Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: SteveH
which egyptian museum did you visit? the stuff in most museums can be hand-me-down objects of relatively little value (significance and beauty). my impression is that the egypt government and modern culture frowns upon objects kept outside of egypt (sometimes acquired by quasi-legal means or worse).

Houston Museum of Natural Science. They once had a pitiful handful of Egyptian relics and the mummy of Ankh-Hap.

Their newer dedicated exhibit hall is much better. The shabby items I referred to were ordinary everyday items: pottery, combs, ointment jars, chairs, shabti dolls, senet boards, sandals and such. I did see some masterfully done statues and pectoral necklaces.

The impression of "shabbiness" was magnified by being adjacent to an exhibit of Late Renaissance - Baroque firearms.

142 posted on 12/05/2019 2:39:35 PM PST by Spirochete (GOP: Gutless Old Party)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 133 | View Replies ]


To: Spirochete

Think of it as stuff that could easily be dug up by tomb robbers, sold to victorian era tourists in cairo as keepsakes, put in suitcases, smuggled out of egypt by steamer, and then eventually sold or donated to local museums before trading in such objects was deemed illegal. mummies, particularly ptolemaic era mummies of less significant historical value, were sold in bulk to traveling circuses for curiosity draws.

I have never been in the Houston museum so I could be wrong.


143 posted on 12/05/2019 2:46:28 PM PST by SteveH (intentionally blank)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 142 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson