Tut, two
I’m not sure what it says about me that in an exhibit full of extraordinary and beautiful objects, some of them almost 3,500 years old, what I found most emotionally compelling was a small oval piece of ivory, no larger than the palm of my hand, carved to resemble a duck with its head curved gracefully to its side. It was a box, about an inch deep, with a top that swiveled out to reveal a gentle hollow. According to the label, it was probably used to hold some kind of cosmetic or perfumed salve.
The translucent greenish-yellow scarab at the center of an elegant pectoral was more mysterious. Scientists only recently discovered the scarab was carved not from semi-precious stone, but from glass — and not manmade glass, either, but glass found only in the dunes of a small corner of the Sahara, created by something that melted the sand there at a temperature higher than that of lava. Maybe it was a meteorite even more ancient than the pyramids, but there’s no sign of an impact crater anywhere near. No one really knows.
The stone bust of Nefertiti was more inspiring. Her serene gaze and full lips reminded me that she was considered the most beautiful woman of antiquity. She was also Tut’s stepmother (his mother was one of his father’s secondary wives) and his mother-in-law (because he married her daughter, his own half-sister). And before her husband’s death and Tut’s succession to the throne, Nefertiti may also have been the powerful co-ruler of Egypt in her own right. Not a woman to be trifled with, to be sure.
The many golden, bejeweled artifacts were certainly more shiny. I’m a magpie; I love jewelry, and I certainly ogled a few things and imagined how they might look on me.
But that little duck-shaped ivory box was — I’m grasping for the right word — lively. Playful and utilitarian at the same time, something I could imagine on the dressing table of a boy king. Even though was tucked into a box and buried with him, not to be seen again for more than 3,000 years, it wanted to be held and used. I just stood there for a good five minutes smiling at it, delighted.
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