Our last day in Raleigh took us to a museum that I probably wouldn’t have chosen but am so glad that we did! My knowledge of Egyptian, Greek, and Roman gods is pretty limited from my studies in high school and college, but it has been augmented over the years by references to some of them in the TV series Stargate SG1. We had very little time in the museum before it closed for the day, so I took lots of pictures as we walked around, knowing I could read the signs when I worked on this post. We’ll be learning together.
Welcome to the Golden Mummies of Egypt! Barney and Susie are on their way to the museum entrance.
Like most every other museum we’ve gone through, time frames and locales aren’t in any particular order. Usually I try to organize what I show you, but this time I’m going to share what I found in the order I found them, so be ready to go back and forth in times and ideas. Watch out for mental whiplash.
Mummies, gold, and an obsessive belief in the afterlife are central to the image of “Ancient Egypt.” But how important were these concepts after the time of the Pharaohs (according to Wikipedia, that time that started with the First Dynasty around 3150 BCE and ended when the Roman Empire annexed Egypt in 30 BCE)? This exhibition explores afterlife during the Graeco-Roman period of Egyptian history when the country was first ruled by a Greek royal family starting with Alexander the Great (332 BC) and ending when Queen Cleopatra VII and Marc Anthony were defeated in battle by the Romans (called the Ptolemaic Period. When she died, Egypt became a province of the Roman Empire (30 BC and 300 AD). (Thanks to Wikipedia for these details.)
Wealthy members of this multicultural society elaborately prepared for their afterlife, combining Egyptian, Greek, and Roman ideals of eternal beauty.
Egypt during this time was always in contact with neighboring cultures, trading with Nubia to the south of Egypt and around the Mediterranean for centuries under the Pharaohs. Many non-Egyptians also came to Egypt to live. But relations with other countries weren’t always peaceful, and often the struggle for power was violent.
A dynasty of Macedonian origin called the Ptolemies ruled from 323-30 BC. While they built their capital on the coast of Alexandria facing their homeland, they appeared as traditional Pharaohs on temple walls throughout Egypt.
The Ptolemies developed farmland in the fertile Faiyum area (a city in Middle Egypt. Located almost 54 miles southwest of Cairo, in the Faiyum Oasis) to house new settlers from Greece. Everywhere they lived they promoted the worship of a new, multi-cultural god called Serapis. By looking at items buried with the dead, we can learn about the everyday lives of the Egyptian people.
Egypt in the Graeco-Roman world
In 664 BC, the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal led his army to sack the sacred city of Thebes in the south of Egypt. The archaeologist Flinders Petrie (much more about him later) discovered this unusually shaped Assyrian-style helmet on the west bank of the Thebes (modern Luxor). He thought it could date to that conflict.
During the 7th century BC, Egyptian Pharaohs used Greek mercenary warriors to help fight Egypt’s enemies. This Greek-style helmet dates to that time and was probably left at a Greek temple as a religious gift to the gods.
Archaeologist Flinders Petrie claimed that this 2nd century AD mummy was found as part of a family group at Hawara (more info later). While it is decorated with Egyptian funerary symbols, a Greek text identified the deceased with the word “Artemidorus, farewell.”
mummy of Artemidorus
x-ray of Artemidorus
Egypt became accustomed to foreign rulers. Alexander the Great was just one in the line of Pharaohs born outside of Egypt. His arrival in 332 BC began about 3 centuries of rule by Macadonian-Greek kings called the Ptolemies.
When the last ruler of the dynasty, Queen Cleopatra VII, died in 31 BC, Egypt became part of the Roman Empire that ruled the land for another 4 centuries. This new era of Egyptian history is often called the Graeco-Roman Period.
artwork from that time
While the gods in Egyptian temples almost always adopted traditionally Pharaonic forms, evidence of worship of other deities was in the homes of everyday people during the Graeco-Roman Period. Thousands of hollow terracotta figurines survived that had been used for domestic purposes.
Other terracotta figurines were found near temples and in graves. They usually had a Classical appearance but often combined elements from the times of the Pharaohs. Rarely did they have inscriptions on them, but their specific features made individual deities easy to recognize.
The cult of the Egyptian mother goddess Isis spread throughout the Roman Empire as far north as Britain. This bust shows her in Classical form with her hair in typical corkscrew curls. Her Egyptian identity is shown by the stylized solar disk and cow’s horns above her head.
