Jiang Haimei
The surging news has learned that "Meet the Golden Mummy of Ancient Egypt" will be exhibited at the China Millennium Monument in Beijing on August 15. Centered on mummies from world-class collections, this exhibition explores Egypt's beliefs about the afterlife during the reigns of ancient Greece and Rome. The exhibition will be divided into 7 units, with a total of 107 rare treasures of ancient Egypt, of which 6 golden mummies are exhibited on a large scale in China for the first time. All exhibits are from the Manchester Museum in the UK. This article is the highlight of the exhibition that the curator has distilled for the upcoming theme exhibition "Encountering the Golden Mummies of Ancient Egypt".
When the sun of history had just risen, the ancient Egyptian civilization was already in the sky. She is ancient and mysterious, leaving countless brilliant achievements for future generations, such as the quiet Nile, the majestic pyramids, the magnificent temples, the mysterious hieroglyphs, the immortal mummies... It still bears witness to the glory of ancient Egypt.
Ancient Egyptians created a splendid ancient Egyptian civilization with their own unique outlook on life and aesthetics, and their architectural styles, religious beliefs, culture and art have been widely disseminated and continuously integrated by later generations, providing valuable reference for Western and even world cultures. The extraordinary charm of ancient Egyptian civilization has not diminished, and people all over the world are still fascinated by it. It leaves us with endless imagination and contemplation...
Portrait of a woman, circa 1st century AD
As Campbell Price, director of the Ancient Egypt and Sudan Branch of the Manchester Museum, the British curator, put it, the exhibition "Meet the Golden Mummies of Ancient Egypt" tells the story of a specific group of people living in a specific time and place. What happened during the "Greco-Roman" period in Egyptian history? How important was the afterlife for the ancient Egyptians? Why did the ancient Egyptians make mummies? Who can afford this? "Encountering Ancient Egypt The Golden Mummy" is an exhibition with a story, with seven units presenting the eternal reincarnation of ancient Egyptian culture and solving many mysteries of ancient Egypt.
Nile Valley
1. Multicultural life
From 305 BC to 30 BC, the Ptolemaic dynasty originating in Greece ruled Egypt. It was an unprecedented multicultural society, Egypt began to integrate into the Hellenistic world, and Alexandria was the capital of the Ptolemaic dynasty and the academic center of the Mediterranean world at that time. The Ptolemaic dynasty is recognized as the last dynasty in the history of ancient Egypt, and after the death of the last pharaoh Queen Cleopatra VII, the Romans ended the Ptolemaic dynasty, and Egypt subsequently became a province of the Roman Empire.
Greek-style helmet
In the 7th century BC, the pharaohs recruited many Greek mercenaries to fight against Egypt's enemies. This unique Greek-style helmet dates back to that time, and it was most likely left in Greek temples as a sacrifice to the gods.
Convex lenses
Cleopatra VII coin
Queen Cleopatra VII was one of the most famous monarchs of the ancient world. Cleopatra, who "men conquer the world, I conquer men," has a Greek-style hairstyle and a tall nose.
Second, the idea of the afterlife
Mummies, gold, and a fascination with the afterlife —these ideas are all central to our impression of "ancient Egypt." The ultimate ideal of the ancient Egyptians seemed to be eternity, because eternity existed in the change of seasons, the cycle of the sun and the moon, and the shift of the stars. The development of the Egyptian faith in the afterlife is traced through the images contained in the artifacts. Funerals are an important opportunity to showcase wealth and status. The decorations of coffins, masks and mummies are all bright and dazzling, and the deceased are depicted with perfect, god-like faces.
Mummified masks are believed to allow the deceased to have vision in the afterlife. They depict the perfect, god-like faces of the deceased.
Mummified mask painted plaster about the first century AD
Female mummified masks painted plaster around the first century AD
Third, become a god
In the Egyptian tradition, the gods were immortal. The goal of the wealthy classes of ancient Egypt was to join the gods after their deaths, and it was believed that the flesh of the gods was made of gold, which shone brightly, symbolizing the reflection of the sun, and the deceased wanted to be illuminated by the sun in order to have eternal life. By adding gold leaf to the mummified mask, coffin, or even the skin of the deceased, the deceased acquires the flesh of God, and possessing this divine imagery is the best way to attain eternal life. Burials, especially mummies, constitute the bulk of the Egyptian archaeological record.
The mummy is covered in gold, hoping to emulate God's eternal radiance. Ancient Egyptian mythological texts depict the gods with golden bodies, allowing the deceased to have golden flesh, expressing the ancient Egyptian people's fascination with eternal life and also technically protecting corpses from decay.
The 6 golden mummies that will be on display in this exhibition
Fourth, the art of identity
The mummified painted portraits in this unit were unearthed at the hawala site in southwestern Cairo, in the area of today's Fayoum, hence the name "Fayoum Portrait". They were painted with a mixture of hot wax and pigments on a thin plank or linen cloth and are one of the most striking images of the ancient world. Painted in the middle of the first to third centuries AD, clearly influenced by the Mediterranean region, these unforgettable faces "talk" to us face-to-face in a way that few other artifacts can do.
The mummified portrait blends the evolving religious concepts and identities of the ancient Egyptians, Romans, and Greeks for things like eternity. His portraiture profoundly influenced the late Classical era and Byzantine art.
Male mummy, 2nd century AD
Mummy of a young male, circa 1st-2nd centuries AD
13 mummified portraits, one of the earliest surviving portraits
5. Meet the gods
In ancient Egypt, after death, the ancient Egyptian gods were summoned to help the deceased, and the paintings on the mummified lid board presented a mysterious and complex afterlife world in the minds of ancient Egyptians. Even if no longer well known, ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs appeared on the decoration of noble funerals, sometimes along with elaborate idols of deities. These "amulets" envelop the deceased with magical, divine power, ensuring a successful transition to the afterlife.
During the ancient Egyptian period, most people were forbidden to enter the sacred walls of the temple, and only the idols and hieroglyphs on the huge outer walls could be seen. Everyday ancient Egyptians met the gods in the form of small clay figurines facing their homes.
Statue of Isis Aphrodite Copper Alloy circa 1st century AD
The statue of Zeus Akatao circa 1st century AD
Faience pottery around the 7th century BC
Wooden Trojan Horse circa 1st century AD
6. Protection of remains
The purpose of the mummification ceremony is not just to preserve the remains, but to create a perfect, eternal "version" of the deceased, similar to the form of the Egyptian gods. In this way, the soul has a permanent "dwelling place" for the enjoyment of the afterlife. Mummification has always been a sacred and secret art. Today, means such as CT scans and X-rays give visitors the ability to gain insight into the body underneath the bandage.
7. Modern discoveries
The story behind the collection is shown through excavation reports, sketches and photo records of the collection. At the same time, modern technology is used to interact with images to unravel the clues about life, death and worship in ancient Egypt more than 2,000 years ago.
From the present to the next, from the mundane to the sacred, "multiculturalism" is the core and feature of the exhibition "Encountering the Golden Mummies of Ancient Egypt". The 107 pieces (groups) of cultural relics from the Manchester Museum in the United Kingdom string together the last secrets of ancient Egypt and are silent footnotes to history. History is a pile of ashes, but there is a residual warmth in the depths of the ashes.
Exhibition posters
(This article is reproduced from the public account of the China Millennium Monument)
Editor-in-Charge: Ruoxi Chen
Proofreader: Liu Wei