The King Tut exhibit was a well attended event with an audio tour narrated by none other than Omar Sherif. I really enjoyed the exhibit, but felt the crowd pressing in on me. I found myself drawn to more than the glitter of gold while there. The furniture found in the tomb was really some of the most interesting art on display. The “childs chair” was pretty spectacular. Art sometimes gets elevated to a status that is too lofty. One of my best professors told me that Art is something we all do. Art is part of human existence. We live, breath and make art. Art has been made in some of the most horrific conditions in history. African slaves in the south east of the United States made a hoard of beautiful art that ranges from wooden carvings, paintings, decorate gourds, and so on. Prisoners at Birkenau and Auschwitz made art out of anything that was on hand if you can believe it. So sometimes instead of giant gold coffins blowing you away, something as mundane as a chair does make a chink in the jaded armor.
A craftsman took weeks to make a chair for a child king. The child may have sat in for a few years and then it was stored away for his tomb. That chair has more detail in it than anything I own. There are gods of Egypt on the inside and outside of the arms. The arm rests each have a lions feet at the bottom. I always wanted any house I lived in to have detail like that. My 1926 Arts and Crafts house is pretty cool, but seems vanilla by comparison to just that chair. This is probably what prompts people to build their own house, kayak, or furniture. Everything now is bought and sold, nothing is really your own. I have the same couch as 300 other yuppies. I don’t have the god’s Osiris and Ra looking over me from the back of the couch. I’d like to, but I don’t.
If I had a chair like that I’d probably be buried with it too.
It’s funny… Dig up most Vikings and you’ll more often find them buried with thier finely decorated combs.