In the following picture, the female-form vessel on the left is typical of those found in Egypt and the Island of Cyprus, indicating a trade connection from at least the mid-2nd millennium BC. This form of an Egyptian woman has a distinctive long wig and is holding a duck.
Animal vessels like these are also Egyptian-style objects that were found in Greece. Made to hold small amounts of luxury cosmetics like perfume, these vessels would take such exotic forms as hedgehogs, baboons, and lotus flowers—all common in Egyptian designs.
other terracotta figurines
The Kingdom of Meroe takes its name from its major city of Meroe about 125 miles north of Khartoum in Sudan. The kingdom existed during the Ptolemaic and Roman Period in Egypt (355 BC-350 AD). It had its own script that is still largely undecipherable, and the kingdom was responsible for building more pyramids for its rulers than are presently standing in Egypt.
One of the culture’s most recognizable products is its distinctive pottery. Large-scale trading contacts were re-established between the kingdom and Egypt in 21/20 BC after the Meroitic-Roman War.
Recognizable by their distinctive bold designs, Meroitic pottery often used Egyptian motifs like lotus flowers, serpents, or stylized life symbols. These vessels show the cultural contacts between Egypt and its southern neighbors during the Graeco-Roman Period.
The Meroitic Kingdom was also well-known for its exceptionally fine metal working, providing them with an important trade connection with the Roman Empire.
The pair of anklets at the bottom of the picture were typical of the heavy pieces of jewelry found in graves. They date to around the 3rd century AD.
Egyptian artwork
1. Green or bluish glass (middle of display) is distinctive of products from the Roman Period in Egypt. It was used primarily to create thin-walled vessels like these. A native Egyptian sodium compound called natron—otherwise used to purify and dehydrate the corpse in mummification—was an important element in producing Roman Period glass.
2. While it is difficult to prove that objects like this wooden horse were used as children’s toys as we know them, this model horse-on-wheels may be such a toy. Such objects were probably made in reference to the Trojan Horse described by Virgil in the Aeneid from the 1st century BC.
5. Musical instruments like this cymbal (top of display) were used in Egyptian temples to entertain the gods. As a percussion instrument, it only appeared in Egypt in the last centuries BC. This example has a handle to squeeze to make music.
Egyptian “finds”
more “finds”
3. This remarkable convex lens of clear glass (on the left) is one of several found by Flinders Petrie at Hawara. He speculated that rather than providing magnification, it was used to focus light on a particular point, like a bull’s eye.
4. Queen Cleopatra VII is one of the most famous rulers of the Ancient World (and probably didn’t look anything like the actress Elizabeth Taylor). The queen was depicted on coins like this one (on the left) with a Greek-style hairstyle and a prominent nose.
6. Basketry (in the middle) was made from the split leaves of palm trees, which were and still are common in Egypt and had a number of uses. The dry conditions of Egypt’s deserts helped to preserve this common household material.
7. The sweet fragrance of incense was used to invite the presence of the gods. Perhaps used with figurines of the gods, burning incense in containers like these (on the right) was important in temple and household ritual. This stand or burner is in the shape of a Greek-style altar and is blackened from use.
During the Graeco-Roman Period, preparations for death and the afterlife came from practices of the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. Greeks and Romans had rather bleak expectations for an existence after death. However, Egyptians saw their afterlife as an option to be reborn into a bright, perfected version of this world where they could join Osiris, the god of rebirth and ruler of the Underworld. Egyptians wanted to live on for eternity.
Funerals provided them with an opportunity to display their wealth and status. Coffins, masks, and mummy decorations were bright and eye-catching. The wealthy used costly materials to show them as alive and awake at the moment of rebirth. People were depicted as perfect versions of themselves. Children who had died would appear as if they had grown up so they could enjoy the afterlife to the fullest.
ready to be reborn
This molded plaster and linen cover was placed over the mummy of an unnamed girl. Her Greek-style dress and jewelry would have normally been worn by an adult. Her elaborate floral headpiece and curvy adult body proportions suggest the contemporary figurine of the goddess Hathor. This style probably is from the 1st century BC.
mummy masks
The design of this mask, with gilded details and glass eyes indicated that it came from a group of near-identical masks found at the Meir site in Middle Egypt. Other examples had deep side projections to cover the head that often carried colorful scenes of Egyptian gods.
These plaster heads were attached to coffin lids or fixed directly onto mummies to show the deceased as if awakened. Like the painted portraits that we’ll see later in this post, they have different fashions in hairstyles. Their jewelry could be easily detached and sold on the art market.
