Canadian History Museum’s Queens of Egypt
Fond of time travel? Symbols? The colour blue? Powerful female leaders? Snakes? Gold? Ancient embalming practices? A view of our parliament buildings?
This summer the Canadian Museum of History, located in Gatineau, is hosting Queens of Egypt, a stunning exhibition developed by Pointe-àcallière (Montreal Archaeology and History Complex) in Collaboration with Museo Egizio (Turin Italy), adapted by the Canadian Museum of History.
Queens of Egypt opens with a water effect, rippling and reflecting along the dark floor and featured on-screen as the water laps on the banks of the Nile, immediately transitioning attendees from the bright open spaces of the museum’s main entrance and central installations to the warm depths of ancient history, 3,500 years back, to the New Kingdom (1539-1076 B.C.).
Showcased in dim, concentrated lighting, there is an element of archaeology, mimicking the darkness of caves and pyramids. More than 350 precious artefacts are showcased in glass columns topped with tall, rectangular screens, where the golden contours of the seven featured Queens themselves appear, blinking and staring at passers-by, until they glimmer and dissolve into sandy, glittery wind-strewn particles, emerging and dispersing every few minutes.
Found within the glass columns are frescos, funerary objects, jewellery, monumental statues, and one of the most interesting, and remarkable features is the ‘Harem Conspiracy Papyrus’ – noting accusations, convictions and judgments aimed at conspirators who plotted the assassination of pharaoah Rameses III.
Speaking of the harem, this is certainly a word that has been adopted and appropriated in Western culture to represent a twisted version of what it actually was – a royal institution reserved exclusively for women and children, where the Queen, noblewomen and the pharaoh’s concubines ruled. Explanations of harem life and elements from such noble spaces have their exclusive section in Queens of Egypt.
Massive screens run constantly in each section, showing village and marketplace life, sacred spaces, and even the occasional cat purring in the sun.
The Queens, including Nefertari, Nefertiti and Hatshepsut, are depicted as sisters, mothers, daughters of pharaohs, and one of them as a pharaoh herself.
As the exhibition winds on, museum-goers shift from the life and times of the Queens to death, funeral practices and the afterlife. Four canopic jars, each with a different head to top the container demonstrate how different parts of the body were stored following death.
We watch as the animated sun god Ra, paddles his way from day to night, life to death.
Perhaps the most breathtaking of this impressive collection of treasures are the elaborate, impressive sarcophagi, ornately painted with minute drawings, depicting the person’s life, and the afterlife, including the under-side of the lids and inside of the main sarcophagus.
An animated wall shows the story outlined on an ancient scroll, of the weighing of a deceased person’s heart in comparison to a feather, and the ultimate judgment by the gods as to their fate, and large upright rectangular screens like those featuring the Queens at the outset of the show reveal the gods, who glow, glimmer and dissolve into digital dust, emerging again from the dark.
Such powerful history, imagery, colours and depictions that are so recognizable to so many of us, it is incredible to witness such objects and treasures before our very eyes. A mustsee this summer, running until August 22nd, 2021.
Most of us haven’t been anywhere in quite some time, but the drive to Gatineau is an easy stretch (try making the trip via Highway 30, but remember that there is a $2.00 toll to pay along the way).
Tickets are very reasonable at $20 (18 – 64 years of age), $18 (65+), $15 (student admission – 13 – 17 years of age, 18+ with proper student identification), $13 (8 – 12 years of age), $5.00 for 2 – 7 year-olds, and under 2 years of age, admission is free. There are also special rates of $50.00 for families (further details online). They may be purchased online at https://www.historymuseum.ca/ queens-of-egypt/ or by their call centre Wednesday – Sunday 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. at 819-776-7000, toll free at 1-800555-5621, and TTY for people with hearing disabilities: 819-776-7003. The rates include admission to the other installations on site.