[McClung Museum] [Special Exhibition]

        [Red-Black Rule]

        Pharaoh's Harvest:
        Plants from Ancient and Modern Egypt
        June 1 - August 18, 2002

        This ground-breaking exhibit featuring photographs of ancient plant material and photographs of ancient depictions of plants found in tombs and at ancient monuments in Egypt. Complementing McClung's permanent exhibition on Ancient Egypt, Pharaoh's Harvest focuses on plants' importance to the people of ancient and present day Egypt. Plants were a critical component in the emergence of the ancient Egyptian civilization and they continue to this day to play an important role. In addition to food, ancient Egyptians used plants to make medicine, dyes, clothing, cosmetics, and as decorative and mythological elements in their gardens, temples and tombs.


        Wall painting of an offering bearer
        Tomb of Nakht
        lotus_king

        Relief of god Nefertum

        The exhibit presents a unique group of plant species that have survived from ancient times through Egypt's long history to the present. These include a wide variety of wild and domesticated plants such as ground nut, chick pea and sycamore fig, which were and are foods; and flax, the source of linen textiles so important in both clothing and mummy wrappings. Plants of medical or religious significance, such as the persea tree, associated with several gods are also shown.

        Offering of King Sety I
        		 pharaoh's_offering

        Among many others are the louts flower, prominent in ancient Egyptian art as a religious and political symbol, and papyrus, the first plant to be used for paper, a surface on which to place writing, a development of utmost importance in Egyptian civilization.

        Accompanying each of the ancient plant species is a photograph of the plant as it exists today, and for some, their current uses. In addition to images of the plants as seen today, the exhibit includes photos of tomb paintings showing the context of the plants in ancient times, examples of plant remains recovered archaeologically from various sites in Egypt, and specimens of the plants or their useful parts.


        The exhibit is organized by the
        Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden        , Richmond Virginia
        and features color photographs by Maryl C. Levine.
        SPONSORS: Aletha and Clayton Brodine Museum Fund

         

        A lecture titled Papyrus: A Blessing Upon Pharaoh.
        Presented by Elaine A. Evans, McClung Museum’s Curator/Adj.Asst. Prof.

        This illustrated slide lecture will present a brief introduction to the vital and indispensible flowering fresh-water reed of ancient Egypt called papyrus. Papyrus paper was not its only use. There were many things made from this most adaptable and extraordinary plant, which grew in great abundance along the banks and in the marshes watered by the great Nile River. The lecture will explore its botanical characteristics and explain its numerous uses in the daily life of the ancient Egyptians.

        Where: The McClung Museum, University of Tennessee
        When: Sunday, June 30, 2002, 2:30 p.m.

         

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