This mask still retains much of its original paint coloring of black hair and a purple striped garment. Weaver’s marks on each side of this cloth are shown as white stripes at a right angle and notched at the ends.
Many young children didn’t live into adulthood. This young girl holds a floral garland, and her right hand is raised, palm outwards, in a gesture of greeting or prayer. Her figure is framed by scenes of Egyptian gods within a Pharaonic gateway as if emerging from a shrine. This framing suggests the divine nature of the deceased.
For centuries, Egyptian elite were buried in wooden coffins, but these coffins fell out of use in the Graeco-Roman Period. Instead their mummies were sometimes provided with a mask and other coverings attached with the outer linen bandages. These elements are made of cartonnage—a mixture of linen or papyrus and plaster, similar to papier-mâché—and provided surfaces for decoration designed to magically protect the deceased.
The mummy mask was believed to allow the deceased the power of sight in the afterlife. Such masks were mass produced and often made from molds. They depicted the deceased with the perfect face of a god-like being and weren’t intended to be portraits like we have today.
This mummy chest cover provided magical protection for the heart of the decease. Lines show where the mummy’s linen wrappings, once used to hold the piece in place, have been removed.
At the top of the following picture is a mummy mask that’s one of a series of mold-made masks built up from layers of linen and plaster. It’s typical of the Faiyum region during the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods. The distinctive blue color of the head covering emulates the lapis lazuli believed to be the hair of Egyptian deities, associating the deceased with the divine.
The hieroglyphic inscription on the decorated chest cover at the bottom of the picture names the deceased as “Nimaatre,” one of the names of Amenemhat III, a king venerated as a god at Hawara. He lived around 1500 years before the owner of this object was born.
This openwork panel is of the goddess Isis stretching her wings protectively behind her husband Osiris, the god of rebirth. This style resembles those from Tuna el-Gebel in Middle Egypt.
The Egyptians thought that the gods were immortal. Therefore, to attain an eternal presence among them, the deceased had to become a god. Dead men and women could become one with Osiris, the god of rebirth.
By Graeco-Roman times, deceased women could merge with Hathor, the Mistress of the West, where the sun set. To achieve this goal, her deceased body had to undergo special ritual preparations that were only available in their fullest to the wealthy. The creation and appearance of a wrapped mummy made them look like the ancient form of an Egyptian god.
Egyptian deities were said to have flesh of gold that couldn’t tarnish and hair of semi-precious lapis lazuli stone. Those who could afford it often had a coffin, mask, or other covering decorated with gold leaf with a head covering painted in blue. Being armed with this divine imagery was their best way to triumph over death.
ready for the afterlife
the gods of the ancient world
Sobek was the crocodile god associated with fertility but also vengeance. Crocodiles were a serious risk to humans on the banks of the Nile River.
Nephthys was the sister of Isis and Osiris. Along with Isis, she protected the body of the deceased and helped with their rebirth and regeneration.
Amun-Ra was the chief god of Thebes (modern Luxor) and was the most important early god in Egypt for many centuries. By the Graeco-Roman Period, his worship was taken over by other gods.
Khonsu was the moon god. He was the child of the god Amun and goddess Mut. He’s shown with both a full and crescent moon on his head.
Montu was the falcon-headed god associated with warfare and was distinguished by the 2 cobras on his brow. He was especially associated with Thebes (modern Luxor).
Sekhmet was a fearsome lioness goddess believed to have been sent by her father, the Sun God, to punish humanity for their disobedience. Her murderous rampage was only stopped by getting her drunk on beer stained red to resemble blood.
Isis was the wife of Osiris and was a powerful magician. She brought her dead husband back to life after he was murdered. She continued to be worshipped throughout the Roman empire.
The dwarf god Bes is unusual in 2-dimensional Egyptian art for being shown from the front with a grotesque lion-like face. Bes was a protector of women, especially those in childbirth, and young children.
Horus was the falcon-headed god of kingship, the rightful heir and successor to his murdered father Osiris. Each king of Egypt was believed to be a living incarnation of Horus.
Anubis was the jackal-headed god associated with mummification. He helped guide the deceased into the afterlife.
back to masks and mummies
This elaborate mummy mask shows a man with a slight goatee style beard as if he’s emerging from a hood. He holds a floral wreath and a rolled-up papyrus—a sign of literacy, initiation, and status. This mask has been extensively restored.
