In further pursuit of things Ancient Egyptian, Sheryl and I took our history-obsessed seven-year old daughter Madeleine to the reupped King Tut Show at the Los Angeles County Museum this morning. Our reservation was for nine a. m. but the early hour didn’t stop the exhibition from being mobbed. The two most popular events these days seem to be King Tut Shows and Harry Potter signings.
I admit I’m not much of a Potter fan, but the boy king of the Nile never ceases to fascinate me. His death at age 19 remains an intriguing mystery. Back in ‘68, I think, the theory, based on an x-ray, was that he had been bludgeoned at the back of the head. But that has been recently debunked by a CT scan.
This time through the Tut memorabilia, I paused at a display explaining an interesting role in history played by the boy king. He overturned the religious views of his immediate predecessor Akhnaten, a sun worhsipper who is often described as the father of monotheism. Tut brought back the supposedly-superstitious polytheism of Seth, Osiris, et al. I have a suspicion, however, given what people do in the name of religion during our time, that it is not quite that simple.
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10 Comments
1. Patrick Tyson:I was interested in Ancient Egypt for many years many years ago. I read the two Allen Drury Egypt novels, A God Against the Gods and Return to Thebes, while in college. They aren’t, by most measures, in the same class as Robert Graves’ I, Claudius and Claudius the God, but as historical and political novels go they’re pretty good—if you’re interested in the tumultuous thirty or so years before Horemheb seized the throne and ushered out the Eighteenth Dynasty. Drury thought that Tutankhamun was probably Akhenaten’s younger brother.
Jul 31, 2005 - 4:28 pm 2. ahem:So, is she walking like an Egyptian yet? (Sorry, Roger, couldn’t help myself.)
Jul 31, 2005 - 4:50 pm 3. PeterUK:Interesting information on Akhenaten’s appearance http://www.heptune.com/Marfans.html
Jul 31, 2005 - 4:53 pm 4. Luther McLeod:So Roger, how would you rate this King Tut show against the first one, which I assume you attended? In other words should I expend effort to travel and see it myself. I thought the first was stunning for its art.
Jul 31, 2005 - 5:12 pm 5. Terrye:I saw an interesting Disovery show on Tut and they explained how his death was most likely due to an infection of a leg wound.
I think that the ancient priest class was miffed with Akhenaten for removing them from power. They say that almost all trace of him has been removed.
I have always found the ancient Egyptians fascinating and I have to admit that I look at Africa and the Arab world today and I wonder what happened.
Scientists have also discovered a new planet beyond Neptune. It seems the ancient Sumarians were right.
Jul 31, 2005 - 5:20 pm 6. Patrick Tyson:I suppose now that I’ll never learn Finnish so I doubt I’ll ever read Mika Waltari’s The Egyptian again. It covers the same period and was the basis for a ’50s movie of the same name. It is, in what I realize is my very suspect recollection, more entertaining than the Drury novels and that’s probably why, in my late teens, I preferred the Drury novels.
Jul 31, 2005 - 5:46 pm 7. Charlie (Colorado):I suppose now that I’ll never learn Finnish so I doubt I’ll ever read Mika Waltari’s The Egyptian again.
I’ve got to set up an Amazon Associates account.
Jul 31, 2005 - 5:51 pm 8. PeterUK:Terrye,
“I look at Africa and the Arab world today and I wonder what happened.” Look at all the great civilisations in the Middle East,the Arabs happened
Jul 31, 2005 - 5:51 pm 9. Patrick Tyson:Charlie—
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/9510207675/qid=1122859639/sr=1-31/ref=sr_1_31/103-7431078-3596647?v=glance&s=books
It was a joke. Someone recently suggested to me in a different thread that you had to be able to read Euripides in the language in which he wrote to be able to judge the merits (or lack thereof) of his plays.
Jul 31, 2005 - 6:41 pm 10. Patrick Tyson:By “Someone” I don’t mean to imply that it was the poster who uses the pseudonym “someone.”
Now I’m off to read more Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I want to finish it before I participate in the Tuesday rush to rent the Director’s Cut of Oliver Stone’s Alexander. So much to do.
Jul 31, 2005 - 6:48 pm