Couple of Egyptian-centered pieces of news to report on this week. The first is a perfect set-up for a Horror film.
How, exactly, does one possess an Egyptian sarcophagus for 150+ years and never realize there is a mummy inside of it? By never bothering to open it, of course. But if we’re talking about a museum, you’d think they’d at least want to check, wouldn’t you? But no, they didn’t. Curators at the Nicholson Museum on the University of Sydney just found out that there was still a mummy in the 2500-year-old coffin belonging to an Egyptian High Priestess. (If you immediately thought of last week’s post regarding the “curse” on the Hammer classic BLOOD FROM THE MUMMY’S TOMB, good for you. You get a gold star.) The mummy wasn’t in great condition, having been knocked around a bit over the past 25 millennia, but scientists believe it is the mummy of the Priestess Mer-Neith-it-es. Let’s hope the lady finally gets the respect she’s been denied.
In other Egyptian news, Sandro Vannini, who has been the official photographer of King Tut for the past two decades, and who uses cutting-edge tech to capture images of the Pharaoh’s treasures, has a new picture book coming out, collecting his work, entitled “King Tut: The Journey Through the Underworld.” His photographs are stunning. “[I seek] to tell more the soul of the object than just the object itself,” says Vannini, and he sure has been successful in his endeavors. If you don’t believe me, check out the photos for yourself.