This unnamed woman’s hair was done in fashionable roman style. She wears Pharaonic-inspired coiled serpent bangles typical of 1st century AD Hawara. While she doesn’t have a trace of a decorated outer shroud, the mask is carefully modeled in gilded plaster with inlaid eyes and eyelashes added in bronze.
As a metal that doesn’t tarnish, gold was believed to be the substance for the flesh of Egyptian gods. Adding gold leaf to the mummy mask, coffin, and even the skin of the deceased, made them closely resemble a divinity, equipping the deceased for eternity and helping them join other gods in the afterlife.
Gold’s glittering quality symbolized the reflection of the sun’s rays, which the deceased hoped to enjoy for eternity. Even covering an object in gold was thought to provide magical protection. Therefore, for the tiny minority who could afford it, gilded decoration was important as they transformed from temporary flesh to diving immortality.
quote from The Embalming Ritual in the 1st century AD
the “flesh” they were hoping for
With their long, full headdresses, traditional Pharaonic mummy masks often appeared genderless to our way of thinking. The stylized curls of hair and earrings indicate that this unidentified mask was for a woman.
Shown in the form of an adult woman in miniature, this young girl appears both as a wealthy Roman in her gilded mask with extensive Egyptian scenes on her outer shroud, typical of 1st century AD Hawara. The archaeologist Flinders Petrie described her as “too splendaciously got up.”
The gilded mask of this mummy shows the deceased with a Roman hairstyle and jewelry, but the outer shroud has scenes of Egyptian gods and hieroglyphs. The name of the woman is written in Greek at the top of the mask: Isaious daughter of Demetrios. These multicultural expectations of the afterlife are typical of 1st century AD Hawara.
close up of Isaious
This Hawara mummy is one of only around 100 from this period that survived with the portrait intact. The young man is wearing a crown of laurel leaves—a sign of justification after death. However a CT scan showed folds of flesh, indicating that he was obese. Obviously the portrait showed a different view of him for the afterlife.
Painted mummy panels from the Roman Period are called “Faiyum Portraits.” They are some of the most striking images from the Ancient World. Their discovery in the 1880s changed what people had thought about the development of art. While portraits have been found all over Egypt, numerous examples are from the Faiyum region. Each image was built up on a thin wooden panel using a mixture of hot wax and pigment, creating a lifelike effect that appeals to us today.
This technique of portrait painting probably originated in ancient Italy. Like earlier mummy masks, these panels were originally attached to cover the face of the deceased to provide an eternal (but probably idealized) face for the deceased. They were rarely identified by name, and we don’t know if they actually looked like those they portray, or even if they were painted before death. It’s almost impossible to categorize them by age, race, or class.
Contemporary with mummy portraits and masks in Egypt, but elsewhere in the Roman Empire, like Palmyra, stone busts were made to commemorate the deceased.
This bust represents an unnamed woman wearing a veil over a turban and headband.
This bust shows a bearded man who holds a book roll. To his left is this inscription in Palmyrene script, “Alas, Yarhay, son of Yarhay, (son of) Halapta.”
Now we get to learn about Hawara that’s been mentioned a number of times. This sacred area was associated with ancient king Amenemhat III (around 1831-1786 BC). [Note: King David of Israel was about 1000 BC and Abraham was around 2000 BC] This king built an impressive pyramid complex where he was worshipped as a god after his death. Greek and Roman visitors identified this complex with a legendary structure called the Labyrinth, which added to the site’s fame. During the Graeco-Roman Period, people from across the Faiyum region wanted to be buried near the king’s pyramid.
Flinders Petrie (1853-1942) was a British archaeologist who directed excavations at a couple of sites here, using over 100 Egyptian workmen. His teams discovered a huge range of objects, including the mummified remains of tens of thousands of bodies, but he only recorded the tiny percentage with golden or painted decoration.
Hawara
This mummy from Hawara has a portrait showing a mature, bearded man. The portrait’s style indicates a date during the reign of the Emperor Hadrian (117-138 AD). The outer wrappings have an elaborate collar and traditional Egyptian funerary scenes.
close up of the bearded man
Most people who lived in Egypt weren’t allowed inside the sacred gods’ temples so could only see the divine images and hieroglyphs on the large exterior walls. Their everyday encounters with deities took the form of small terracotta figurines in their homes that appear more Greek or roman than Egyptian.
