Shadow Puppet Storyteller

Deep-discount Easter

Finished watching the BBC docudrama series, Egypt (2005), which was available recently on Netflix. Now I am thinking about the young Frenchman who learned to translate Heiroglyphs, but who also wanted a deeper understanding of the ancient Egyptians. One thing that seemed to be ignored in the narrative was why these adventurous men, like, Carter, Belzoni before him, and Champollion seemed to ignore getting any part of their understanding from Egyptians themselves? I'm thinking it was a spoils of war, colonization frame of mind. Maybe that still exists? How can I get to know more about Egypt from Egyptians? Guess books will have to be the next best thing, without travelling to Egypt -- still a terribly dangerous travel destination they say. (At least there is the internet now, because I have been interested since the last big exhibition forty years ago)

I have been in a barely functioning state today. My standing more hours than I usually do took a toll. It is possible that I have had a delayed reaction to having to deal with the crowds to see the current King Tut exhibit in Los Angeles. My youngest was nearly ready to climb the walls (and seemed to want to blame me for picking an impossibly busy day to go), and add to it that the family ended up being about 2/3rds disappointed. Due to my forethought to get my husband in to see the Endeavor shuttle ahead of seeing the King Tut treasures, he was actually the one most satisfied, I think. Besides having to deal with being herded in timed reservation and ultimately fed out into a gift shop ala Star Tours at Disneyland, the big deal items you thought would be there were not. We weren't the only ones remarking out loud, "That's it?" Not that it wasn't well done, I did enjoy the arrangement of the first half, which placed a focus on the religious significance of the preparations for the pharoh, and what the ritual adornments may have meant for his success in the afterlife. Not having the funerary mask of Tutakahmon there was just shocking.

Upon some research, I think I get it, Egypt really does need to have something significant to show off in the Valley of the Kings. Most of the well known is to be elsewhere (outside of Egypt) for the next five years of this exhibit of 166 artifacts touring the world. Some of the items in the promotion material are really in the exhibit, but you do not realize that what appears to be the full sarcophagus in the pictures in ads and banners is really just a canopic jar that mirrors the same look.