If the funeral mask and Selket are not in this show, I agree that it is decidedly inferior to its predecessor.
Posted on 06/27/2005 11:01:22 AM PDT by Jubal Harshaw
Just came back from the King Tut exhibit in LA. I saw the exhibit in '76, and have seen the Tut exhibit in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and have been to the Luxor Museum / Valley of Kings / Valley of Queens / Abu Simbel / etc. My girlfriend never saw any of the Tut exhibits before, so together we represent a wide range of pre-existing knowledge about Tut and about ancient Egypt.
We both thought the LA exhibit, soon touring the USA, was a waste of time. The exhibit included no closely Tut-related paraphernalia bigger than a breadbox. The largest item is the gilded Coffin of Tjuya, which was apparently found in the tomb of a nobleman who might (or might not) have been Tut's great grandfather. Tjuya herself therefore might (or might not) have been Tut's great grandmother. That coffin is large, but it is likely three generations removed from Tut, and, even if related to Tut, is from a then non-royal branch of the family. It's a nice piece, but that's as good as it gets.
The famous gold bust of Tut? Not there. Tut's sarcophagus? Not there. The famous lion bed? Not there. All that's in LA that Tut might actually have owned is jewelry, trinkets, and a few small statues, many broken and not restored. Presumably so that people didn't know what they were missing, the museum didn't even have color photographs of the glorious finds that didn't make it on the tour.
All in all, for us it was a waste of time. The price was OK (~$20.00 each), but it was probably worth ~$10.00 / person. If you have a free afternoon, and want to see a few second-rate Egyptian trinkets that may be related to Tut, then it's a way to kill a few hours.
We saw the Tut exhibit in Chicago. We took our then young kids.
Your mention of flying out of Cairo on the same flight as Testrake reminded me of a flight my husband and I took out of Amsterdam in September 1970. Two flights had been skyjacked from Amsterdam, September 6, just before we flew out and security was extremely tight. They took every thing, including my purse, away from me. I didn't start feeling safe until we passed Ireland.
When we got back to USA some suspicious (blackpanther types to me) paid cash for first class seats on our continuing flight and then paced back and forth before entering the plane. This was from LaGuardia to Birmingham. I just knew we were going to be taken to Cuba.
This wasn't an unreasonable fear since a friend of mine had been highjacked to Cuba on a flight from Minneapolis to Miama by the Black Panthers. She and her baby were there overnight and flown back to US.
Have yous seen Ramses II? Although, I never saw the first Tut (not having been born) I was very impressed with Ramses II that made it to the Museum of Natural History in Denver after an extensive remodeling sometime in the late 80's early 90's. I have heard that the pieces in the Ramses II were much more abundant than the pieces in the original Tut exhibition. Any comment (if you have seen both?)
I still remember the time he tried to destroy Batman using the Egyptian Pebble Torture.
I must have missed that one.
If the funeral mask and Selket are not in this show, I agree that it is decidedly inferior to its predecessor.
Having got to the LACMA exhibit last weekend, it was disappointing in that it's barely tut-related. There's some fantastic pieces on display but as the original post says, the overwhelming majority of the 128 artifacts are *not* Tut related. There are a couple chairs, the thingy that contained his liver, a pair of boats, a knife, a couple necklesses but the rest, including the one large sarcofogace mentioned in the vanity above are not Tut items. Still, there's fantastic workmanship on display and if you haven't had the opportunities bragged about up thread, it's worth a look!
I will say it wasn't worth the special trip made to L.A.
My wife has made it clear we WILL be going.
Don't forget, a few trinkets is still historical. For those of us who can't or won't go to Egypt (since I would like to stay alive and I don't want to lie and say I am Canadian), we'll touch what we can.
It must be nice to have all that kind of exposure. I haven't so I thought more of the exhibit than you and your eager-to-please girlfriend. Still, I do agree it borders on fraudulent given that the actual number of Tut exhibit items are few. But the overall exhibit gives a good look at the workmanship of the ancient culture including a poke in the eye to western abortion-lovers in the form of one of the fetal death masks.
It wasn't worth the special trip north to L.A. but it wasn't a complete waste of time either. My understanding is none of the significant objects you complained about the exhibit lacking travel outside Egypt anymore. How long was your wait in the tent? We had 'anytime' tickets so we had barely a five minute wait.
We saw the Tut exhibit in Chicago with OUR still-young kids...I thought it was breathtaking, very very beautiful.
No hijacking experiences, though, we drove. ;-D
Matter of fact, now that I think about it, we were able to see it the day before it opened to the public, something about my in-laws the museum members or something else nice like that. No crowds, and we could look as long as we wanted...
ping
Well for starters you probably won't have a solid gold death mask and 4 coffins.
Now that is something to aspire to...
My friend told me that part of the marketing campaign includes the slogan 'The King of Bling.' Please, somebody tell me that's not true!
I was a kid in nyc in '77 and saw the exhibit then, which was pretty awesome to my 9 year old sensibilities. A shame that this new US tour seems like a huge letdown.
In any case, it's a huge turnoff that some of the marketing i did see insisted that once this tour is over, the goodies would vanish back to Egypt forever. Yea, right, I wasn't born yesterday!! Hahaha!
Art ping.
Let Sam Cree or me know if you want on or off the list.
Interesting views of this exhibit. I had thought of taking my children when it comes east. Now I'm not so sure.
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
I LOOOOVE the Museum of Natural History...near the stadium.
Ain't that culture 'nuf?
That's too bad. Tut's not at the British Museum either, but it is bursting at the seams with Egyptian artifacts and so many sarcophagi (sp?) that it all becomes a blur, and that's only a small fraction of the place. Several visits are needed to take it all in. And it's free.
This week might be a bad time to drop by, however.
Would take a hell of a lot more than you described to get me to go to the hellhole called LA.
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