Chill out day
Jun. 22nd, 2017 08:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rosa_heartlily So, today is my 'chill out' day for the week. I have no definite plans, other than having a nice long bath - I'm just going to let the day come to me.
Yesterday, I visited the Garstang Museum, named for Professor John Garstang, the first Professor of Archaeology at University of Liverpool. It's open every Wednesday afternoon, which I hadn't realised - I've been wanting to visit for a while. They have a special 'Book of the Dead' exhibit at the moment. Egyptology is, of course, one of my longest obsessions. My first question, 'Do they have anything from Amarna?'. The answer, 'Yes!'. Looking at a fragment of painted plaster floor and wondering if Nefertiti ever walked on it gives me such a thrill.
They had a partially unwrapped mummy. His name in life isn't known. He was in his twenties when he died - very slender and shorter than me. They made them small in those days. His lack of a name is sad - the Ancient Egyptians believed that a person's immortality was linked to their surviving relatives speaking their names. This gave rise to cults where people would visit their relatives' tombs to leave offerings and speak their name. It also led to the obliteration of the names of those judged heretics - Akhenaten being the best example.
A friend also commented that such collections are actually crime scenes. All of those objects were stolen from their country of origin (not all the objects are Egyptian), and I have a lot of sympathy with that view. I also felt really sad looking at that poor, nameless mummy. After all, that is a real dead body lying behind that glass. Once a living, breathing, thinking, loving person - now a blackened, shrivelled corpse for the curious to gawk at. And yes, I include myself in that.
On the other hand, how would I ever see things like that if someone hadn't collected them and brought them to Britain?
Also did a bit of shopping and then some monster slaying. A good day all round.
Yesterday, I visited the Garstang Museum, named for Professor John Garstang, the first Professor of Archaeology at University of Liverpool. It's open every Wednesday afternoon, which I hadn't realised - I've been wanting to visit for a while. They have a special 'Book of the Dead' exhibit at the moment. Egyptology is, of course, one of my longest obsessions. My first question, 'Do they have anything from Amarna?'. The answer, 'Yes!'. Looking at a fragment of painted plaster floor and wondering if Nefertiti ever walked on it gives me such a thrill.
They had a partially unwrapped mummy. His name in life isn't known. He was in his twenties when he died - very slender and shorter than me. They made them small in those days. His lack of a name is sad - the Ancient Egyptians believed that a person's immortality was linked to their surviving relatives speaking their names. This gave rise to cults where people would visit their relatives' tombs to leave offerings and speak their name. It also led to the obliteration of the names of those judged heretics - Akhenaten being the best example.
A friend also commented that such collections are actually crime scenes. All of those objects were stolen from their country of origin (not all the objects are Egyptian), and I have a lot of sympathy with that view. I also felt really sad looking at that poor, nameless mummy. After all, that is a real dead body lying behind that glass. Once a living, breathing, thinking, loving person - now a blackened, shrivelled corpse for the curious to gawk at. And yes, I include myself in that.
On the other hand, how would I ever see things like that if someone hadn't collected them and brought them to Britain?
Also did a bit of shopping and then some monster slaying. A good day all round.
