You have to have a light heart to enter the world beyond, according to the spiritual rules of ancient Egypt. If so, the god Anubis will welcome you to the realm of the dead. Otherwise, it is always possible to place a scarab carved in stone at the place of the heart to hide its worries in the judgment of the god.
These are things that we learn by visiting the new exhibition presented by the Pointe-à-Callière museum, Egypt. 3000 years on the Nilewhich brings together some 350 objects from the Égizio Museum in Turin, Italy, and recounts 3,000 years of history.
Ancient Egypt was not obsessed with death, but rather obsessed with the afterlife
Unlike the exhibition Queens of Egyptpresented in 2018 at the same museum, also in collaboration with the Egizio museum, this one slips into the daily life of the Egyptians and through their social classes, from the peasants to the pharaoh, the ultimate authority until the conquest of the Egypt by Rome.
The Egyptians who lived during the millennia that preceded our era lived to the rhythm of the floods of the Nile. They worked in the fields and, during the flood, devoted themselves to other activities. “In times of flood, the population will work in corvée, paid by the regime, to build large monuments, produce various objects for the tombs”, explains Anne Élisabeth Thibault, director of the Pointe-à-Callière museum, who makes us do visit. While children begin to work there from the age of five, those from well-to-do classes learn to read and write. 90% of the population worked in the fields when the level of the Nile allowed it, and 40% of agricultural production was used to line the graves of the dead. We then ensured that they were well nourished in their life beyond. Likewise, 40% of the craftsmen’s labor will be reserved for the future of the dead, so to speak.
forever young and beautiful
“We lived everyday life, daily life, in preparation for the life that would continue after death, continues Anne Élisabeth Thibault. Ancient Egypt was not obsessed with death, but rather obsessed with life after death. In death, the Egyptians not only dreamed of themselves eternally young and beautiful, but they also saw themselves accompanied by their domestic animals, which were mummified at their side. The exhibition also presents a certain number of authentic mummified animals dating from this distant era; cats, crocodiles, for example. Life in the afterlife was imagined as nearly identical to life here, but without pain or suffering.
“Recently, archaeologists discovered more than 2000 mummified rams’ heads at the Temple of Ramses II, Abydos,” reads the exhibit. These heads, discovered just last month, would indicate the presence of a cult dedicated to Ramses II, a thousand years after his death.
However paradisiacal it may be, the afterlife did not dispense with the obligation to work. On land, the Egyptians worked hard, and life expectancy did not exceed 40 years. There were also some 30% infant deaths.
In this otherwise refined society, writing, like its preservation, occupies a major place. “The worst thing that can happen to someone is that their name is erased from their sarcophagus”, explains Mr.me Thibault. But also, “we will note everything that happens in everyday life,” she says. Three writing systems have marked the three thousand years of history presented.
Wonderfully preserved
It is also touching to be able to contemplate artefacts that have preserved written traces of this culture down to us. “We used crushed beetles in oil to make black ink,” says the director. The great preservation of these pieces is particularly linked to the very dry Egyptian climate and the place where the objects are buried, far from the Nile.
The Egizio Museum in Turin is the oldest devoted to Egypt outside of Egypt itself. This museum, continues Anne Élisabeth Thibault, is also working in collaboration with Egypt to carry out new archaeological excavations.
Some of the pieces shown here are huge; one contemplates there large sculptures of pharaohs or high places of the regime. But we also see small moving objects, fragments of the Book of the Dead, time markers or even a game of senet, the ancestor of backgammon, which is of such importance that it is often included in funeral goods. .