#tutankahmun

[eve-to-adam]

Some time ago, I rewatched "Tut" and that reminded me of how long I haven't drawn anything related to Ancient Egypt. Despite the fact that the series is not historically accurate, I cannot deny that the costumes were magnificent. And Sybilla Deen was an extraordinary Ankhesenamum!

[ukdamo]

Today's Flickr photo with the most hits is this mural of a winged scarab. It was part of the Egyptian / Greco-Roman decor of the flat., which I painted in 2001. The scarab is based on the apotropaic heart amulet, buried with Tutankahmun. The cartouche is that of Akenaten (his father).

Above - link to the album

[thebeangarden-blog]

king tut, kanye & my perishable soul

A few weeks ago i went to the King Tut exhibition in Melbourne. I didn't know much about ancient egypt before i went. I probably don't know much more about it now. But it did get me thinking. 

There were so many very old and very excellent things there. One hundred and thirty old and excellent things, to be precise. Things like this

and this

and this

and this

Oh, Kanye and his shiny man cleavage weren't there. But that thing next to him? The golden canopic chest containing the remains of King Tut's great grandmother? Yep, that totally was.

Anywho, like i said, it got me thinking. The Ancient Egyptians were completely pre-occupied with death. They believed that on dying they passed in to the underworld, where they would need to pass a number tests in order to enter the green and peaceful delights of the afterlife. They did everything they could to equip each other's perishable souls with all that they would need for the journey. They mummified and entombed each other, and they filled these tombs with all the things they might need in the afterlife. Jewellery and furniture and clothes and cutlery and statues and tools and, well, the occasional foetus. They got each other all set for the day when they would fight their way through the underworld, stand in front of forty two judges and gods and have their heart placed on a set of scales to be weighed against the feather of truth. Green and peaceful afterlife, or a date with the devourer of the dead?

If they passed the test the judges would pronounce "he is justified. The swallowing monster shall have no power over him." And off they went to an idealised Egypt where the crops would never die and the ground would never shake and they would know only eternal joy. 

I don't believe in this. And i don't believe in any modern or western version of it either. But sometimes I think it would be nice to believe in... something.

If i did believe, though, if i really did want my people to equip me with everything i would need in the after life on my demise, what would they put in my cave with me?

This?

  or this?

one of these?

and maybe these guys?

It's just not really the same. is it?

So to sum up, I went to the King Tut exhibition and i saw some very excellent and very old things. I also watched a man with a big beard try to explain a foetus coffin to his four year old without making her cry. But it mostly made me feel like a heathen. Aheathen whose perishable soul should probably start preparing for a meeting with the devourer of the dead.