Meditations on Gallery 135


 This is the last gallery in the Ancient Egyptian section and contains facsimile drawings that were made by archeologists who unearthed the tombs.  The tombs date from around 1400-1100 BCE in the New Kingdom period. The drawings were done to scale and in the original colors as near as it was possible to get that.  They mostly depict everyday life like these fishermen casting their nets.  The Egyptian galleries with their emphasis on life and death cause a lot of reflection on these essential parts of existence.  What are we to make of our life?  How do we measure how successful we have been along the way.  If our heart is weighed at death balanced against a feather how would we fare?  Would the scales balance?  If there is balance have we really lived a just life which will usher us into the afterlife in a good state.  And if not what of that?  It is comforting in a way to reflect that people who lived thousand of years ago had all of the same concerns we have today.  I spend a long time looking at the drawings.

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