The ancient Egyptian precincts of the Met are arguably its largest, spanning 3,000 years or so of continuous history and resulting from numerous Met-sponsored digs. We did the Egypt tour on September 30th, then lingered, and then have returned several times for assorted bits and pieces previously missed. It's that large. It is no help that ancient Egyptian art changed little over the long course of its history. Vicki is the resident Egyptologist here, having visited Egypt in 1982, and also having visited Highclere Castle--home and museum of Lord Carnavon--at least three times. She is fond too of the recent Mummy movie series, the lead female character of which is a librarian. My total knowledge of ancient Egyptian history, culture, religion, etc., comes from Boris Karloff movies.
The pix below are not in chronological order, since the tour skipped around a bit, and then we skipped around a bit too, back-filling. All dates and dynasties are BCE. As other, later pix from the Egyptian division emerge, I'll add them in a second post.
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| Writing on the wall |
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| Standard pose, kilt; no bagpipes |
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| Discoveries from a Met dig, tomb goods; for use in the Afterlife |
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| Actual items; several rooms thereof |
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| Also small boats and crews for use in the Afterlife |
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| Photo from the dig of this stuff |
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| Mummy body bag |
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| Quite a few of these |
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| Implements, tools |
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| Mirrors, jewelry, etc. |
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| Toiletries case |
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| Beautiful gold work |
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| In one of the several large format rooms; all pharaohs; the chin hair is a give-away |
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| Chin-hair=pharaoh; ankh=god, key to Underworld |
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The Temple of Dendur, in its special humongous display hall facing
Central Park; the Temple was a gift from Egypt to the US in recogntion
of America's help with the Aswan high dam...flooding from which
was going to bury/destroy many such monuments; Egypt specified it
had to be on view 24x7 |
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Dendur is actually a temple from the Roman era; that's Caesar
Augustus (right) paying homage to Isis and Osiris |
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| Colorized version |
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| Temple guardian |
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| Closer up |
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| 19th century graffiti |
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| More graffiti |
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| Interesting foot gear concept |
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Ancient Egyptian linen; seriously; the desert is great for preserving
some things |
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Note shabti in the box left; your servants that will
spring to lfe...in the by and by.... |
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| Egyptophile |
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Thousands upon thousands of items; sort of like in the
study room for classical Greek and Roman bits; the Met has
sufficient space to put everything on display, in some form |
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| And thousands more |
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| Toy game |
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| The wig is contemporary but the hair-net thing is ancient |
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| Another boat for getting around in the Afterlife |
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| Interior of an actual tomb, removed and reconstructed from Egypt |
