Last call for Egyptian archaeology exhibit in Miami

October 20, 10:25 PMMiami Travel ExaminerGeorge Leposky

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Mummy cartonnage  Early Roman Period
(149 CE-30 BCE). © Petrie Museum of Egyptian
Archaeology, University College London

 

All summer, the Lowe Art Museum on the University of Miami campus has been exhibiting artifacts from ancient Egypt. This spectacular show, Excavating Egypt, ends Nov. 2. Try to see it before it leaves.

Excavating Egypt features the life and work of Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (1853-1942), on whom the cinema hero Indiana Jones was based.

Petrie excavated in Egypt for well over half a century. The exhibition displays 221 of his most significant finds, including decorative art from the palace-city of the “heretic pharaoh” Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti, gold mummy masks, funerary trappings, jewelry, sculpture and relief, vessels, painted vases, and objects of daily life.  

These artifacts come from the Petrie Museum of  Egyptian Archaeology at University College in London, England.

The exhibition describes Petrie’s contributions to the transformation of archaeology from a collectors’ hobby into a sophisticated interpretive science. He devised the practice of excavating successive layers of a site in a systematic fashion, and comparing pottery fragments from different layers to gain insights into the evolution of the civilization that dwelt there.

When you visit Excavating Egypt, wear comfortable shoes and allow two hours or more to view all the artifacts and read their accompanying detailed interpretive signage. Also, don’t miss Eternal Egypt, a companion display of 19th and early 20th century photographs from the Lowe Art Museum’s own collection.