Stunning mummy mask
unveiled at Royal BC Museum
VICTORIA, BC - The 3,500-year-old Mummy Mask of Satdjehuty was unveiled today in the Royal BC Museum's Eternal Egypt: Masterworks of Ancient Art from The British Museum exhibit gallery. This splendid gilded death mask with a winged headdress once covered the mummified face of a high-ranking woman at the court of Ahmose from Egypt's early Eighteenth Dynasty.
The mask is a stunning example of the 144 treasures from the tombs and temples of Egypt's greatest rulers that comprise the exhibit. Eternal
Egypt: Masterworks of Ancient Art from The British Museum opens at the Royal BC Museum on July 10 and runs until October 31. The exhibit represents the very best of The British Museum's Egyptian collection and features original artifacts carefully selected for rarity and beauty. The tour marks the first, and likely only, time that these objects will be on view in North America.
On this splendid female mask, gold leaf not only covers the woman's face, but also her huge collar necklace and the bird wings that embrace the front and sides of her voluminous, lapis lazuli-coloured wig. The ancient Egyptians believed that the flesh of their gods was golden. This mummy mask helped its wearer, a high-ranking woman named Satdjehuty, merge with the god Osiris in the Afterlife. In this way, she would become a god herself, and live forever.
The mask is made of cartonnage -- linen stiffened with plaster -- and is in excellent condition, making it a rare example of Egyptian funerary art. It is 33 cm (13 inches) high.
Eternal Egypt: Masterworks of Ancient Art from The British Museum is the most valuable and prestigious exhibit ever presented by the Royal BC Museum. The exhibit spans more than 3,000 years, from the time of the great pyramids to the fall of Cleopatra. Highlights include a 2,500 kilogram red granite lion that once guarded the temple of Soleb, original scrolls from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, and exquisite gold jewellery.
As a supplement to Eternal Egypt, the Royal BC Museum is creating special programs to bring the past to life for the entire family. Visitors can experience everyday life in ancient Egypt at the public marketplace, where they can learn to cook a meal fit for a pharaoh, how to make perfume, and explore fashion and personal adornment. Summer camps for children, public talks, and films will also run in conjunction with the exhibit.
A specially-constructed Mummy's Chamber is devoted to ancient Egypt's fascination with the afterlife. The display will house several authentic human and animal mummies, as well as a diverse collection of tools such as brain hooks, canopic jars, and other artifacts that explain the ritual and science of mummification and the importance the afterlife played in shaping Egyptian culture.
During the run of Eternal Egypt at the Royal BC Museum, The National Geographic IMAX Theatre will present the award-winning film, Mysteries of Egypt. This captivating cinematic journey along the Nile River Valley uncovers many of the treasures and wonders of this ancient and mighty civilization.
Eternal Egypt: Masterworks of Ancient Art from the British Museum is organized by the American Federation of Arts and The British Museum. The exhibition and its North American tour have been made possible by Ford Motor Company Fund. Additional support has been provided by the Benefactors Circle of the AFA.
PLANNING YOUR VISIT: Advance ticket purchase is recommended due to the expected high demand for the Eternal Egypt exhibit. Tickets may be purchased in person at the Royal BC Museum, online at www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca, or by phone through Tourism Victoria at 1-800-663-3883. Reserved entry time tickets include an audio tour and GST and are $22.50 CDN ($16 US) for adults, $16.25 CDN ($12 US) for seniors, students, and youth aged 6-18, and free for children 5 and under. Family tickets (2 adults and 2 youth) are $65 CDN ($47 US). Tickets for entry times are available every half hour starting at 9 a.m. with the last entry time at 5:30 p.m. (Museum closes at 6:30 p.m.). Once in the exhibit, visitors may stay as long as they wish, and may visit all other parts of the Museum any time during the day of their ticket.
Want more information on Acient Egypt try these books. |
|
|
Mummy Artifacts On Display: Facts
Female Mummy
*A twenty-something female of some wealth.
*Lived during Ptolemaic Period, possibly during Cleopatra reign.
*The young woman's coffin doesn't belong to her. Still searching for
rightful owner.
*Lotus bulbs in mummy's abdomen represent eternal life.
Crocs, Hawks, and Cats
The Crocodiles
* Two of these, only 40.5 cm (15.9 inches) long.
Conservators believe they are baby crocs.
* Exact age unknown, but at least 2,000 years old.
* Inside, museum X-rays reveal a complete, intact
skeleton.
The Cat
* Split into two parts. Linen wrappings brown and
crispy like old newspaper.
* Likely mummified as beloved pet or religious token
to the cat goddess, Bass.
* Dimensions 35.5 cm (14 inches) long and 7.5 cm (3
inches) wide. When alive was probably about the size of today's housecat.
The Hawk
* Size about the same as a modern crow.
* X-rays reveal intact skeleton (even surviving
feathers!) of an Egyptian Marsh Hawk, which has local relatives today in the form of the Northern Harrier.
* Exact age unknown, but at least 2,000 years old.
* Condition good, but only partial wrappings survive.
Head, tail, legs, and a bit of a wing exposed.
* Best theory about why hawks were mummified: as an
offering to petition hawk-shaped sky god Horus for safe passage to the afterlife, much like the lighting of candles in a church.
* Mummifying hawks and other birds was big business in
ancient Egypt. One town alone produced 10,000 such mummies annually for sale to the living for a protected death.
* Wrapped bird mummies were often mistaken for human
babies by early Egypt enthusiasts.
Mummy Facts
Mummification Route to Land of the Gods
* Egyptians mummified their dead out of more than
respect. Preservation of the body enabled the person to "live again" in the Land of the Gods.
* An Egyptian mummy didn't easily pass from tomb to
afterlife. They had to face a dangerous journey to get there: fire-breathing dragons, five-headed reptiles, and serpents wielding long knives.
* Pass all the tests, and you still worked in an
agricultural afterlife. Fortunately, symbolic slaves in the form of tiny tomb figurines called "ushabtis" could assume the workload.
Egyptian Funeral Rites
* The mummification process began with "natron," a
naturally-occurring salt that was used to dry out the body of the deceased in order to assist in its preservation.
* No mummy entered its tomb with its organs, except
the heart, intact. Special knives made from a variety of materials were used to cut out organs and place them into pottery vessels called canopic jars.
* The ancient Egyptian brain hooks were bronze, and
used to extract the brain through the nostrils. It was then thrown away. The heart, not the brain, was the most important part to the Egyptians.
* A lot of linen was needed to wrap a mummy - sometimes up to 35
layers and 10.5 kilograms (23 pounds)
* It took a Greek tourist (Herodotus, 2450 years ago) to let us in on
the mysteries of Egyptian mummification. The Egyptians themselves didn't write anything on the subject. Mummy Bits and Pieces
* The word "mummy" did not originate in Egypt, but is derived from
the Persian word "mummia," their term for a black tar (bitumen) that flowed from the earth. It was similar to the resin used to embalm mummies in Egypt.
* World-renowned Egyptian expert Bob Brier (meet him
in person as part of the Museum's special Mummy Weekend, August 7-8) was the first modern person to mummify a human cadaver in Egyptian style, in 1995. Immediately after, he was inundated with offers from mummy wannabes for his next embalming project.
* There might be a real basis for the mummy curse.
Dead bodies can cause infections for the living. This likely killed quite a few grave robbers in ancient times, but today's archaeologists wear protective clothing.
* Mummy wraps were used for paper in 19th century America when cotton,
rather than wood pulp, was paper's main ingredient.
* The famous Book of the Dead is a 3,000-year-old series of magical
spells that safely sped the deceased from tomb to paradise.
|
|
