JENNY DE KLERK
MORE than 3 000 years ago there lived a boy who suffered from malaria and had to walk with a cane. He had a grandmother he adored and a young wife, his half-sister, who bore him two still-born daughters.
His name was Tutankhamun. He was crowned Pharoah of Egypt when he was eight years old, but died when he was only 18. There are many theories, but we still don’t know how or why.
He was one of the lesser pharoahs and, by all accounts, was buried hurriedly and with far less pomp and ceremony than usual.
It’s still enough to take your breath away. The exhibition Tutankhamun, his Tomb and his Treasures glitters with gold and gems. The originals, of course, are safely locked away in museums, but they have been carefully replicated for this international exhibition which has toured the world. Now it has touched down at the new exhibition space at Silverstar in Muldersdrift.
As you enter you are handed an audio guide which leads you through the exhibition. The foyer sets the scene with a replica of the famous Rosetta Stone wall charts of the dynasties of Egypt and pictures of the arid Valley of the Kings, where tombs were cut into the cliffs and, almost immediately, desecrated by tomb robbers.
At intervals, parties are allowed through to the main exhibition. A multi-media presentation introduces British archaeologist Howard Carter and his dream of finding the tomb of Tutankhamun. By then, the Valley of Kings was considered exhausted, all its treasures long since discovered.
But Carter persevered and in 1922 the long-buried tomb was found, still sealed, its treasures virtually intact. With him we experience the thrill of discovery as he knocks a hole through the door and inserts a candle. “What do you see?” demands his sponsor, Lord Carnavon, behind him.
Move on and we see what Carter saw, a storeroom piled with objects tossed in almost at random: chairs, chests, boxes, an exquisite gold throne, pieces of a chariot …
The audio guide leads us on past a glowering statue of Anubis, the god of the dead, a collection of model boats, even more tantalising chests and boxes.
And then we round the corner to see three life-size golden shrines covered with hieroglyphics, vivid tomb paintings showing the young pharoah being received by the gods, the sarcophagus, the golden coffins one inside the other and finally the wrapped mummy itself, dominated by the glittering gold funeral mask which is now a symbol of Ancient Egypt.
Slowly we wander among the exhibits, ear glued to the audio guide, as it explains the complex beliefs of the Egyptian religion and their elaborate preparations for the afterlife.
The rest of the exhibition is given over to some of treasures found in the chests and boxes, ranging from jewellery to trumpets and board games, carved alabaster bowls, golden statues of the gods, sandals and gloves, bows and arrows and child-sized royal emblems that only the pharoah could touch.
There are many walking sticks which had obviously, we are told, seen use. X-rays of the mummy show young Tutankhamun had a bone disease in one foot and probably couldn’t walk unaided.
Often the audio guide uses commentary taken from Carter’s memoirs, so we share his excitement as the contents of the treasure rooms are uncovered, including a lock of the pharoah’s grandmother’s hair, the mummies of his baby daughters and desiccated flowers that his wife probably threw into his coffin.
Notable is the sheer artistry and workmanship of even the most simple items crafted 3 300 years ago; furniture and chests worked in gold, ebony and alabaster with complex carvings and inlays of glass and precious stones. There are more than 1 000 items on display.
It takes at least two hours to fully appreciate the exhibition, but time vanishes. I could have spent longer. You have to book your slot, but once in, you can stay as long as you like. Ticket prices range from R80 to R160.
For more information, see www.tutexhibition.co.za