Exhibtion: Egyptian governor's life and death on exhibit at Museum of Fine Arts

Concord Monitor (Victoria Shouldis)

Thanks to Tony Marson for sending this link.

With photo.

Like the privileged folk in any society, the noblemen in ancient Egypt expected and had the best of everything: superior housing, superb food and spirits, and tireless servants. So it only makes sense that they wanted to ensure the same treatment in the afterlife.

The fascinating story of just how they set about preparing for that afterlife is the focus of The Secrets of Tomb 10A, an exhibit running through May at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts.

The show actually tells two stories in one: the story of governor Djehutynakht and his preparation for life after death, and the 1915 archeological dig - sponsored by the MFA and Harvard University - that first found the tomb site.

The archeological find was somewhat grisly: accessing a hidden, vertical shaft at a known burial site, the team found a huge amount of broken, pillaged items, and a mummified human head.

The broken items, all painstakingly researched and reassembled in this flawless show, were the result of visits by centuries worth of grave robbers. And the head? Well, nobody knows exactly who that is. It could be the head of governor Djehutynakht, it could be Mrs. Djehutynakht, or it could be a particularly faithful servant, sent along to serve and honor the governor right into the next world.

That head is at once the most grim and star exhibit of the show: It gets its own small room in the exhibit, along with CT-scan images and X-rays. The room gives you a sense of the size of the actual tomb; it also gives you an opportunity to keep the younger kids from viewing a disturbing piece in what is, otherwise, an all-age appealing and all-age appropriate exhibit.

The ancient Egyptians - the tombs here date back to about 2,000 BC - took planning for the life after this one most seriously, and those who could afford preparation left nothing to chance. Among the literally thousands of broken and disassembled pieces found in Djehutynakht's tomb, researchers have been able to offer this incredibly comprehensive look at the care and thought that went into that planning.