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The Australian National Gallery is currently hosting an exhibition of Egyptian Antiquities from the Louvre Museum, Paris.

I spent half of yesterday afternoon totally out of it, just soaking that up. There are two complete copies spead along the walls of one room of the Book of the Dead - like a Lonely Planet Guide to how to make it to Heaven.

I touched an alabaster board game five thousand years old.

Impossible to describe the echoes.

The exhibition details the journey from death to the Field of Reeds, Paradise, via many trials and the Last Judgement, where the heart is weighed against a feather. Isis, Osiris, Horus, Seth - it's all there.

Blew my mind.

Here's the website, and turn on your sound - there's music.

http://egyptianantiquities.com.au/Journey/default.cfm

Lucky you Pammy I would love to see it in person.. :-6

If it's on the move, it may come your way, Carla. I am not sure I will ever quite recover.

One utterly amazing thing. Those papyrus Books of the Dead, and all the intricate hieroglyps on the inner coffin bits and linen coverings, are totally clear and absolutely readable, not very different from when they must first have been created. Dry air, enclosed containers... Just mindblowing.

And maybe ten large rooms of all this. LOTS AND LOTS.

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The sublime to the ridiculous. A sign of the silly season. In the ubiquitous gift shoppe through which you have to exit all museums and galleries, they were selling Eye of Horus Chocolates. :sneaky: Yeah, okay, so stooopid, so kitchy, I did have to go there....

AussiePam;489770 wrote: The Australian National Gallery is currently hosting an exhibition of Egyptian Antiquities from the Louvre Museum, Paris.

I spent half of yesterday afternoon totally out of it, just soaking that up. There are two complete copies spead along the walls of one room of the Book of the Dead - like a Lonely Planet Guide to how to make it to Heaven.

I touched an alabaster board game five thousand years old.

Impossible to describe the echoes.

The exhibition details the journey from death to the Field of Reeds, Paradise, via many trials and the Last Judgement, where the heart is weighed against a feather. Isis, Osiris, Horus, Seth - it's all there.

Blew my mind.

Here's the website, and turn on your sound - there's music.

http://egyptianantiquities.com.au/Journey/default.cfm


I was fortunate enough to spend half a day in the Cairo museum and that blew my mind - you would need at least a full week to see it all.

As you say, the echos of the past send shivers down your back.

I'm so glad for you, AP! Did they call the game "senet?" A similar game is still played in Kenya today!

Some of the most touching Egyptian treasures (for me, anyhow) are the small, personal items....cosmetic spoons, mirrors, etc. Looking into a mirror which reflected the face of a long-ago Egyptian woman was a powerful experience.

I thought the Cairo museum was very frustrating! Wonderful things just crammed together, poorly identified and out of sequence! BUT....Queen Hetephre's funiture just knoced me out!

Tutanhkamen's funeral goods came here twice and I saw them once again in Cairo! WOW!

I love the way Egyptians valued life and I love their Horus/Set stories, too! There are some brilliantly written books about life in ancient Egypt, written by a woman named Barbara Mertz--see if you can find "Red Land, Black Land" and "Temples, Tombs and Heiroglyphs."

Oh you are so lucky Pam!! What I wouldn't give to be able to witness it all up close. Pictures don't really do enough justice do they, must have been great to see them through your own eyes!

I remember seeing some Egyptian artifacts in the Louvre, but as anyone who has been there knows, that museum is so big its hard to remember anything except the Mona Lisa, you would need to spend a month there at least! (Ive only been twice). The British Museum is pretty mind-blowing as well I have to say, they have of course lots of Egyptian, Roman, Greek (basically everything you can think of) aritfacts in there, and I really like the new Atrium that was designed a few years ago, Norman Foster, I think. Thats great Pam, I am big Museum-Head myself and I have spent many a happy day in various museums. I would love to see the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, and also the Smithsonian in Washington, both are reputedly in a class of their own. The Deustches Museum in Munich (The German National Museum of Science and Technology is pretty special as well I must admit).

Galbally;489906 wrote: I remember seeing some Egyptian artifacts in the Louvre, but as anyone who has been there knows, that museum is so big its hard to remember anything except the Mona Lisa, you would need to spend a month there at least! (Ive only been twice). The British Museum is pretty mind-blowing as well I have to say, they have of course lots of Egyptian, Roman, Greek (basically everything you can think of) aritfacts in there, and I really like the new Atrium that was designed a few years ago, Norman Foster, I think. Thats great Pam, I am big Museum-Head myself and I have spent many a happy day in various museums. I would love to see the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, and also the Smithsonian in Washington, both are reputedly in a class of their own. The Deustches Museum in Munich (The German National Museum of Science and Technology is pretty special as well I must admit).


