Wondrous Curiosities: Ancient Egypt at the British Museum

Amazon.com Price: $33.00 (as of 03/05/2019 05:40 PST- Details)

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Description

When the British Museum opened its doors more than two centuries ago, scores of visitors waited eagerly out of doors for a first glimpse of ancient relics from Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Even today, in this age of satellite tv and high-speed Web get entry to, museums handle their unique allure, continuing to play a very important role in connecting us with little-known terrains and the deep mysteries of our historical past. That’s because, as Stephanie Moser argues in Wondrous Curiosities, museum displays don’t just transmit knowledge—they in truth create it. 

Based on her exploration of the British Museum’s world-famous collection of Egyptian antiquities, this pioneering study reveals the powerful role of museums in shaping our understanding of science, culture, and history. Drawing on guidebooks and archival documents, Moser demonstrates that this British exhibition of ancient Egyptian artifacts used to be central to the way we came to define the remarkable society that produced them. And she also reveals the specific strategies—such as the usage of pattern and symmetry, juxtaposing several types of objects, and singling out particular items—that the British Museum and others used, and still use, in representing the past. With a wealth of illustrations and a detailed account of how the museum acquired and displayed its Egyptian collections, Wondrous Curiosities will fascinate curators and scholars of British history, Egyptology, art history, archaeology, and the history of science.


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