Antiquities Exhibits

Yesterday when I was researching the post about horses in the ancient world, I was intrigued by the detail image of a Persian horseman on the so-called Pazyryk carpet that Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones included in his blog post. The Pazyryk carpet is considered the oldest surviving example of a pile carpet in the world and is thought to have been made around 400 BCE in Armenia or Persia. It was discovered in a Scythian kurgan burial in the Pazyryk Valley of the Ukok plateau in the Altai Mountains, Siberia, south of the modern city of Novosibirsk, Russia. The tomb mounds discovered there are now part of the  Golden Mountains of Altai UNESCO World Heritage Site.  The horseman of the Pazyryk culture apparently  accumulated great wealth through horse trading with merchants in Persia, India and China as evidenced by the variety of grave goods including Chinese silk, the pile carpet,  horses decked out in elaborate trappings, and wooden furniture and a full-sized burial chariot fo...

This exhibition uses mummies from the collections of the Manchester Museum (England) to allow visitors to examine life for the wealthy in multicultural Roman Egypt, where diverse Egyptian, Roman, and Greek communities and cultural influences were blended. The exhibition journey traces expectations for the afterlife and introduces cultural constructions of identity, strikingly demonstrated by haunting painted panel portraits. The practices of preservation and decoration of the body, and the transformation of the deceased into a god, are explored by the mummies on display. Eight gilded mummies  and more than 100 related objects are presented in the display, including papyri, jewelry, ceramics, and artworks depicting deities that connect the daily lives of these Greco-Roman Egyptians to the religious world of the gods in a series of lavishly illustrated thematic sections covering the period from 300 BCE to 200 CE. The youngest of the preserved individuals is a 2 or 3 year-old child wr...

Yesterday I finished editing and uploading the last of my images of artifacts in the Egyptian gallery of the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (Penn Museum) to Wikimedia Commons. Next I'll be working on uploading my images of their Greco-Roman collection. Here are some of my favorites from their Egyptian collection: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Egyptian_antiquities_in_the_University_of_Pennsylvania_Museum Head of King Osorkon II of Egypt excavated at Tunis 874-850 BCE Black Granite Head of a colossal statue of Ramesses II King of Egypt from Abydos 1290-1224 BCE New Kingdom Dynasty 19 Head of a colossal statue of Ramesses II King of Egypt from Abydos 1290-1224 BCE New Kingdom Dynasty 19 Closeup of Bronze statue of a cat with gold leaf Dynasty 22 Egypt 945-712 BCE Basalt Baboon Egypt Dynasty 20 1182-1151 BCE Statue of Ramesses III Limestone Egypt 1187-1156 BCE (Reign of Ramesses III, Dynasty 20) Ka statue of the Royal Acquaintanc...

Golden Mummies of Egypt opening February 8, 2020 at the Buffalo Museum of Science in Buffalo, New York. Golden Mummies of Egypt examines hopes and fears about the afterlife when Egypt was part of the Greek and Roman worlds (c. 300 BC-200 AD). Wealthy members of this multicultural society had their mummified bodies encased in gold in hopes of joining the gods after death. The exhibition consists of over 100 key objects from the Manchester Museum’s world-class collection, including eight mummies, as well as masks, coffins, jewelry and sculpture. Blending Egyptian, Roman and Greek imagery, the strikingly lifelike painted mummy portraits are among the most haunting images from the Ancient World. If you can't make it to Buffalo, New York, you'll have another opportunity to see it at the North Carolina Museum of Art from September 19, 2020 – January 10, 2021.

Now Open!! Egyptian Mummies: Exploring Ancient Lives. September 7, 2019 to February 2, 2020 at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal, Canada. A North-American premiere, this exhibition of the British Museum reconstructs the lives of six individuals who lived along the Nile from about 900 BCE to 180 CE. Non-invasive techniques have enabled researchers to build a profile of each individual, painting a picture of who they were. Age , beliefs and the diseases they suffered from – each mummy has a story to tell. Digital visualizations will present new discoveries that, when viewed alongside over 200 objects from the British Museum’s renowned Egyptian collection, provide unique insights into how people lived and died in ancient Egypt. The exhibition will explore a number of themes such as mummification, health, food and diet, priesthood, music, adornment and childhood in ancient Egypt.  Irthorrou, a stolist, a high priest of the temple of Akhmim during the Late Period in ...

Ancient Egypt: From Discovery to Display. Opening Saturday, February 23, 2019 at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mummies and artifacts tell archaeologists about what life was like in ancient Egypt, but what happens to an object before it goes on exhibit at a museum? Peel back the curtain for a unique view of more than 200 objects from the Museum's renowned Egyptian collection. This 6,000-square-foot exhibition i ntroduces visitors to the history of ancient Egypt and includes elements of visible artifact storage and active conservation of Museum objects - offering an insider's view into how objects are researched and cared for before they are put on display. Ramesses III Dynasty 20 1187-1156 BCE photographed at the Penn Museum Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Child mummy from the Greco-Roman Period photographed at the Penn Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Egyptian Mummies: Exploring Ancient Lives.  September 7, 2019 to February 2, 2020 at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal, Canada.  During the Third Intermediate Period, burial practices shifted toward a close concentration on the body rather than elaborate tombs: remarkable painted coffins like this one, papyri, and wooden stelae constituted most of the imagery associated with ritual provision for the afterlife.  Image courtesy of The British Museum. A North-American premiere, this exhibition of the British Museum reconstructs the lives of six individuals who lived along the Nile from about 900 BC to AD 180. Non-invasive techniques have enabled researchers to build a profile of each individual, painting a picture of who they were. Age, beliefs and the diseases they suffered from – each mummy has a story to tell.  Digital visualizations will present new discoveries that, when viewed alongside over 200 objects from the British Museum’s renowned Egyptia...

Mummies of the World. February 9 through September 2, 2019 at the Arizona Science Center in Phoenix, Arizona. Ptolemaic period child's mummy photographed at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum in Washington D.C. Mummies of the World: features 40 real human and animal mummies and 85 rare artifacts from across the globe. This exhibition provides a window into the lives of ancient people from every region of the world including Europe, South America and Ancient Egypt, offering unprecedented insights into past cultures and civiliza tions. I found this exhibit very insightful when I attended it at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry about three years ago. Photographs were not allowed at that time and may still be prohibited.