According to the "News Hyperlink" of the Voice of China of the Central Radio and Television Corporation, an exhibition entitled "Meeting the Golden Mummies of Ancient Egypt" was recently launched at the China Millennium Monument in Beijing, and 107 rare collections of ancient Egypt were unveiled.
The most eye-catching features in the exhibition are the first large-scale display of 6 golden mummies in China, as well as one of the oldest surviving portrait types in the world, the Fayum mummy portrait. The exhibition also includes 11 fayum mummified portraits from about 2,000 years ago, and exhibits related to "Cleopatra", all from the Manchester Museum in the United Kingdom.
Why did the ancient Egyptians make mummies? How has the technique of making mummies evolved? How to grasp the doorway while viewing the exhibition?
What are the highlights of this exhibition? How to open the exhibition posture correctly?
The exhibition has a wide variety of mummies, among which 8 mummies have attracted much attention, including 6 golden mummies and 2 fayum portrait mummies. Both the golden mummy and the fayoum portrait mummy are exhibited in China for the first time, especially the fayoum portrait mummy, which is regarded as one of the oldest surviving portraits in the world because its shape is very similar to the appearance of a real person. In addition to the eight precious mummies, the exhibition will also feature gold-plated painted plaster busts, terracotta statues of gods, gilded jewelry, the same bracelet of Cleopatra, papyrus documents, as well as some containers and wooden toys.
The mummy contains the mysterious ancient Egyptian civilization, reflecting the cultural beliefs of the ancient Egyptian people, and Kong Bochuan, curator of "Meet the Museum", suggested that the doorway to watch the mummy should be grasped from three aspects.
First, admire the mummy's mask. The masks of the 6 golden mummies on display are covered with gold, and the ancient Egyptians believed that the body of the gods was gold, and the use of gold to make masks was not only a symbol of status, but also a close proximity to the gods. Through the mask of the mummy, we can see the persistent pursuit of the wealthy classes of ancient Egypt to join the gods in order to fulfill their desire for eternal life.
Second, notice the background of the ancient Egyptian gods beneath the mummies. Under the mummies are often painted ancient Egyptian gods, such as Osiris, Isis, etc. Most of these gods were gods of the underworld, with a beautiful vision of eternal life after death for the ancient Egyptian people.
Third, understand the hieroglyphs on mummified lids. The exhibition also explains the hieroglyphs on the mummified lid board, and the audience can understand the meaning of hieroglyphs through the multimedia equipment at the exhibition site, so as to appreciate the ancient Egyptian culture.
Why make a mummy? How has the technique of making mummies evolved?
When it comes to the mysterious production technology of mummies, it is inseparable from antiseptic and beauty.
Mummies have a long history, as early as the history, the ancient Egyptians found that the body in the desert can be well preserved, so the earliest mummies are actually dry corpses in the desert that have not been embalmed. After the social class division in ancient Egypt, the rich class began to build luxurious tombs for themselves, but they found that the corpses could not be well preserved in the tombs, and these rich classes wanted to bury themselves in the luxurious tombs after death, and hoped that the corpses could be preserved in good condition in order to pursue eternal life, so the embalming technology of corpses began to develop.
In the pre-dynastic and early dynastic periods of ancient Egypt, more than 5,000 years ago, people simply disposed of corpses using antiseptic materials such as alkali. During the Middle Dynasty, it was found that internal organs were the focus of corpse decay, so they began to remove the internal organs of corpses, even the brain marrow. During the Twenty-first Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, due to the frequent occurrence of tomb robberies, people began to reorganize the burial chambers and found mummies made by traditional embalming techniques, which were generally preserved. Immediately, they began to try to place antiseptic material under the skin of the mummy on the basis of removing the internal organs and brain marrow.
The production of mummies is lifelike, and in addition to antiseptics, beauty is also the focus of production. During the Middle Dynasty, people began to cover mummies with masks and fill the mummies with sand, wood chips, etc. During the New Dynasty, during the mummy making process, the technician would put a protective sleeve on the mummy's hands and feet, and place a large number of amulets according to strict standards, using linen cloth to entangle the amulet with the mummy. By the time of the Greco-Roman period, the decoration of the mummies was more exquisite and luxurious, while incorporating elements of Greco-Roman culture.
Why paint a portrait of a mummy?
From 305 BC to 30 BC, the Ptolemaic dynasty originating in Greece ruled Egypt, and Egypt began to integrate into the Hellenistic world. The collision and fusion of diverse cultures is also reflected in the production of mummies. Yan Haiying, a professor of history at Peking University, believes that the portraits on the mummies reflect the fusion of Egyptian culture and Greco-Roman culture.
In ancient Egypt, mummies wore masks, and during the Greco-Roman period, portraits began to replace masks. What is special about portraiture is that its owners are mostly foreigners living in Egypt, and the portrait painting method belongs to the realistic style, while traditional Egyptian painting is idealized, and these foreigners transplanted the Greco-Roman realistic style to the mummy.
The combination of ancient Egyptian mummified culture and Greco-Roman realistic style art reflects the fusion of the two cultures. The ancient Egyptians hoped to achieve the vision of eternal life by mummifying, while the Greco-Romans relied on social memory to achieve eternity, and they valued their own reputation and hoped to achieve eternal life through the flow of the centuries. So they use lifelike portraits to preserve society's memories of them. Foreigners living in Egypt, on the one hand, accepted egyptian burial customs and made mummies, and on the other hand painted realistic portraits on mummies, in an attempt to use this method to make the world remember them forever.
The mummy is a microcosm of ancient Egyptian culture, and its evolution also reflects the collision and integration of ancient Egyptian culture and Greco-Roman culture, providing precious historical materials for contemporary people to recognize history, which is an extremely valuable wealth.
Producer: Liang Yue
Reporter: Hejia Ding Fei
Editor: Fu Zhao, Peng Yuji, Pan Yuwei
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