Vision of the ancients
ARTIFACTS: Exhibit set for five-week run at CSUB
| Friday, Sep 25 2009 01:08 PM
Last Updated Friday, Sep 25 2009 01:12 PM
When: Oct. 1-Nov. 8
Where: Todd Madigan Gallery at Cal State Bakersfield, 9001 Stockdale Highway
Gallery hours: Noon - 7 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday; noon - 8 p.m. Fridays
Admission: Free, but donations are welcome
Parking: $2
Information: 654-2487 - www.csub.edu
Special events for the community are planned throughout the exhibit's run, including:
Thursday, Oct. 1: Opening night reception in the Todd Madigan Gallery; 6:30 - 8 p.m.; free admission and parking; reservations are encouraged to rsvp@csub.edu or 654-2136.
Friday, Oct. 2: "Living Forever: Death in Ancient Egypt" with Carol Redmount, Egyptian curator at the Hearst Museum. Lecture begins at 3:30 p.m. in the Dorothy Donahoe Hall, room GJ102, followed by exhibit viewing in the gallery; free admission
Friday, Oct. 9: "Early Christianity and Treatment of the Dead in Late Roman Egypt" with Robert Yohe. Lecture begins at 6 p.m. in the Doré Theatre followed by exhibit viewing in the gallery; Yohe is CSUB professor and director of CSUB's Laboratory of Archaeological Science; he is also associate director of the Tell El-Hibeh project in Egypt and recently returned from the excavation; free admission
Friday, Oct. 23: "Beasts, Death and the Sun: a selective introduction to ancient Egyptian religion" with Shelley Stone, a CSUB professor who does archeological research at the Greco-Roman site of Morgantina on the island of Sicily, Italy. Lecture begins at 6 p.m. in the Doré Theatre followed by exhibit viewing in the gallery; free admission
Thursday- Sunday, Nov. 5-8: "The Scepter in the Sand" by Michael Mejia. World premiere play by Michael Mejia; Doré Theatre. Join three archeology students as they stumble upon a cursed scepter and are drawn into the struggles of the ancient Egyptian gods; art exhibit will be open an hour before each performance; call 654-3150 for show times and ticket information
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Robert Yohe is a CSUB anthropology professor and director of Laboratory of Archeological Science. He is associate director of the Tell El-Hibeh project in Egypt. Yohe's research in Egypt has been featured on the Discovery Channel in an episode of "The Bone Detective."
On Thursday, Bakersfield residents will be able to have a rare encounter with an actual mummy and numerous artifacts from that famous civilization that prospered along the Nile River for nearly 5,000 years: ancient Egypt.
This amazing collection will be on exhibition for a five-week run at the Todd Madigan Gallery at Cal State Bakersfield. Titled "The Art of Death in Ancient Egypt," the exhibit will feature more than 50 funerary items, including a mummy named Inty-taway and a spectacular hand-painted human-shaped sarcophagus (coffin), most of which have never been displayed before. All of the artifacts are on loan from the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at U.C. Berkeley and were mostly collected for Mrs. Hearst by the famous archaeologist, George Reisner, at the turn of the last century.
The ancient Egyptian belief in the afterlife was pervasive and complex, and consumed the daily thoughts of the living from the greatest pharaoh, all the way down to the poorest farmer. It was important to properly prepare for the next world and include within the grave or tomb a vast array of magical implements to ensure immortality. Many of these objects were (and still are) aesthetically pleasing as well as metaphysically practical, designed to please the numerous deities of the afterlife as well as the human eye.
Another vital aspect of the afterlife was the preservation of the dead, making them appear as close to lifelike as possible so that the spirit aspects of the deceased and other deities would be able to recognize the remains of the dead in the tomb. This is why preservation of the body became critical to the Egyptians, and the art of mummification reached its pinnacle around 4,000 years ago.
Visitors to the exhibit will have an opportunity to learn about the archaeological work being conducted by my students and I at the site of Tell El-Hibeh, Egypt. My research as professor has led to significant involvement in the ancient city site and I have been taking students to Egypt for a true hands-on learning experience since 2004. In fact, two of my students have completed master's theses based on research conducted at the ancient city site showing continuance of mummification during the Coptic (Christian) period during the late Roman occupation of Egypt.
This past summer, two anthropology students, Erin Dozier and Melissa Mejia, helped discover a tomb entrance, probably dating to around 3,000 years ago, as well as several pieces of papyrus documents bearing hieratic text (a cursive form of hieroglyphics), which is currently being translated at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands.
To appreciate "The Art of Death" exhibit visitors will not need research experience or an understanding of archaeology, just an open mind to be filled with the images of these silent ambassadors of ancient history.