However, after death various ancient Egyptian gods, often with their distinctive animal heads, were called on to help the deceased. Thus, the jackal-headed god Anubis remained popular into Roman times. He’s often shown with a key to help the deceased gain entry into the afterlife.
Even after Egyptian hieroglyphs stopped being commonly understood, they appeared on the funerary decorations of the wealthy, along with elaborate images of the gods. These images were believed to envelop the deceased with magical, divine power so they could have a successful transition into the afterlife.
Hieroglyphs are the formal pictorial script of ancient Egypt that were used on most monuments and funerary objects. Pictures were used because it was believed that non-physical beings like the gods and the dead could read them when they couldn’t read words.
This man wears a white tunic with a dark red strips and a white garment draped over his left shoulder—both are a sign of status. This portrait is probably from the middle or late 1st century AD.
This man is also wearing a white tunic with a dark purple-red stripe on the front and also has a white garment draped over his left shoulder. He has dark, curly hair, and his beard is trimmed underneath his jawline. The style of his hair and clothing suggest a date between 110-140 AD.
This 3rd man is wearing a white tunic with dark red stripes and a studded sword belt, indicating the military dress of a soldier. His hairstyle and beard copy the third portrait type of the Emperor Commodus, dating the portrait to between 185-195 AD.
Mummification was not simply to preserve the body, it also was to create a perfect, everlasting version of the deceased that resembled the form of an Egyptian god. With mummification, the spirit would have a permanent physical home for enjoying the afterlife.
Creating a mummy was elaborate and expensive and was only done for the wealthiest people. Necessary materials included Natron (a sodium chloride compound to purity and dry the body), plant resins to make the body fragrant, and large quantities of linen fabric to wrap the body (healing the corpse back to life like a bandage on a wound).
These processes—purification, anointing, wrapping—were also performed in temples on statues of gods. they were done by specialists to ritually transform the human corpse or a wooden statue into a god-like being.
Mummification techniques declined during the Roman Period with the focus shifting to the outer decoration of the mummy, but this is probably more a modern judgment rather than reflection on ancient intentions. Mummification was always a sacred and secret art. Today non-invasive analysis, like CT scans and x-rays, gives us insight into what is beneath the wrappings.
This mummy of a child shows a small area of the headdress that isn’t covered by the bandages. It’s filled with protective scenes of the Egyptian gods. The mask’s damaged area shows its construction technique of built up layers of linen and plaster. The mummy dates to the 1st century AD.
The elaborate corkscrew curls and floral headpiece on this mummy emphasize festivity. The unusually exposed breasts highlight the importance of sexuality for rebirth. Around the body are a large number of images of unnamed gods, common in religious compositions since they provide protection to the deceased.
jewelry (following pictures)
1. The small earring (on the left) is decorated with 3 small orbs; it probably was worn by a woman. Silver was more precious than gold since it was less common in Egypt.
2. These elaborate earrings (on the right) were for an elite woman. They are delicately decorated with granulated work and appear rather un-Egyptian in design.
3. The coiled serpent in the bracelet (on the bottom) was a symbol of power and protection since its dangerous aspect is harnessed to overcome evil.
Bracelets like this were adopted in Graeco-Roman funerary customs of non-royal people. Similar bangles are on the mummy mask coverings of elite women.
Multicolored glass was often used in jewelry during the Graeco-Roman Period in place of more valuable stones. Sometimes they were coated with a thin layer of gold to give eye-catching iridescence. Jewelry at this time was probably just worn by women.
For this coffin and mummy, the name “Ta-sheri-ankh” means “the living (female) child,” a reflection of the high infant mortality rate in ancient times. The style of the coffin decoration dates to the early Ptolemaic Period (perhaps around 300-200 BC). She was probably buried at the important site Akhmim in Upper Egypt as determined by the titles held by parents in the cult of the god Min.
Often within the coffins, objects are buried.
Vessels like this urn were used to hold the ashes from cremations, a practical practice among Greeks and Romans. Burning a corpse was unthinkable to ancient Egyptian cultures and was never common in Egypt.
In the following picture, Graeco-Roman Period mummies sometimes have pieces of gold (like on the left) applied directly to the body, especially on the eyes and the tongues since they needed protection. Gold was associated with the flesh of the gods and imparted divinity to the deceased.
