King Tut reigns in new exhibit at the Field Museum

Some Interesting News... Life in Germany...

An intriguing exhibit, 'Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs,' is arriving at the Field Museum in Chicago, and the Chicago Sun-Times has six interesting articles about King Tut on their website today. There's also a King Tut quiz to test your knowledge of the boy-king.

The following is quoted from an article titled "King Tut reigns in new exhibit at the Field Museum" by Misha Davenport

The new exhibit is not a remount of the previous show (only a dozen or so artifacts return for this engagement) but rather a prequel. And this time, the king doesn't arrive alone. In fact, he's bringing a few members of his royal family.

'We present 130 objects, and many of the items are from a century before Tutankhamun was born,' says David Silverman, who curated the original Tutankhamun exhibit and is also curating the new show. 'You meet his family, including his probable father, [and learn about] what kind of lives they led and a little bit about their religion.'

Read the rest of the story: King Tut reigns in new exhibit at the Field Museum

I would like to see the exhibit, but not badly enough to make the trip to Chicago. If you are planning to attend, be forewarned that the exhibit does not include the famous mummy mask (left). However it does include other interesting articles, such as the crown that was on the mummy's head and the little box that contained one of Tut's organs (the bodily sort, not the musical sort.)

When we lived in Berlin, we visited their Egyptian Museum. Its showpiece is the bust of Queen Nefertiti. It was interesting to see it as a 3-dimensional object rather than as a 2-dimensional photograph.

The bust was in a case with lights focused on it in a darkened room. Probably that setting is designed both to focus all attention on the bust and to strictly control the light that the bust is exposed to. The bust is still in its original condition and its colors are unrestored.

The photo of the Nefertiti bust at right appears to have been taken through the glass case. It appears slightly blurred and the seam of the glass is visible.

Now the Egyptian Museum has moved from the Charlottenburg location that we visited to the Museum Island in Berlin-Mitte.

We also saw a couple of mummies there. The Queen and the mummies are the only things that Keely (4 years old at the time) remembers from the museum, and they are my most vivid memories also. One mummy had been opened a little or was broken a little and a bit of the body was visible.

I don't think that bodies should be displayed as artifacts, even if they are ancient Egyptians with whom the whole world is fascinated. I noticed that no mummies were included in the little slide show on the Egyptian Museum's website (click above the queen's head.) The articles didn't mention that any mummies were included in the King Tut exhibit either.


Photos of King Tut and Queen Nefertiti courtesy of Wikipedia.


Related Links:
Queen Nefertiti of Egypt
At the Tomb of Tutankhamen (1923 National Geographic article and photos)

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