Egyptian Dreams

[kmt_sesh]

As many of you know the exhibition Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs opened in Chicago back in May. At the press preview shortly before the opening, a representative of Exelon, one of the main exhibition sponsors, let it slip that his boss, CEO John Rowe, kept an ancient Egyptian coffin in his office. Zahi Hawass was at the Field Museum for the press preview and threw a fit when he got to the podium, denouncing Rowe for having this coffin and threatening the Field Museum with reprisals (i.e., stopping the Tut exhibit before it even opened). This article from the Sun Times of Chicago will tell you a bit more about the incident.

In the end Mr. Rowe made nice by offering to lend "his" coffin to the "Inside Ancient Egypt" exhibit at the Field Museum. Hawass stopped pouting and said this would be acceptable.

I can now announce that the coffin is on display in our permanent Egyptian exhibit, in its own glass display case...and I can say with certainty that it's quite possibly the ugliest ancient Egyptian coffin I've ever seen. Here's a full view of it:



Here is a profile view; this is an oblique view; and here's a close-up of the face.

We would like to offer Mr. Rowe to take it back. Hawass had originally insisted that the coffin be returned to Egypt, but were he to see it for himself (and I don't believe he ever has), he would probably be thinking, Whew, I sure dodged a bullet on this one! So there it stands, on view at the Field Museum.

There are hieroglyphic inscriptions down the legs, and I could make out a couple of offering formulae but not much else. Egyptologist Emily Teeter, from the Oriental Institute of Chicago, examined the coffin and reported that most of the hieroglyphs say nothing and that, indeed, some of the glyphs don't even look like hieroglyphs. The coffin, by the way, supposedly dates to the first century BCE, therefore late in the Ptolemaic Period.

Ain't it just a frightful thing? My coordinator thinks it looks like Dick Tracy (click the "profile" link above). There's no mummy in the coffin, so we figure that whenever Dick Tracy finally dies, he has a place to rest for eternity. My coordinator is also convinced that the ears were fashioned from Twinkies. One of my fellow docents figures it's actually an ironing board cover. Another docent says it looks like something out of a "Far Side" cartoon. And there's some debate that it isn't actually ancient but was made 20 years ago as an art project in one of the local high schools.

Coffins are one of my favorite focuses of study, and I must say I've never seen one quite like this. The odd pink face might be explained by the possibility of the coffin having been made for a Greek man who wished to be buried in the Egyptian fashion (this was fairly common), but the shape is very strange and especially unusual is the clumsy, boxy shape. All those right angles just don't look right.

So, what do you folks have to say? Anyone want a coffin?
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[Daughter_Of_SETI]

[anneke]

Did they authenticate the coffin? It makes me wonder if it could be a fake. The face looks like the faces on the kitchy reproductions they show in the Luxor casino in Las Vegas
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[kmt_sesh]

Daughter_Of_SETI wrote:

[Daughter_Of_SETI]

You know, Kmt_sesh, if it turns out that the coffin is authentic, I dread to think of what torture the poor craftsman that made it had to endure, after presenting it to the owner. He pobably ended up getting his nose lopped off for making something so ugly. I mean, after all, some poor guy, was expected to spend the rest of his life (well, death) laying in that thing!
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In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this - Terry Pratchett.

[kmt_sesh]

LOL Man, I certainly wouldn't be a happy customer! Was there a complaints department in ancient Egypt?

My coordinator likes to joke that the craftsman who was hired for this task was getting lazy, and handed it over to his kids to do.

I wish you folks could see it in person. The more you study it, the more defective it looks. At about chest level, below a layer of paint and perhaps gesso or plaster, you can even see a board that was stuck in there perhaps to firm it up. I don't know. It's a very strange (and ugly) coffin.

If any of you do make it to the Field Museum in Chicago and wander into the "Inside Ancient Egypt" exhibit on the ground floor, do be sure to search it out. You'll find it to the left of our shrine to Bastet. After all, everyone needs a good laugh, right?
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[Meritaten]

Hawass is game to rip into a sponsor so publically - these folks are the lifeblood of exhibitions and museums! Still, you have to give him one thing - he's not afraid to say what he thinks, even when it isn't the most diplomatic thing to do. That's either highly principled, mad or both.

I did love the Indiana Jonesque comment (to which I am not unsympathetic, as impractical as it is in the modern antiquities market):

[Daughter_Of_SETI]

[Shepenmut]

[kmt_sesh]

Meritaten wrote:

[kmt_sesh]

LOL I couldn't resist it:




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[Shepenmut]

[Daughter_Of_SETI]

[kmt_sesh]

[kat]

On a more serious note here - Hawass is becoming a charicature of himself. Before this coffin incident, on a list of objects he wanted 'repatriated', was a nice KO statue from a Reisner/Giza excavation that was LEGALLY given to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

This coffin was legally obtained as well. From other newspaper accounts that I read, Mr. Rowe purchased it from an antiquities dealer. From all accounts, this object was treated with care and respect, as Mr. Rowe had the glass case made for its protection, and even learned to read the glyphs.

I wonder what Hawass would say to Barbara Walters, who was given a wonderful 22ND Dynasty coffin by the Egyptian government for her coverage of the Six Day War. It's displayed in the foyer of her home, and last year, she announced on air that she had decorated it with tinsel garlands, etc. "to make it more festive for the holiday season"

At least Mr. Rowe treated his coffin with a bit more respect!