This exhibition has been quite well covered in the Canadian media, and I've posted about it before, but I've added this link because it has better detail than previous articles and the photographs are very good, including a wonderful beadnet dress from the Old Kingdom.
Visitors to the exhibit get a rare glimpse of both life and life after death in ancient Egypt. What is so fascinating is that the Egyptians believed in an afterlife and wanted to prepare for it.
“They filled their tombs with images and objects from their everyday lives, which they believed would magically sustain them for eternity,” says Dr. Betts. “[The exhibition] explores ancient Egyptian religious beliefs, namely the Egyptian concept of the afterlife, and what the material culture associated with this belief reveals about their lives.”
Dr. Betts adds that for an ancient Egyptian to read or recite written words was to bring them to life. “Writing a name in stone, so it could be remembered forever was thus a certain way to ensure immortality.”
Scientists are now studying a fairly contemporary mummy—a preserved body mummified in 1994 by doctors who had studied the ancient techniques, using frankincense and myrrh with beeswax and honey. They are hoping to determine what parts of the body to take samples of DNA from so that doctors can discover how malaria and other diseases have evolved.
See the above page for the full story.
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