When one lives in British Columbia, few opportunities exist to view Egyptian antiquities first hand.\u00a0 Egypt: Time of the Pharaohs<\/em> is a traveling exhibit currently on display at the Royal BC Museum in beautiful Victoria.\u00a0 The collection is curated jointly from the University of Aberdeen and the Roemer- and Pelizaeus-Museum Hildesheim.<\/p>\n

The greatest strength of this collection is its sheer diversity of objects.\u00a0 The exhibition has a large selection items dating from the pre-dynastic period until the Roman period.\u00a0 The time period covered is wide in scope, and the collection covers all walks of life.\u00a0 Items included are objects from everyday life, e.g. beer jugs, to luxury goods from the tombs of great kings.\u00a0 On the basis of the items alone, this exhibit is worth the modest price of admission.<\/p>\n

This is not to say, however, that the exhibit does not have some shortcomings.\u00a0 It definitely does.\u00a0 The descriptions that accompany the artifacts are often 20 years out of date and many contain glaring factual errors.\u00a0 A couple of examples include the description of a “woman miller” that clearly is male and a “stool” that is obviously a chair with the back broken off.\u00a0 The description of a 21st dynasty “yellow coffin” cover states that the yellow reflected the symbolism of the sun when David Singleton in 2003 proved that these coffins were originally painted white and the varnish only yellowed with age.<\/p>\n

Another issue is the dim lighting used in the exhibit.\u00a0 Quite frankly, the lighting is darker than what other exhibits of this kind employ.\u00a0 Many objects of this kind do not require lighting this dark, particularly artifacts that baked in the harsh Egyptian sun for over 3,000 years.\u00a0 The darkest areas of the exhibit house objects made of granite or bronze, non-fugitive materials.\u00a0 Some of the lighting choices were a bit silly.<\/p>\n

The other shortcoming revolves around the Royal BC Museum’s decision to exclude local Egyptologists from actively participating in the exhibit. The museum would not dream of a first nations exhibit without the participation of Canadian anthropologists and archaeologists.\u00a0 Yet, the museum shut out local Egyptologists who are few but active in the scholarly community.\u00a0 This failure is a lost opportunity to leverage local talent.<\/p>\n

Overall, the Egypt: Time of the Pharaohs<\/em> is a rich and worthwhile exhibit to see.\u00a0 And it is no doubt one of the best exhibits of Egyptian artifacts that has ever come to Canada.\u00a0 Egypt: Time of the Pharaohs<\/em> runs until December 31, 2018.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When one lives in British Columbia, few opportunities exist to view Egyptian antiquities first hand.\u00a0 Egypt: Time of the Pharaohs is a traveling exhibit currently on display at the Royal BC Museum in beautiful Victoria.\u00a0 The collection is curated jointly from the University of Aberdeen and the Roemer- and Pelizaeus-Museum Hildesheim. The greatest strength of…<\/p>\n

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