list of kings 1250BC - chronology of the pharaohs of Egypt. interestingly, it omits the few female pharaohs who ruled the kingdom.
rosetta stone.
first tier of text is egyptian hieroglyphics and the last is greek alphabet. very impressive, but too many people crowding around it, made me feel claustrophobic.
cats were an integral part of Egyptian life. they were prized pets, but they also substituted for the form of divinity. haunting fact about cats during the egyptian kingdom: "cats were regularly bred and strangled when they were 3 months old to be mummified and buried with important people."
mummified cat.
this modest burial in the egyptian desert. this old man from 5000 years ago was not mummified, and yet he is perfectly preserved because he was buried in dry sand that absorbed all the moisture. he's basically just shriveled up. he's buried with just his vases and daily tools, as opposed to his mummified pets.
new fact. I always associated egyptian with paganism, but apparently, by 4th century AD the population was largely christian. i guess it has to do with the influence of the roman empire. Coptic Egypt is the terminology for 'christian egypt.' it was most heavily concentrated on the area equivalent to today's ethiopia. this piece of tapestry shows virgin mary and baby jesus, flanked by angels.
african tapestry showing Artemis and Actaeon from greek mythology. again interesting mixture of egyptian art representing greek mythology. I've come across the subject of Artemis and Actaeon a lot while touring museums so here it is. Actaeon was a hero known for his fondness of hunting. one day, while hunting and roaming around in the forest, he witnesses the hunting goddess, artemis, bathing with her female attendants! infuriated by this violation, artemis shoots an arrow and transforms actaeon into a stag. Unfortunately, his hunting dogs comes across the stag, but obviously does not recognize their owner actaeon and kills him......
touring the 7 egyptian rooms took me 3 hours. so who knows how long it's going to take me to see every single room in the museum? before I left the museum, i managed to whiz through a themed room called 'living and dying.' it showcases different civilizations/cultures and how they 'live and die' in relation to the outer world. for example, it explained the Thule community, who live in alaska, in the northern most point of America. it showed how they 'live and die' in relation to animals, so on display were their hunting instruments, their kayaks and boats, and their clothing made of caribou skin and even seal intestinal lining!!!
then, guess what these are?
they're coffins! unfortunately, i didn't write down the details, but in the early 1920s, brothers from a south african country (maybe tanzania?) created an eagle shaped coffin for their mother who always wanted to fly. Since then it's been an interesting tradition for people to create unconventional coffins for their dead.
i've decided to see the british museum in little bits and pieces during the remaining 3 months. so, now, i have a map of the british museums with 8 of the million rooms checked off. my goal is to have every single room marked before I leave in may. and of course, I will use the fancy multimedia guides every time. I look like a dork when i'm using it, but i love using them! the audio guide costs £4, but i'm willing to pay it since the entrance to the museum is free. in fact, ALL museums are free in london! woot woot!
No comments:
Post a Comment