Back in 1976, Egypt sent the remains of pharaoh King Tutenkhamun and many of his valuables on a tour that included stops in multiple American cities, drawing eight million visitors over three years.
That set off a broader King Tut frenzy in pop culture that culminated in Steve Martin’s novelty hit “King Tut” landing in the top 20 on the pop charts.
In 2009, Egypt brought back selected King Tut-related remnants for a U.S. tour that included a stop in Atlanta.
Today, the country is no longer sending its valuable Tut-related items on tour so for the past few years, a King Tut exhibit featuring 1,000 painstakingly realistic replica items has been traveling the world instead. It has finally landed in Atlanta at the Exhibition Hub Art Center in Doraville, with adult tickets starting at $25 at feverup.com. An audio commentary is included.
The exhibition will run at least through the end of the year.
And unlike some of the other “immersive” exhibits including Exhibition Hub’s concurrent Van Gogh exhibit, this one is old-school analog. There are no flashy multimedia shows or virtual reality headsets.
“People still love the more traditional object-based experiences,” said John Zaller, Exhibition Hub executive producer. “You can’t solely rely on digital projections to carry your story.”
Melinda Hartwig, an Egyptologist for 40 years, a Michael C. Carlos Museum curator at Emory University and special adviser to the King Tut exhibit in Atlanta, recently gave The Atlanta Journal-Constitution a walking tour of the space. (She was a teenager who waited overnight in Chicago to see the original exhibit in late 1977.)
Here are four reasons why it is worth a visit:
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
1. The items look like the real deal. “All of these replicas were done in Cairo by artisans who knew what they were doing,” Hartwig said. “To the untrained eye, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. First time I went through here, I was pretty blown away. The Egyptians spared no expense. This is part of heritage and they are very, very proud.”
The first major room after a short film about King Tut features replicas of the annex, the antechamber and the burial chamber. The next room features each of the coffins. “They were like Russian nesting eggs,” Hartwig said. “The inner one was gold. That was inside a stone sarcophagus inside four shrines that were done in wood overlaid with gilding. This was all about preserving the body. He was semi-divine in life, divine in death.”
Credit: RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com
Credit: RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com
2. You can get close up and even touch items. On the coffins, you can see the detail of the hieroglyphics featuring multiple gods who guide the pharaoh through the underworld. And everything is replicated as they looked when archeologist Howard Carter found them in November 1922, Hartwig said.
“If we were standing in the Grand Egyptian Museum” in Giza, she said, “there would be about 100 people around us. There would be flies. You wouldn’t be able to take in as much as you can here. I like the emotional connection.”
The exhibit also enables visitors to get a 360-degree look at the famous funerary mask, which you couldn’t do in Cairo, Hartwig said.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
3. The scope and detail of what the Egyptians did is over the top. There is an entire room reserved just for ceremonial items.
And much of it was made of gold. “Gold you could find in the backyard in Egypt. Gold was also related to the sun,” Hartwig said. “They also believed the flesh of the gods were of gold.”
The exhibit reveals multiple amulets to protect Tut, as well as gold covers for King Tut’s fingers and toes. “It’s good to be king, eh?” Hartwig mused.
Next up: urns containing Tut’s organs such as the liver, the lungs and stomach. There are also statue goddesses and cobras surrounding the mini-coffins to protect the king. And there are also nesting coffins for two stillborn children of Tut’s and a lock of his grandmother’s hair.
They also buried him with parts of six chariots to help him in his afterlife travels.
“A little overkill, right?” she said.
Credit: RODNEY HO/rho@
Credit: RODNEY HO/rho@
4. There is plenty of historical context and what life was like for Tut. The final room features items Tut used when he was alive including his sandals, wood furniture and various thrones. There was even a portable foldable throne he could sit on while visiting his people on the road.
The exhibit also gives visitors a taste of what life was like for ancient Egyptians including perfume holders, wine jars, writing utensils and musical instruments like trumpets and ivory clappers. Hartwig said they enjoyed life in many ways that aren’t all that different from modern-day denizens.
“They just didn’t have good dental care,” Hartwig noted. “They ate bread with a lot of stones so they’d just wear their teeth down.”
Credit: RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com
Credit: RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com
Credit: CONTRIBUTED/Debbie Scealf
Credit: CONTRIBUTED/Debbie Scealf
IF YOU GO
“Tutankhamun: His Tomb and His Treasures”
Wednesday through Monday, tickets available through November. Adult tickets $25-$35. Exhibition Hub Art Center Atlanta, 5660 Buford Highway NE, Doraville. feverup.com.
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