Mummies!

It's been on our list to do for months, but we finally made it yesterday to the Michael C. Carlos Museum on Emory University. I always thought it was just an Egyptian museum, but they also have some great artifacts from South American, Africa, Europe and Asia. The High has some nice pieces now with its Louvre relationship, but the Carlos Museum is a much better value. For a $7 donation, we wound our way through the many rooms, perusing case after case of jewelry, urns, coins, musical instruments, and other artifacts. Derek was probably tired of hearing me say "Look at that!" and "That would look great in our house.", but there were so many great items. Some were obviously very primitive, but there were some extremely elaborate designs with intricate patterns.

In addition to the artifacts on the middle level, upstairs you can see the pictorial documentation of the discovery of the lost tomb of King Tut. All of the photos were in black and white, but the quality of the photos and the details they revealed were amazing. Harry Burton, the photographer, even experimented with some moving pictures, and footage was included in the exhibit.

Of course, the biggest "wow" factor is still the room with the sarcophaguses (I think I'm spelling that correctly) and mummies. There were at least nine caskets (or parts of caskets) and three mummies. It's hard to not be awed by the majesty of the sarcophaguses and the fact that you are standing inches from a body that is over 2000 years old and is still preserved.

On a side note, if you are thinking about going to see the King Tut exhibit at the Atlanta Civic Center, keep reading. We went to the Tutankhamun the Golden King and the Great Pharoahs - King Tut Exhibit a few months ago, and were disappointed in the value. They did a good job of presenting the history of the discovery, and displayed lots of artifacts from the tomb, but they didn't have most of the items we were expecting on display, namely the sarcophaguses and mummies. The biggest disappointment was the fact that the famous mask (below), which is prominently shown on every advertisement for the exhibit, is not part of the collection. We kept looking for it as we went through the maze, and then realized we were at the end (the gift shop) and still had not seen it. We speculated on whether or not we had just missed it, and then asked one of the volunteers. He said that it was in Egypt, and that it was not allowed to leave after damage it sustained when it was a part of a travelling exhibition in the 70's. Save your $27.50 (plus massive Ticketmaster fees) and go to the Carlos Museum, and you'll experience no buyer's remorse.