July 13 — Living Forever in Ancient Egypt (or how 4000 year old practices illuminate our views of death today)
Every person in ancient Egypt seemed preoccupied with death and the life thereafter, but only a few could afford to turn themselves into mummies that would terrorize archaeologists in the 20th century. For ordinary Egyptians, the question was how much immortality they could afford. Attend the opening of IMA’s exhibition “To Live Forever: Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum,” and hear how similar are our views today.
When: Sunday July 13, 2:00 PM
Where: DeBoest Lecture Hall, Indianapolis Museum of Art
Ancient Egyptian culture required people to prepare for death and the afterlife by living a life of justice and furnishing a tomb appropriately. Every educated Egyptian tried to learn the god Osiris’ rules for a just life, but ordinary Egyptians often struggled to furnish their tombs. Dr. Edward Bleiberg (Managing Curator for Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Middle Eastern Art at the Brooklyn Museum) explores the spiritual and material barriers to Egyptian immortality.
This opens the IMA’s exhibit, To Live Forever: Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum. The IMA will be the first venue to host this touring exhibition, which includes some of the greatest masterworks of the Egyptian artistic tradition from the Brooklyn Museum’s extensive, world-renowned collection. The exhibition explores Egyptian strategies for defeating death and achieving eternal life, and will contain over 100 objects including coffins, statuary, jewelry and vessels. The exhibition tells the story of mummification, the funeral procession and rituals, the contents of the tomb, the final judgment, and the idealized afterlife.
Dr. Bleiberg organized the exhibit. A preliminary review of the catalog that will be released in June:
The notable Brooklyn Museum collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts serves as a steppingstone to a look at the burial practices, concerns, and options of ordinary ancient Egyptians. Referring only briefly to the Egyptians’ belief in the afterlife which has been covered many other places, this work is decidedly different in that it concerns primarily practical decisions and burial options facing average Egyptians. Thus it brings in material which most readers will find entirely new on the always-fetching subject of Egyptian religion and burial customs.
The funeral practices of the middle-class and poor Egyptians are not commonly known as are those of Egyptian royalty and upper class because the elaborate, often golden, artifacts of the latter and the large amount of statues, amulets, and possessions in their tombs have understandably attracted the most attention of the public. Besides, the metals and other materials of the tombs of royalty and upper classes did not deteriorate so much over time as the wooden sarcophagi, identification tags, and crudely-made base metal and stone artifacts which the lower classes used because they could afford them. Nonetheless, enough of the middle- and lower-class artifacts have survived for archaeologists, historians, and curators such as Bleiberg to realize differences in funeral practices.
Royalty or commoner, ancient Egyptians believed in an afterlife. Funeral practices reflected this belief according to an individual’s means. Surviving relatives would make the practical decisions about the elaborateness of a funeral, the quality of embalming, type of sarcophagus, and crafted and personal items to be buried in the tomb. Upper classes for example would usually have their internal organs removed and placed in stone jars; whereas middle and lower classes would have injected into them a fluid which would liquify their organs, thus avoiding the expense of their removal and storage. Bleiberg delves into the realities and practices of funeral practices of average Egyptians to the point of giving costs for different kinds of coffins. In his reader-friendly visual and writing style, this author draws the curtain back on a fascinating area of ancient Egyptian society.
