King Tut: A Preview

The highly anticipated King Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of Pharaohs exhibition is opening to the public at the Dallas Museum of Art tomorrow, and yesterday, I got to see it before any of the rest of you suckers. (I’m only kidding. Love you and mean it.) I’m sure you read all about it in the print product this month. A bunch of important people spoke prior to letting us walk around, and here is the takeaway: It took a lot of work to get this exhibition here. We need lots of people to come and see it. The president of the Dallas CVB, Phillip Jones, called the Tut exhibit our “cultural superbowl.” They are hoping it brings in $150 million for the city. 125,000 tickets have already been sold. So, how was it? Jump to find out. Also, I took a couple pics of the items available for purchase in the gift-shop (Tutti Bear, anyone?).

Photo: One of the cool items on display for Tut exhibit.

Inlaid Pectoral Spelling Out Name of the King

PHOTO CREDIT: © Andreas F. Voegelin, Antikenmuseum Basel and Sammlung Ludwig

Dynasty 18, Reign of Tutankhamun 1323-1322 BCE

So. It’s a pretty cool exhibit. You enter in groups into a dark room, and a very dramatic video is played to introduce what’s going to happen. (A couple people in our group actually cheered at the end of it, but we’re nerdy media types, so go figure). A black curtain parts, and we all walked into the first room, Egypt Before Tutankhamun. There are a series of rooms following this that talk about what it was like to live in Egypt during this time period, with appropriate artifacts to illustrate. In the Death, Burial, and Afterlife room, there is a gorgeous golden coffin that held a prominent person back in Tut’s time.

We learn all about mummification and all the slightly ewww-y things that go with it (organs wrapped up separetely and put into jars, brain pulled out the nose, etc), and we also learn about how Egyptians viewed the afterlife (they were buried with small statues called Shabtis, that would do work for them in the afterlife). There is a tiny Shabti with a blue body and wings that I liked a lot. Eventually we get into Tut territory, and we learn about the excavation of the tomb, and all that was found inside it. Two tiny coffins were found inside the Treasury room of the tomb, and people believe they held the mummies of two of Tut’s stillborn children. Morbid but fascinating.

Around this time we reach the canopic coffinette, a tiny sparkling coffin that looks just like the image you’ve been seeing on all of the marketing materials, but much smaller. It’s stunning. It held Tut’s liver. But it got me ready for more. Bring on the coffins! That’s when we entered the Burial Chamber. In the middle of a room is a hologram-type coffin that shows what the mummy would have looked like in different stages, and where the artifacts that are in the room (the golden diadem that was still around his head, the dagger, and a golden collar) were located in the coffin. National Geographic also made a great video that shows what the tomb would have looked like. For example, Tut was wrapped in three golden coffins, plus the mask that I mentioned before has been on all of the ads, etc. for the exhibition.

Speaking of that mask…it’s not here. This is not surprising to anyone who has read anything about the exhibition, but, well, I hadn’t read that much. Apparently the mask is still at the Museum of Cairo and couldn’t make the trip. Maybe that’s why I found the exhibition cool, but a little underwhelming. There were several little “wow” moments, but no big “ohmyGodthat’ssoamazing” moments.

Until I reached the gift shop, that is! Check out some of the items for sale.

You, too, can dress like a Pharaoh with one of these awesome hat thingys.

I didn’t remember Hookahs being mentioned in the exhibition, but no matter. Here they are for sale.

These are the jars that hold mummified organs. Now you can have your own for your own organs. Or, you could put flour and sugar in them.

Tut tie!

This is the Tutti Bear. I think he’s really cute. Check out his beard.