"King Tut"

[pianowolfi]

If you have the opportunity, visit the Tut Ankh Amun Exhibit at Benjamin Franklin House, Philadelphia. Ancient Egypt. It's wonderful Best Wolfi

[jlh]

I went to the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose, CA last month!

[pianowolfi]

I went to the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose, CA last month!

Rosicrucian? Very interesting. I'll keep it in mind.

[thalbergmad]

The Egpytian dept of the British Museum is well worth a look and it is free to get in.

You can see the "Rosetta" stone.

The English must have been excellent at looting.

Thal

[arensky]

The Egpytian dept of the British Museum is well worth a look and it is free to get in.

You can see the "Rosetta" stone.

The English must have been excellent at looting.

Thal

The British were excellent at looting, but they paid impoverished "colonials" a pittance for most of the treasures that now are now in their museums; same with the Germans. The French were actually the ones who started the "export" of Egyptian antiquities to their own country, in 1798-1800 during Napoleon's invasion of Egypt. The Rosetta stone was discovered by a French artillery officer at this time; don't know how it got to England.

Nothing beats the real thing though; my personal favorite site in Egypt was the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut near Luxor. I wasn't able to get close to the pyramids due to travel deadlines, but saw them from a distance, obscured by the most horrendous smog I have ever experienced.

The Metropolitan Museum in NYC has an excellent Egyptian collection, mostly from the period of Ptolemy to Cleopatra (Greek influence) and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston has a small but fascinating collection of Nubian artifacts, which lend a distinctly African appearance to the basically Egyptian art.

[thalbergmad]

The British were excellent at looting, but they paid impoverished "colonials" a pittance for most of the treasures that now are now in their museums; same with the Germans.

Good looters, but i guess the English saved a few things as well. I remember a story of a collector who came across locals trying to make cigarettes out of ancient papyrus. If memory serves, some of the Qurman scripts were used to help light a camp fire.

No idea how the Rosetta stone ended up in England. Must have been some dodgy deal.

As a youngster, my interest was ignited on Egyptology when the King Tut exhibition came to England in 1972 ( i think).  I have been fascinated ever since and have built up a nice little Library.

Anyone coming to England might also wish to visit Highclere Castle, which was the ancestral home of Lord Carneavon (sure i have spelt that wrong). Apparantly, the moment he died in Egypt, his dog dropped dead back home and all the lights in the Castle went off.

Its the CURSE.

Thal shivers.

Thal

[pianistimo]

funny you mention that - because pianowolfi and i probably thought that the reason they didn't bring the real mummy into the exhibit (disappointment that they didn't tell us that ahead of time) was because of some kind of curse.  the curse of the mummy.  but - they had this visual effect where you could see the different layers visualized onto a box below - so the images of each layer would be shown one at a time.  it was very interesting.  i wondered why the legs and feet were so well preserved - but the jaw had jaw rot - and the intestines and stuff were messed up.  it was as if the mummifier went in with a blender and just blended the guts and left everything else intact. 

also, we never found out who killed this young tut.  no blunt head wounds.  teeth looked proper.  what happened to the 19 year old?  his brother did him in?  younger brother, at that?

 

[thalbergmad]

and the intestines and stuff were messed up. 

Organs were removed before mummification and placed in canopic jars.

Thal

[jlh]

The museum in San Jose has 4 mummies, and a mummified cat. lol  It's the largest Egyptian museum in the western USA.