We saw the King Tut exhibit in Dallas!

[derby378]

ginbarn and I went to the Tutankhamun exhibit on Friday. Absolutely breathtaking.

They don't have the giant gold sarcophagus - that will probably never leave Egypt again - but they have a tiny version of it that was used to hold Tut's organs, IIRC, and it is phenomenal. You simply must see the exhibit while it's still in the States!

http://www.kingtut.org

[WolverineDG]

1. I saw it on Thursday

It was pretty cool! :) I wore my Obama shirt & got lots more :thumbsup: than I expected. :)

dg

[derby378]

2. What was your favorite part of the exhibit?

Some of my favorites were the miniature coffin, Tut's rod and staff, the Akhnaten balustrade, and all that gorgeous jewelry.

Oops! Almost forgot the tiny altar with the beautiful gold engravings.

[WolverineDG]

5. the alabaster canopic jars

i've always been fascinated by those, and anything that still had the original paint on it. :wow: to have survived thousands of years....I also like the forensic video at the end, which shows that Tut probably died from an infection caused when he broke his leg. :(


dg

[derby378]

6. Those jars were terrific

Did you take a look at Tut's skull at the end? They cast a skull in bronze using the measurements taken from that CT scan. You can even touch it for yourself. Tutankhamun had a slighly pronounced brow, excellent teeth, and an elongated skull that appears to be a genetic trait shared by his likely father, Akhnaten. Very cool.

[WolverineDG]

9. bummer, I missed that

but then we were very tired & hungry, since we got up at 5 am & drove straight to Dallas. :(

I saw lots of Tut & Akenhaten stuff at the Cairo Museum. I swear that man was an alien....

dg

[crispini]

8. HEY. You were in town and you didn't call?

:cry:

:D :hi:

Next time, let me know, we'll get the locals together and DU lunch! Now that the election's over, I got nothing but time!

[WolverineDG]

10. I wanted to, but we were exhausted

:cry: I thought we could meet for dinner, but by the time we were done, all we wanted was a quick meal, a shower, & serious F2F time with our pillows.

Next time, baby! Next time!

[crispini]

12. No worries!

:hi: :loveya:

Anyway, we've got Corpus Christi coming up in a couple of years at the next State Convention! Weehee!

[derby378]

13. DUDE!

Corpus Christi's our next state convention?!? Where did you hear this?

[crispini]

14. At the last one. Hee.

I think there are a lot of people who want to go even if it is an off year, hehe.

[AlCzervik]

3. I saw it in Los Angeles a few years ago and i also saw it the first time around

in boston, it was pretty cool because my daughter was the same age when we saw it in LA that i was when it first toured the country sometime back in the late seventies.

[derby378]

4. Okay, I'm jealous...

:hi:

[jobycom]

7. I saw it last month. Pretty dang cool.

I seem to remember a lot more gold and a lot more objects in general in the 70s tour, but this was impressive, too. I loved the everyday items, and the stuff that told the story of daily life, even if only the daily life of the very rich and famous. Did you see the chair with the wicker bottom still intact, 3000 years later? That amazed me, to see the actual chair she sat in, to even imagine the impressions in the wicker.

I also liked the way this exhibit put Tutankhamun in the context of his history, explaining how his father Akhenatun had attempted to change the religion of Egypt, and how his son reverted back to the old religions. I have a pet theory that this was tied in with the birth of Israel, but I've never been sure which way the influence went. The museum didn't talk about any such connections, but I thought there was enough there that anyone curious could at least ask the questions, and do their own research. At the very least, it demonstrates that there were monotheistic veins of thought in the region at about the same time that the Israelites were forming their ideas, which puts Judaism more in a world context, and less on a cultural and historical island.

Not that all that was in the exhibit. :) Just stuff I used to wonder about when I was into Egyptology.

I noticed that the Dallas and Atlanta exhibits overlap, so I guess the two exhibits together would have a lot more artifacts. I wonder what is in Atlanta that we missed.

[WolverineDG]

11. Many of the items in the 70's exhibit aren't allowed out of Egypt anymore

namely, the famous blue & gold face mask. That's too bad, although understandable.

dg

[yellowdogintexas]

15. We are going to go sometime during Christmas, when my daughter and her BF

are in town.

I rejoined the DMA just because of the Tut coming back.