Some of the Interesting Facts You’ll Learn Inside
THE QUEST FOR IMMORTALITY: TREASURES OF ANCIENT EGYPT
September 10, 2004-January 23, 2005
- The need for physical survival of the body was significant for ancient Egyptians. Their funerary beliefs and practices centered on the idea that the body must be preserved intact for the spirit to gain immortality. To achieve this, the ancient Egyptians developed elaborate processes that allowed their bodies to survive for thousands of years.
- To ancient Egyptians, a tomb was more than a resting place for the body—it was the eternal home for the spirit. The Egyptians believed that the spirits of the dead dwelt in the west, where the sun set. Tombs were packed with treasures and nourishment, so the deceased could enjoy eternity in style.
- To gain eternal life, the Egyptians believed that the spirit of the deceased had to endure tests, avoid dangers, and cultivate the support of various deities who might help or hinder the soul on its journey to be judged.
- One of the first steps in mummification was the extraction of soft tissue. The liver, lungs, stomach, and intestines of the deceased were placed in canopic jars.
- The Egyptian god most closely linked with the afterlife is Osiris, king of the netherworld. According to the myth, Osiris was killed and dismembered by Seth. The pieces of his body were collected, wrapped together, and reborn with divine assistance from his sister and wife Isis. Egyptian practices such as mummification are related to the Osiris myth.
- The ancient Egyptians believed that after a king’s death, a model ship buried with him would magically transform into a solar boat to carry him along the underworld Nile. The solar boat carried the sun god Re and the deceased pharaoh through the 12 hours of night. At dawn, the sun god would be reborn—and the pharaoh’s spirit along with it.
- Ancient Egyptians worshipped the powers that particular animals represented. They gave their gods animal attributes to show that they possessed the same qualities.
- The entrance to Thutmose III’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings was discovered in 1898, high up on the side of a cliff. After descending down ramps and staircases and crossing a deep pit, archaeologists found his burial chamber. Covering the walls of the chamber was a religious text called the Amduat, a collection of spells and instructions for gaining eternal life.
- The discovery of the Rosetta Stone in 1799 allowed scholars the opportunity to unravel Egyptian writing. The French linguist and Egyptologist Jean Francois Champollion (1790-1832) finally unraveled the structure of hieroglyphics in the 1820s. In reading hieroglyphics, 1) Vertical inscriptions are read from the top down. 2) Horizontal inscriptions can be read from left to right, or right to left. To figure out where to begin, look for symbols like people or animals. 3) Pharaoh names are always enclosed in an oval ring, called a cartouche.
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