Many Graeco-Roman mummies were not identified by name, so a mummy label would be attached naming the deceased. This example on the right carries text in both Demotic Egyptian and Greek, giving the name of the deceased, along with the prayer, “May her Ba-spirit live before Osiris-Sokar, lord of Abydos.”
Many of us are fascinated by the unwrapping of mummies to see what lies beneath the wrappings. Since ancient times, mummies have been torn apart by tomb robbers in search of valuable jewelry and amulets. In the AD 1600s, mummies were similarly stripped to provide a black substance called mumia believed to cure ailments.
In modern times, curious investigators have unwrapped mummies in the name of “science.” As a result, we now often describe ancient individuals in terms of what we perceive to be their health problems. [Not sure what this means.} What a change from what the elite Egyptian deceased strove for: to take on a perfect, god-like form for eternity.
A video showed British archaeology between the 1880s to the 1920s that led to most of what we’re seeing in this post.
Often called the “Father of Egyptian Archaeology,” Flinders Petria directed excavations all over Egypt between the 1880s and 1920s.
Despite the prominence of Western archaeologists, hundreds of rarely credited Egyptian workers did most of the excavation work.
Petrie was attracted to Hawara by the Greek and Roman descriptions of the pyramid complex.
They called it The Labyrinth—a wonder of the ancient world that rivaled the pyramids of Giza.
Modern travelers had visited and described the ruins, but no one was quite sure where the Labyrinth was located before Petrie arrived.
North of the Hawara pyramid complex is one of the largest Graeco-Roman Period cemeteries known.
Petrie didn’t record mummies without decoration. Of the thousands his workmen discovered, only around 2 or 3% were gilded or painted.
Petrie was interested in the “race” of the mummies. He kept the skulls he found at Hawara and other sites.
He used callipers to measure the skulls and compare them with painted portraits. This racialized “science” has now been disproved.
Petrie’s time in Egypt coincided with colonial control of the country by the British Empire.
Control over the Suez Canal maintained easy passage from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean.
The British military presence meant easier excavations and transporting of finds that were divided with the Egyptian National Museum in Cairo.
The Hawara objects Petrie was allowed to export from Egypt were put on temporary display at the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, in London.
Oscar Wilde may have been inspired by the portraits to write “The Picture of Dorian Gray.” Interesting.
Today it’s illegal to export archeological objects from Egypt. Archeologists must use new technologies to map sites and focus any excavation undertaken.
The thousands of Egyptian antiquities now in museums around the world didn’t get there by chance. Archaeologists, workmen, collectors, and patrons all played their part. British colonial control of Egypt, especially between 1882 and the 1920s, enabled Western archaeologists to excavate at sites and claim a share of their finds from the Egyptian government. In the West, collectors—from national museums to individual hobbyists—wanted to own a piece of ancient Egypt. They drove the industry of excavation, acquisition, and interpretation.
Egyptologist, Sir Flinders Petrie, was very interested in the “race” of the mummies he found. He concluded that most were Greek settlers in Egypt, while we now believe the elite population of Hawara was much more mixed. The display of the newly-discovered Faiyum portraits even inspired Oscar Wilde to write his novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray.
a portrait from the Manchester Museum
Like many city museums in the U.S. and Europe, Manchester Museum was funded by the profits of industry. Jesse Haworth (1835-1920) was a wealthy cotton industrialist in England. Following the American Civil war, the Egyptian economy of the later 1800s was dominated by growing cotton crops to provide much of the raw material processed by Manchester’s many cotton mills.
Haworth became fascinated with Egypt after traveling there in 1880 and was especially interested in its connections to the Bible.
Haworth funded the fieldwork of archaeologist Flinders Petrie, with whom he became friends. Haworth received 1/3 of the finds that Petrie was allowed to take out of Egypt as part of the “finds division” system, and he subsequently donated these to Manchester Museum (which is the source of the exhibit we’re enjoying today).
Jesse Haworth and his wife
A Thousand Miles Up the Nile, by Amelia B. Edwards, was the encouragement Haworth needed to undertake a trip to Egypt and support Flinders Petrie’s excavations in Egypt.
With all of the gods and only the wealthy thinking that they could enjoy an afterlife, no wonder the words of Jesus in the early 1st century were words of life to all strata who heard it. And His words were found to be true because of the resurrection. He did come at the perfect time (“fullness of time” in Galatians 4:4-5) for so many reasons.
Such a great time in Raleigh with our friend Susie. Now back home for my cataract surgery!
