pharaohs" is triggering another bout of "Tut-mania" everywhere it travels.

To promote the exhibition in New York, this large ice sculpture of the Canopic Caffeinate of Tutankhamun served as the backdrop for a party at a famous New York Nightclub.

To promote room night packages, the Essex Inn Chicago re-created Tutankhamun's tomb in the hotel lobby.

A group of Chicago schoolchildren spend some time outside the exhibition with a local Chicago news anchor.

The Drake Hotel in Chicago adorned their lobby with giant Egyptian Statues to promote Tutankhamun room night packages.

A host hotel in Chicago creates a 400 pound chocolate bust of Tutankhamun caffeinate for display in the hotel lobby.

Partnering businesses often use gold lights and colors to signify their participation with the exhibition


http://www.sis.gov.eg/VR/kingtut/1.htm
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« Reply #8 on: May 30, 2008, 01:12:31 pm »

                             




..........since an attribute of ancient Egyptian religion

was that, indeed, fame lead to eternal life for the pharaoh,

today King Tut must be one of the happiest pharaohs



                                           who ever lived and,  LIVED ON..........
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