King Tut
Just in time for passover… I recently saw the King Tut exhibit at the Franklin Institute in Philly. It’s been advertised heavily both here and there, there was a giant banner hanging down one side of Madison Square Garden with this picture of one of Tut’s canopic jars. Overall, the artifacts were incredible, but the exhibit itself a bit underwhelming.
The exhibit was approximately divided in half, the first being pre-Tut, and the second actually from Tut’s tomb itself. They didn’t have Tut’s mummy’s mask, but there were a lot of smaller things. The two most impressive aspects of the artifacts were the brilliance of the blue faience, and the condition and quality of the wood and the wood inlay. King Tut lived about 3300 years ago, and the blue was still rich enough to make you stop and say, “wow.” And as far as the woodwork goes, there was a chair on exhibit that looked like it could have been made a few years ago, with incredible inlaid designs and what looked like very skilled craftsmanship in general.
While the artifacts were incredible, the informational aspect of the exhibit was certainly lacking. Reading the wikipedia article on King Tut afterwards, I was struck by its similarity to some of the captions in the exhibit. Many of them repeated information in previous descriptions and there was little in the way of a map, timeline, or informational overview. It would have been nice to see what the actual tomb looked like, to read about the supposed curse of King Tut, to see where the tomb was located relative to other famous tombs, and so forth. Except for National Geographic, the companies that put the show together seem very much focused on entertainment, as opposed to education. There was even a cheesy soundtrack which, Joanne kept complaining, sounded like the general midi soundbank.
The one piece of information that stuck with me, though, was that by the time Tutankhamun ascended the throne, the Great Pyramid at Giza was already 1000 years old.
April 20th, 2007 at 6:21 pm
Meh. I’ve never really understood the way in which museums attempt to position themselves. Ostensibly, they should have some sort of educational component. But if you go to your average art museum, they have a bunch of pictures hanging on the walls with little information beyond the name of the artist, the year the work was created, and perhaps the name of the person who donated it to the museum. Admittedly, art can be enjoyed without context, but a paragraph or two of basic art history would kill neither the curators nor the visitors. Science museums are even worse. No one learns any science from going to a science museum. You learn science by sitting down with a textbook (or a stack of papers!) and plodding through it. At best, the museum may inspire you to actually learn something on your own. Which this museum seems to have accomplished in your case.
Hurrah!
November 8th, 2007 at 8:05 pm
I LOVE KING TUTS TOMB!
November 13th, 2007 at 10:17 pm
God i need more info about King Tut’s tomb, and a better pic.
December 4th, 2007 at 7:22 pm
I liked your page. it gave a fairly good amount of information. it was certainly intresting.
December 20th, 2007 at 7:46 pm
king tuts tomb is awsome. I sould maybe try looking for his tomb when I grow older!
March 22nd, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Love everything about Egypt.
November 14th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
king tut is boring and sucks but if your trying to make a page on him you need more info jeese