I shall go again, and again... and will look out those books Lulu!! I've been lost in the Louvre a few times too, Galbers. Had a bit of an adventure there last time. As well as a place where loads of fine art hangs out, it is also where the Parisian gigolos and just blokes looking to pull foreign birds hang out ....... grin.... um... yeah..

Haven't been to the Hermitage for a while. But that is opulent like an Eisenstein film.

You know of my interest in language - the Rosetta Stone in the British Museum!!! And of course that was the key to the Egyptian hieroglyphs. Just mind blowing. Even now, it's still legible. I'm rusty, but hey, I could read some of the Greek!!!!

You're right Galbally, the exhibition they have on Egypt in the British museum is fasicinating. I've seen it twice this year, and on both times has never failed to amaze me!

the exhibit looks stunning Pam! when i was growing up in DC i headed directly to the Egyption exhibits at the Smithsonian. can't get enough!

Wow, LC. I've never been in the Smithsonian, but the Met in NYC seems to have half an Egyptian temple, at least. Vassar college, down the road from my girlfriend in Poughkeepsie has an amazing amount of Egyptian artefacts too.. There can't be a lot left in Egypt.. but we won't go there!!!!

[Journalist John Berendt, in his book on Venice, says the Louvre is the world's greatest monument to organised art theft]

I've seen it before, but one little extra on display in my own gallery was a mummified cat and cat sarcophagus. There's a note which said it was not a family pet, but more likely some kind of sacrifice. Common. The little wrapped bundle looked so small.

The Roman historian, Herodotus, recorded the details of embalming. Interesting but rather gross.



Another curiosity is the two raised fingers amulet. I had to get a postcard of this for my kids to play with. I know.. but the mind can't be elevated all the time...:sneaky:

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AussiePam;489918 wrote: I shall go again, and again... and will look out those books Lulu!! I've been lost in the Louvre a few times too, Galbers. Had a bit of an adventure there last time. As well as a place where loads of fine art hangs out, it is also where the Parisian gigolos and just blokes looking to pull foreign birds hang out ....... grin.... um... yeah..

Haven't been to the Hermitage for a while. But that is opulent like an Eisenstein film.

You know of my interest in language - the Rosetta Stone in the British Museum!!! And of course that was the key to the Egyptian hieroglyphs. Just mind blowing. Even now, it's still legible. I'm rusty, but hey, I could read some of the Greek!!!!


Yes the Roeseta Stone blew my mind as well, though I cannot speak ancient Greek I am afraid. The Assyrian bass-reliefs were also amazing. Yes, Chris, the Egyptian exhibit is amazing, though the last time I was there was in March of this year, so they may have put some new exhibits on display as well. London has a lot of amazing museums actually. The Natural History museum of course, the science museum is pretty cool, the V&A is nice, kinda old school, the Tate Modern and the Tate itself are both brilliant, I was at the Gothic exhibition in the National this year, it was amazing lots of Blake and that Italian guy, Fuselli, I think, amazing. Oh and I was at the 3 China's Exhibition at the Royal academy as well, that was spectacular. London is pretty cool.

Awesome, Galbally!!! Scary, Clancy!! But I do remember insisting my Dad paint my room pink and purple. Stages. Grin.

Lulu - I was very taken with a statue of Nephthys, sister of Osiris, kneeling in a particularly stylised way to mourn his death, and evidently throwing sand over her head.. Current news footage from the Middle East shows women doing exactly this. Amazing.

I know JUST what you mean, AP! While we were in Egypt, we got caught up in a funeral procession and women were wailing with their hands over their heads in the same way we saw on the tomb drawings!

Egyptians still like to eat outdoors and still sleep on the roofs of their houses!

I liked the people we met there very much and I feel very sorry for them, because, of course, all this trouble has cut down on tourism, which is so vital to much of their economy!

Edited to add this link: http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/hetepheres.htm

I saw the lady's furniture in the Cairo museum....I would cheerfully duplicate this furniture, if I could. How CLASSIC!

Awesome, Lulu. Thankyou for the link to Hetepheres.

I love the chair. You can see where some modern later furniture finds its inspiration!!!

Oh, good! I'm glad you like it....although it looks MUCH better "in person," so to speak than in this photo.