As I dive into the Egyptian civilization (learning mostly from Wikipedia, Khan Academy, Youtube, and the MET Heilbrunn Art History Timeline), I can't help but to compare the grand Egyptian civilization with that of China in order to answer a simple question: While Egyptians were busy creating the Narmer Palette in 3100 B.C., building the Great Pyramids during the Old Kingdom (before 2280 B.C.), producing all kinds of sophisticated architecture, statues and statuettes, jewelry, utensils, ornaments, containers, etc. before almost any humans on planet earth, what did my Chinese ancestors leave behind? The quest makes me dig into Chinese ancient history before 221 B.C., when the First Emperor, Qin Shihuang, officially started an empire by uniting the seven warring states for the first time. The dynasties in China comparable to ancient Egypt are those legendary early dynasties including Xia, Shang, and Zhou Dynasty, even cultures such as Hongshan, Liangzhu, and Ma Jiayao, which were contemporary to Dynasty 0 in Egypt (ok, that’s crazy old…), and two thousand years before any named Chinese dynasties.
It’s certainly an endless journey, given the fact that Egyptologists spend their entire lives devoted to this fascinating subject. As much as I enjoy digging deep in and for this journey, I am, by no means, aiming to become a self-taught Egyptologist. I essentially started with two innocent quests, the first of which, in fact, has nothing to do with Egypt:
How to create sensible meaningful stories with the overwhelming data available in today’s world, taking the 30,000 objects at the MET Egyptian Gallery as an example? It starts as a methodological quest but ends with a philosophical angle.
As I was enchanted by the Egyptian civilization since childhood, as many people probably are, I do want to create an understanding of this particular civilization that makes sense to me at a reasonably intellectual level.
Then one day in February, after the Year of the Dog kicked off, the idea sort of hit on me while I was standing in my kitchen in Astoria, New York, with a cup of coffee to start a Saturday morning:
Why not travel to Egypt (for obvious reasons) and London (as the British Museum has a vast collection of the Egyptian art, including the famous Rosetta Stone)? And if I were to do this, why not call for friends or friend’s friends to join me for a partial or the entire trip, if time and interest coincide?
Certainly, it’s not all about looking back into the oldest civilizations vanished long time ago, irrelevant to our lives today. What’s preserved and represented in the relics, records and objects in museums all over Cairo, Luxor, London and New York (and the list can go on) from ancient Egypt, in fact, offers surprising insights for one’s life today, relationships with the nature and the universe, as well as the connections between this life and the afterlife.
As most of the objects from ancient Egypt are dug out from the tombs, the afterlife is, of course, one HUGE central topic. It’s how ancient Egyptians made peace with death. One weekend I came across the most insightful reading from The Scepter of Egypt, written by William C. Hayes, a Princeton educated American Egyptologist who spent most of his life with the MET first as a member of its Egyptian expedition, and later as the curator of the very Egyptian Gallery at the MET in 1950s until his death.
In one chapter, “The Religion and Funerary Beliefs in Ancient Egypt”, Hayes explains how ancient Egyptians view “the being of a man” in 5 immortal elements in addition to the body: his name, i.e., identity; his shadow, representing protective power; “ba”, or animated force, or his soul; “ku”, probably his characteristics or qualities; and “akh”, the divine superpower in his afterlife.
Hayes further writes,
“At death the spirit (the 3 spiritual elements “ba”, “ku” and “akh” - SZ’s note), released from the body, was free to go whithersoever it chose. Since...it was felt that the spirit required a visible and tangible form in which to dwell. This form was preferably the body itself, and from the earliest time, every precaution was taken to protect the corpse of the deceased from disintegration...To combat disintegration due to natural causes the Egyptians, at least as early as the Second Dynasty (that is, like, between 2900 - 2650 B.C. - SZ’s note), developed the process of mummification, at first merely the application of preservative salts, later a complicated taxidermic operation. To protect the body from damage wrought by evil spirits, by the malevolent forces of nature, and by the ever-prevalent tomb robber, it was ringed about with magical spells, encased in sturdy coffins and stone sarcophagi, and buried deep beneath a massive tomb monument, the passages of which were closed by ponderous stone blockings, or hidden away in a secret cache deep in the western cliffs.”
Indeed, what’s displayed today in the museums full of the monumental statues of Egyptian pharaohs, gods, steles inscribed with hieroglyphics, meticulously decorated coffins for the mummies, etc., tells the history of the ancient Egyptians for thousands of years battling with the very nature of death. In visitors' view today, they are indeed art, history, ancient technology, etc.. For ancient Egyptians, they are the materialized manifestation of the battle between one’s “being”, which was perceived to be immortal, and the limits of the physical body. They are the concept itself that one’s being continues to exist while the body disintegrated or disappeared.
Standing in front of the creations of the ancient Egyptians thousands of years ago, in addition to be amazed, and oftentimes puzzled by the sophisticated techniques, advanced manipulations of materials, artistic expressions and forms made for the pharaohs, royalties, and aristocrats, we, today’s visitors, still face the same questions the ancient Egyptians battled with:
How to make sense of this life? And how to make peace with what comes after?
Are we still looking for answers to these questions? The ancient Egyptians have lived in this world, and from what they have left, we know they were trying to answer these questions, which, I believe, are not only for ancient people. However, even with today’s technology, science, and understanding of the material world, I’m not sure what’s left by us will tell people thousands of years later (if there are any) what questions we are still asking, and what our answers would be.
And I am not sure how much progress we, as human beings, have made over all these years. Perhaps we are even more confused, and lost, than the ancient Egyptians.
About me as a traveler:
Born in Chongqing, China, educated in Beijing and New York, bilingual in Mandarin Chinese and English, I’m a passionate world traveler, life-long learner, writer, and educator. I have traveled independently and with friends and families in North America, Europe, and Asia. I research and make my own travel plans, not extensively luxurious, but safe, interesting, and unique at a personal level. Besides exploring all fun things a new place offers, e.g., historical sites, people, food, drinks, music, art, sometimes unexpected adventures, etc., intellectual quests always make the journey much richer.
Experiencing different people and cultures;
Following one’s intellectual curiosity, and
Growing as a person along the journey.
These are my motto for traveling.
I love to share what I have learned, experienced, and be passionate about, in exchange for a journey with like-minded travelers.
And I am not a travel agent.
Astoria, New York
