Egypt at the musee des Confluences. From the blush palette to the sarcophagus

Description

In anticipation of its opening in 2014, the Musée des Confluences in Lyon (formerly the Natural History Museum) is studying and restoring the Museum's collections, an important heritage built up by strong personalities over the centuries.
This volume is devoted to the Egyptian collections. It is divided into two main parts. The first part gives the reader a general overview of the situation in Ancient Egypt: daily life, predynastic history, cosmogonies and death rites.
The second part studies the constitution of this famous collection. In 1897, on the initiative of Ernest Chantre, the Natural History Museum of Lyon opened its first excavation site. The climatic conditions favoured the collection of perfectly preserved bodies and anatomical parts, which were given to the museum by the Egyptian government. From 1900 onwards, Louis Lortet continued the work of his predecessor and obtained from the Egyptian Antiquities Authority the granting of embalmed human bodies and hundreds of animal mummies to the Lyon institution.
Thanks to the zoologist Claude Gaillard, the identification of ancient species preserved by mummification provided Egyptology with new research directions. The excavations that Louis Lortet directed on predynastic sites constantly enriched the collections, notably with the discovery of exceptional witnesses, the "Bearded Men". These royal figures, prefiguring the pharaohs of historical times, unique and enigmatic art objects, acquired a worldwide reputation.
Finally, a very interesting text on restoration, a chronology, a bibliography and a glossary complete this volume.