Tutankhamen’s mummy unveiled
The linen wrapped mummy of King Tutankhamen was put on public display for the first time on Sunday, 85 years after the 3,000-year-old boy pharaoh’s golden enshrined tomb and mummy were discovered in Luxor’s famed Valley of the Kings. It will remain in the tomb indefinitely, unlike other Egyptian royal mummies, who are displayed in museums.
The unveiling of the mummy comes amid a frenzy of international publicity. A highly publicized museum exhibit traveling the globe drew more than 4 million people during the initial four-city American-leg of the tour. The exhibit will open later this month in London and after it will make a three-city encore tour in the U.S. beginning with the Dallas Museum of Art. The Egyptian tourism industry is hoping to capitalize on that interest and draw tourists to Luxor to see something they couldn’t at the museum, the pharaoh’s mummy. More than 9 million tourists visited Egypt last year, up from 8.7 million the previous year, the Egyptian Tourist Authority said.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,307944,00.html
Associated Press Photos
Gods we could hold in our hands
For the ancient Egyptians, metals had a range of implicit associations: the use of gold was equated with red but also with parts of the body. Gold and silver were flesh and bone, sun and moon; certain deities, like Hathor, were associated with night and therefore cast in silver. Coloration could also be achieved with inlays of glass or semiprecious stones like lapis and turquoise.
“Gifts for the Gods: Images From Egyptian Temples” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art focuses on ancient Egyptian metal sculpture, featuring some 70 god images superbly cast in copper, bronze, gold, and silver. It includes loans from the Louvre, the British Museum and the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. These are not the monumental stone sculptures everyone is familiar with, but more intimate, small and exquisitely crafted images for ritual use.
http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?OccurrenceId={0485AAC4-D004-447C-834B-54E42638B47D}
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/03/arts/design/03temp.html?_r=1&ref=arts&oref=slogin
