Handmade Egypt

Photo by Tom@HK

A few weeks before class began I took a trip to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston to see the new Egyptian exhibit, it was amazing to say the least.

The sarcophagus of the mummy was extremely detailed with thousands of hieroglyphs. Several people must have spent weeks, if not months on these centimeter wide carvings. The hood covering the mummy's head was handmade, as with everything that we have uncovered from this time period. Upon close inspection of the wood used in the multiple layers of sarcophagus, you can see the tool marks that someone made thousands of years before.

One interesting quote I found was from the MFA's website:

Most intriguing is the skilled removal of several bones around the cheeks. This “surgery” did not help with brain removal, so it may instead relate to the funeral ritual known as the Opening of the Mouth Ceremony. This allowed the deceased to eat, drink, and breathe in the afterlife.

Everything in this exhibit was insanely detailed. Before viewing the mummy room, there were several boats, objects, jars and countless objects that were left with the deceased for use in the afterlife. These were handmade, not put together on an assembly line and they were not used or showcased until now. They were left to rest in peace in a dark tomb were no one was to view them. The afterlife was just the beginning for the Egyptians.