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thoreau
Yesterday - David and I ventured out to San Jose's Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum & Planetarium. It had been on our adventure list for months - and we finally did it. It is situated rather unassumingly in a residential neighborhood. Suddenly across the street from Herbert Hoover Middle School - is an Egyptian temple. I laughed with David that it reminded me a lot of the Luxor in Las Vegas... very stylized and almost amusement park in it's landscape and park design. The complex takes up a city block - with a "peace garden" and an auditorium/planetarium. We started at the exhibits - which seperated the subject matter into birth, living, afterlife and royalty. The museum specializes in the ancient city of Tell el Amarna, the city of the King Akhenaten, Tutankhamen's father.
Although most exhibit pieces are 'recreations' - they museum had some astounding pieces and was presented very well. I learned all sorts of new things about the civilization and particularly new things about the role birth played in society. Apparently a good 50% of Egyptian births ended in the death of the child or the mother - a successful birth - particularly amongst royalty was seen as a generous gift from the gods and was celebrated with a week long set of rituals. The Mother and child would spend the first few days in isolation -
with only priestesses attending to them. Apparently this was true of even the poorest of families - then the mother and child would be lifted up on a platform and paraded through town showing that the new child was strong and the mother would become the spiritual guide for the child. In another section of the museum they showed the influence of other cultures - and included a "scroll" from Nebecanezzar from 604 BC. (pictured right) The scroll, written on a cylinder, was written in cuneform and the museum kept it in a sealed vacuum temperature controlled chamber.
David and I spent a couple of hours walking through the space - and it included a lovely room talking about the afterlife and the different tombs of the Nile. Since the dynasty the museum specializes in is that of King Tut's father - there is a replica of Tut's sarcophagus and a discussion (in great detail) of how mummies were made - and there were several different things I learned. Kings in particular - were buried with dozens of cats and baboons who were euthanized and mummified and buried with the same care as the body of the deceased. The Egyptians believed that we had two spirits - or "Ka" - and that one lived outside our body - and the other was the living spirit in our body. and that when one dies - that the two twins merge into one spirit and proceed to the afterlife. Cats and baboons were favorite pets of male kings - while cats and gazelles were the chosen pets of female royalty. And what king wants to head to the afterlife without a few pets to take along, right?
We continued to go to the Planetarium show - which was well - not that great. One parent commented afterward was we were leaving "the kids were very well behaved considering how painfully boring and lame that was."
If you are ever in the area and looking for a truly unique museum, that at least I wouldn't have thought would be hiding in across the street from a middle school in San Jose - it gets a high recommend. Just skip the planetarium and save it for a really great one - perhaps at the Academy of Sciences.
Click here for the full photo set
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Date: 2009-01-25 05:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-25 05:31 pm (UTC)Rosicrucian
Date: 2009-01-25 06:14 pm (UTC)I knew a guy who was a security guard there and he took us into the temple which is not open to the public but extremely beautiful.
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Date: 2009-01-25 07:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-27 11:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-27 03:38 pm (UTC)