Although the visit to the Griffith Institute had been a private one for just us. The Ashmolean had plenty of people inside, including a large group of children. This seemed to perplex our guide that we had for that visit a bit as the portion of the museum in which she planned to start her presentation was then occupied by those children. She would need to start us off elsewhere and return there later. She appeared to have a memorized script that she needed to closely follow. Eventually she regained her stride and began to add more information to what we could have read ourselves on the cards with most of the items.
One of the stories that I enjoyed hearing was about the Ram of Amun-Re. He was a guardian. It was considered to be bad luck to pass directly in front of him. There were all sorts of people doing exactly that as they didn’t know the story. Our group gave him a wide berth, however. I had been doing my usual wandering around to avoid standing in one place for too long, so he and I had already met earlier. But I instinctively did not walk in front of him. The photo I took was while I was standing a bit off to the side.
The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology was Britain’s first public museum. Its original building was erected in 1678-1683. It is also the world’s second oldest university museum. The oldest is the Kunstmuseum Basel founded at the University of Basel (Switzerland) in 1661. The present museum was built between 1841 and 1845. The new galleries focusing on Egypt and Nubia were created in 2016.
The main museum houses one of the best collections of Pre-Raphaelite paintings, as well as majolica pottery, and English silver. In addition to the items from Ancient Egypt and the Sudan, the archaeology department also has a collection of Greek and Minoan pottery. The Egyptian antiquities are mostly from Prehistoric Egypt (roughly 6210-3150 BC) and the Early Dynastic Period of Egypt (3150-2686 BC).
The Ram of Amun-Re was commissioned by the Kushite King Taharqa at about 680 BC. The ram is shown sheltering the king between its forelegs and originally stood at the Temple of Kawa in the Sudan right outside of the Shrine of King Taharqa. That shrine is also in the Ashmolean. You can see part of it behind the Ram of Amun-Re in the photo it took of the statue (photo 012).
I walked all around the Shrine of Taharqa and photographed it all the way around (photos 013 – 017). This shrine was commissioned by Taharqa at the same time as he built the Temple of Kawa and was built within that temple which was dedicated to Amun-Re.
Shortly after the archaeological digs exposed the remains of the buildings to the weather (in 1929 & 1930) they started to decay. The Sudanese government took several carvings from the buildings to Khartoum. Then they gave the Ashmolean permission to dismantle the shrine and move it to the museum in 1936. This was all to try to protect what they could from further decay. As you can see by my photos, the shrine is looking pretty darned good 90 years later.
Some other items of interest include the “Two Dog Palette” (photo 010). This dates to about 3200 BC and was found at the Temple of Horus in Hierakonpolis. Then there is a Statue of Sobek, the crocodile god, from the pyramid temple of Amenamhat III (003).
Photo 004 is a statue of King Khasekhemwy. This is one of the oldest known inscribed statues of an Egyptian king. He is made of limestone and is seated on a throne, wearing a conical crown. This too was excavated at Heirakonpolis. He was the last Pharaoh of the 2nd Dynasty (roughly 2690-2670 BC). Little is known about him other than that he led several significant military campaigns, reunified Egypt by his 13th year, and built a large mudbrick structure known as Shunet El Zebib.
Photos 005 and 006 are front and back of headless statues of Akhennaten & Nefertiti. Akhennaten was Tutankhamun’s father. But they don’t think that Nefertiti was his mother.
Photo 011 is a rare, life-sized terracotta sculpture of a beautiful red lion. It dates back to the 6th Dynasty (c 2325-2175 BC) and was excavated at the ancient royal capital of Nekhen (modern Hierakonpolis).
I also include here a photo of a Roman Sphinx (002), that I saw in the outer sculpture gallery near the museum entrance, dating to roughly 50 – 200 AD.
Photo 007 shows several shabti in different sizes. These were the workers who would take care of the king in the afterlife. Photo 008 is a mummy who is still wrapped and still with the coins and amulets in their wrappings.
The last photo in this grouping (021) includes an actual Ostrich egg in the lower right. It dates to 3600 BC and is decorated with figures believed to be gazelles. It is also thought to have been included in the tomb in which it was found as a possible substitute for a missing head.
When we returned to the hotel, the Morse Bar and the Alice restaurant were both quite busy. I was also rapidly running out of steam. So the decision was made to grab my Sainsbury carry bag from my room and head on down the road beside the hotel just a couple of blocks to the grocers.
I picked up a cheese & onion sandwich, a chocolate mousse, and a bottle of an Argentinian Malbek. All were delicious.
Next – Touring Highclere Castle (aka Downton Abbey)
